Starring: Nathan Phillips, Luke Carroll, Simon Westaway
Director: Paul Goldman
Rated: M15+
ONE of St Augustine’s more famous lines was his instruction to his congregation about the Eucharist: ‘Become what you eat’.
St Augustine wanted those who receive Christ in Holy Communion to become Him for the world, broken and poured out in love. This line is (mis)quoted in all sorts of contexts these days. It came to mind while watching Australian Rules.
In this film, much is made of Bob Black’s bar of fruit and nut chocolate. His wife and children do not dare eat it. It sits in the fridge like in a tabernacle waiting for the violent and racist Bob (Simon Westaway) to consume it.
Bob, however, does not become what he eats. While he likes dark chocolate he hates dark people. He might enjoy fruit and nuts, but he despises anything that varies from his definition of normal, and though he consumes sweet food, he is the most bitter of men.
Bob’s son Gary ‘Blacky’ Black (Nathan Phillips) is a huge disappointment to his father. He is a mediocre football player, hates working on his father’s fishing boat, enjoys reading and writing, is a sensitive lad and, in the racially charged Prospect Bay, likes the Aborigines who live on the mission.
He is especially good friends with Dumby Red (Luke Carroll) and his sister Clarence (Lisa Flanagan). Aided by Dumby, Blacky ends up the unlikely star of the local Aussie rules grand final.
After the grand final festivities, Bob shoots dead one of the Aborigines from the mission whom he catches trying to steal from the pub. Blacky is forced to choose whose side he’s on.
Australian Rules is a searing portrait of growing up in rural Australia. Based on Paul Gwynne’s semi-autobiographical novel, Deadly Unna, First-time director Paul Goldman shows the oppression, violence and racism of some small country towns.
Goldman is a great talent, giving us a few brilliant scenes like the children escaping to the chook pen through their bedroom window so they don’t have to hear Bob bashing his wife; the funeral on the mission; and the training sessions on the dustbowl paddock that passes for Prospect Bay’s football ground.
Goldman also gets outstanding performances from Nathan Phillips, Luke Carroll, Simon Westaway, Lisa Flanagan and Blacky’s city-born mum, Celia Ireland.
Australian Rules is a tough and inspiring film. The constant coarse language and physical violence will offend some viewers. It does, however, narrate an important tale about the seedbed of racism that can rule all of us. It also tells us that every so often, and against the grain, a Gary Black is born who breaks the rules and thinks beyond the small world of his family and town and acts as if everyone is his sister or brother.
Unlike his father, Blacky becomes what he eats.
