Burned Bridge
by Julian Pringle, Kate Woods, Scott Hartford-Davis

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DVD Reviews of Burned Bridge

DVD Review: Insight into Indigenous Australian Culture
Summary: 5 Stars

DVD Review: Burning Bridges...And Building New Ones
Summary: 5 Stars

DVD Review: burned bridge - mesmerizing
Summary: 5 Stars

DVD Review: A 2-hour story told interminably in 11
Summary: 2 Stars

Broadcast on Aussie TV in the early 90s, BURNED BRIDGE is set in the coastal town of Brooklyn Waters in New South Wales. There, Elizabeth Ashton (Blanchett), a Sydney radio show producer, takes up temporary residence in the house of her recently-deceased grandfather with the intention of selling the place. As it so happens, the homestead is immediately adjacent to an aboriginal mission settlement, which becomes restive when one of its teenage boys, Ricky Dyer (Bradley Byquar), is accused of the brutal rape-murder of his girlfriend, the daughter from a neighboring aboriginal family. After a shaky and dubious confession, Ricky is inexorably drawn into the state justice system, and eventually dragged off to the Big Jail in Sydney pending trial. The only believer in Dyer's innocence, outside Ricky's family, is Vincent Burunga (Ernie Dingo), the aboriginal liaison officer between the white police establishment and the natives.

BURNED BRIDGE is actually two stories, one being Burunga's efforts to free Ricky, and the other being a commentary on the contemporary state of relations between Whites and Blacks in Australia, a country that, from its federation in 1901 to 1966, shamefully pursued a national "for-whites-only" policy, and only granted the Aborigenes full citizenship in 1967. To say there's tension would be an understatement. In any case, the fault line between the races is here represented, on a general level, by the White Man's Law versus "the Law" of aboriginal tradition, and, on a personal level, by the growing romantic attraction between Vincent and Elizabeth.

The murder mystery part of this miniseries would have been pretty good, perhaps four stars, if it hadn't been diluted by the various subplots involving race interactions and the collision of cultural values: Ashton learns that her grandfather sired a son by a Ricky's mother, the boy subsequently being adopted and raised by a White family; Elizabeth accompanies Vincent to his native homeland in Western Australia, where he's abandoned a wife and daughter; Burunga visits Sydney with Ashton, where she's disentangling herself from a failed marriage to the despicable host of a radio call-in program. These scenarios are soap opera fodder at its best (or worst), and I hate soap operas. Frankly, I was prepared to pack it in after finishing the first disc of three, but the wife wanted to carry boldly on. I staggered along to be companionable.

The only real enjoyment I got from this 650-minute epic was watching Cate. Otherwise, there were long stretches so tedious that my feeling was "Just shoot me!" Especially when Vincent or the aged patriarch of Ricky's mob are off in the scrub staring meaningfully into space from a hilltop while contemplating "the Law", or scrambling around some sacred precinct of ravines, rocks and brambles traditionally revered by the local aboriginal tribe. Watching them ponder life and its problems from the vantage point of a table at the local Starbuck's would have been just as riveting.

Because I know the producers of BURNED BRIDGE meant well in making an informative and politically correct statement about contemporary Australian white society vis-a-vis aboriginal culture, I was tempted to award three stars. But, because I was so darn grateful just to see the end of it, and because I'm not from Down Under, I can only justify two.

A much better and more engaging film about the Aborigenes' role in relatively recent Australian history is RABBIT PROOF FENCE, which was released a couple years ago. Rent that instead.

DVD Review: Much More Than A Murder Mystery
Summary: 5 Stars

Just after Beth arrives, an Aborigine girl is killed, and the police apprehend the victim's Aborigine boyfriend for the crime on scant evidence. The murder and the arrest upset the community, and the story brings us into the life there, with its fragile relations between white and black, and other problems which trouble the community (unemployment, reliance on welfare, alcoholism, theft). There is also a subplot dealing with the removal of a half-white child from his Aborigine mother to a white family, and the repercussions when as a grown man he is confronted with the truth.

Mid-way through the series, as the relationship between Beth and Vincent develops, Vincent returns to his native Western Australia on family business, and Beth accompanies him. This two-part interlude offers them a break from the daily existence and tensions back East, and provides the viewer with some stunning Outback landscapes and glimpses into Vincent's traditional culture.

Late in the series, Beth and Vincent go to Sydney, where Beth has to deal with family business of her own. It is here that she also has to reassess ties to the people back in her urban world.

The series is interestingly written and brilliantly acted. CATE BLANCHETT as Beth already shows a fascinating and talented screen presence, a few years before her break-through role in the feature film ELIZABETH. Her character enters a complex world with which she apparently has had little contact. Beth's inquisitiveness earns her the ridicule of the Aborigines, but it is her open-mindedness which allows her to exist as a close neighbor to the black community. Her character is a relief from the prejudiced whites all too present elsewhere in the series. ERNIE DINGO, another talented actor seen in several Australian films and TV series, plays Vincent, whose shortness of words and whose willingness to accept the world in a non-questioning way are sometimes infuriating for Beth. His character offers a dramatic contrast to hers.

Okay, this is serious stuff: there is mystery, emotional trauma and interpersonal conflict. There is social narrative; viewers in the U.S. will probably see similarities to life in small-town America, particularly where black and white live side by side. There is the window into Aboriginal culture, both traditional and contemporary. There is romance, fittingly not of the saccharine variety. Together with the merits already mentioned, the Outback scenery and a very nice soundtrack, it makes a most compelling series.

Originally shot on video, the transfer is quite good. The DVD package, as with at least one other Australian series (SNOWY) released in North America by BFS Entertainment, includes a short documentary to supplement the feature, as well as cast information and production notes.

This is one series well worth watching, and because it covers a lot of ground - literally and figuratively - it can and should be watched more than once.

I was sorry when it ended.

Australia & New Zealand DVDs

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• Television > Miniseries
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