A touch of history with ‘Kangaroo’: The charming spirit of the first technicolor film made in Australia
Nowadays, we seem to face lots of cultural trends which are believed to be buried in the far-far past. Filmography speaking, we already witnessed a bunch of remakes trying hard to embrace us with the spirit of old-fashioned movies (including Western re-makes and neo-westerns).
Overall, the old spirit is dead.
Modern franchises or remakes usually don’t give us the punch of the true 20th-century vibe and tend to bomb us with post-modern relativistic philosophy. However, to judge the quality of remakes we ought to know more about the original. As we spoke about Westerns recently, we would like to recommend this very unique and not as well-known movie ‘Kangaroo’, made in 1952. It was the first technicolor film made in Australia, which gives a viewer a real Western approach. It’s a journey at the turn-of-the-century in the 1900s: strong men, charming and brave women, honour, dignity, treacherous journeys; struggles, dramas; which reveal trivial and common things, as real dramas tend to do. Nevertheless, it’s a true Western, but… Australian true. It gives us a very unique experience. Despite the seeming alikeness of Australian and American heritage, they’re still highly different cultures with an outstandingly different understanding of what Westerns are really about.
We would highly recommend having at least a brief look at that art piece. Treating it with a respect to the history of filmmaking, be prepared for a long, dramatic journey to the 1900s; and be ready to be touched by a charming spirit of true Australian view on Westerns.
It never was a commercially successful movie. Some suggest that “… It would have been more entertaining if it had embraced being a Western more”. We disagree, because even if it was “more Western” it wouldn’t be a part of such a unique part of movie history. There are a lot of Westerns, but just one ‘Kangaroo’.
Enjoy. And yeehaw!