Movie Review On "Rabbit Proof Fence"

“Rabbit Proof Fence,” a movie based on true events, highlights the shocking fact behind 1930s Australia. It portrays the racist policy that permitted the forcible separation of half-caste or mixed-race, aborigine children from their families. Special internment camps were established across the Australian continent to prevent aborigine children from supposedly harming themselves. They are trained as domestic workers for integration later on to the white Australian society.
The film features the dramatic story about three (3) young aboriginal girls – Molly (Sampi), Daisy (Sansbury) and Gracie (Monaghan). Having been forcibly separated from their families, like most of the “Stolen Generations,” they escape from the Moore River Settlement managed by A. O. Neville (Branagh), the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Autralia.
With an epic journey ahead of them, the three girls show amazing courage, determination and endurance as they walk 1,500 miles of unforgiving landscape for more than two months. They followed a fence, which protect farmlands from rabbits, to find their way back home and to reunite with their parents. “Rabbit Proof Fence” is a representative, powerful story about the suffering of the stolen generations.
Noyce’s artistic and compelling dramatization portrays the children’s escape and start their long journey following the rabbit foot fence. Neville’s desperate attempts to capture all of them, with the aids of the aboriginal tracker named Moodoo (Gulpilil) and the local constable Riggs (Clarke), make the movie well worth the watch even by teens who are mature enough to manage the scenes of being taken away, put away and reunited with their parents.
Director Phillip Noyce, in his "Rabbit-Proof Fence," offers us his keen perceptions of ethics concerning the story’s moral of overcoming racist policies. Overall, the movie is beautiful yet sometimes heartbreaking because it evokes strong sympathy for the “supposed” stewardship of all the stolen generations.
Noyce, P., Olsen, C. and Winter, J. (Producers), and Noyce, P. (Director). (2002). Rabbit Foot Fence [Motion Picture]. Australia: HanWay Films / Miramax Films.