Tomorrow When the War Began: a review
August 23rd 2010 18:01
Link: www.twtwb.com
Deniz Akdeniz as Homer, Caitlin Stasey as Ellie
Tomorrow When the War Began is a film based on John Marsden’s novel of the same title, the first of a series of seven books that have been a huge success in the youth market of today, and that is no mean feat considering the electronic distractions that abound in teen’s lives these days.
Direction and screenplay by Stuart Beattie, (screenplays for Pirates of the Caribbean, Halo etc), this is the first in an intended three film set, with a television series to follow, but that all hinges on the box office receipts, naturally enough.
This film centres on a group of young friends who live in a (fictional) country town called Wirrawee; they decide to go on a camping trip, before the new term begins. Their idyllic destination is a difficult to reach and isolated place, known locally as “Hell”. This may appear to be the basis of a blood splattered Aussie horror flick filled with rampaging, disembowelling one tonne bush pigs, but it is actually a horror story of an entirely different nature, that these carefree youngsters are to endure.
The film strikes at the emotionally subterranean fears of any nation, the fear of invasion by a hostile military force. These are powerful and potentially dangerous fears to tap into. The question lingers in my mind, did the novelist John Marsden imbue his work with this threat because he believes it very possible, or was it used as a marketing advantage, directed at a young impressionable audience?
The opening scenes of the film dwell on getting to know the characters and some of their family situations, for this is not just a slash and burn epic, although it has its fair share of intense action, it is much more a character driven story; we follow these young people as they have to quickly adapt, emotionally mature and face their fears, in order to make an extraordinary change in mind set, from carefree teens into adepts at guerrilla warfare, just to survive another day.
The central character is Ellie Linton, played by Caitlin Stasey, (Lead role in The Sleepover Club, and Rachel Kinski in Neighbours) who is the prime motivator to go on the camping trip, before they have to head back to High School. Ellie also has to convince her parents to loan her their Land Rover, which she succeeds at, using her talents of wit, guile and persuasion; such talents prove valuable in the near future.
Lincoln Lewis as Kevin Holmes
We then meet the other seven bound for the trip; starting with her ‘bestie’ Corrie MacKenzie (Rachel Hurd-Wood), her boyfriend Kevin Holmes (Lincoln Lewis) who is a sports mad dude, Fiona Maxwell (Phoebe Tonkin) who plays a near clueless, rich town girl, Homer Yannas (Deniz Akdeniz) whose character loves tormenting the cops and generally making juvenile mayhem, Robyn Mathers (Ashleigh Cummings) who holds up a shield of religious morality and Lee Takkam, (Christopher Pang) the son of a Thai woman who runs the township’s cafe, where he is also made to work, after school, much to his annoyance.
The slightly cynical might see a generalised demographic represented in the characters, and that would be correct. Marsden obviously needs his work, aimed squarely at the teen market, to be as inclusive of the population as he can make it, without it being too obvious a marketing tactic.
However, I must say that the performances of all these young actors help lift this work way above the average fare. It is their skills in naturalism that help drive the story, involve the audience and assist in suspending disbelief. Except for a few technical/directorial problems and the odd over drawn characterisation with a few too many annoying clichés, this cinematic effort could have been first class.
Ellie (Caitlin Stasey), Lee (Chris Pang), Robyn (Ashleigh Cummings)
Caitlin Stasey, who plays Ellie, gives a strong performance that is believable and arresting, yet there are moments that jar credulity, but I put those few moments down to erring by the director. Stasey is a young but seasoned actor, and I think this film will serve as a great promotional vehicle in furthering her career internationally; she has all the elements to make a huge star.
Deniz Akdeniz, who plays Homer, is the comic relief character, the Aussie larrikin type, who we first meet when he releases the brake on a police car, and removes the ladder on the police station, stranding the painter on its roof. It was too staged for my liking, there wasn’t enough motivation given for his behaviour, his mischievousness was not an endearing quality, it made him look like a complete dickhead.
Homer does improve as events become more intense, so one is able to appreciate the craft of this young actor; it is the first feature for Akdeniz, with his good looks, easy smile and natural ability, he has a very good chance of seeing a career in Hollywood.
Ashleigh Cummings as Robyn Mathers
Another notable performance was by Ashleigh Cummings, who plays the religiously oriented family girl Robyn Mathers, the “moral compass” of the group, as she put it to me on the red carpet. Cummings gives a well sustained performance; she never appears to drop her character.
When her character of Robyn is confronted with an ultimate taboo, she handles the transition very effectively; from realising she has to make a decision, then carrying that awful act out, to her expression gazing at the aftermath, Cummings drew you in and held you, you felt her inner torment, it was a noble moment.
One of the characters that I was hoping to see more of was Lee, played by Christopher Pang. Lee is quiet and careful amongst the group of established friends. Lee is an outsider to a large degree, Ellie decided to invite him along, he was not chums with them as such, so it was extremely interesting to watch how he subtly handled the circumstances, particularly the tension that developed between Homer and Lee, after Homer volunteers Lee to collect the firewood, while Homer just played about, leaving Lee with that subtle expression of annoyance being withheld, that tension you have when you dare not open up and confront the problem tormentor.
Christopher Pang as Lee
So this set an interesting subtext to the situation, and I expected that to develop, a menacing subplot within the outwardly friendly group, but it isn’t allowed to develop to any degree, not in this instalment at least.
The absence of the Lee character, either by being mute and in the background of a scene, or not being there at all, then became obvious and slightly odd. Still, there are moments, like the awkward attempt by Lee to further the relationship with Ellie, when he admits he looked forward to geography class, when he would see her, creates a moment between them, which Lee takes advantage of, tacitly acquiesced to by Ellie, resulting in a full on kiss which is then abruptly broken off by her, and Lee is relegated back to no man’s land.
I could see the situation as a realistic set of encounters, Lee as the odd one out, but the Lee character needed more fleshing out for the audience to begin to understand him, and care about him. An opportunity lost, but, this is just the first in a series of three films, which means we have to wait for the next one to get a better understanding of all the characters.
Of criticisms in general:
The opening scene; we see Ellie speaking into a hand held home cam, she is recording events so there is a record of who they were and what happened, in case things do not go well, (a literary device visually adapted from the book turning the character into narrator). However, the scene is constantly interrupted by faked handy cam electronic flickering and image distortions, which was distracting to the point of being annoying, robbing the scene of its potential impact.
It would have been more believable and much less distracting if the picture was clear and steady, but kept washing out and flaring, due to Ellie having the sun behind her, the wriggly squiggly vision effect just does not work anymore, well not for me, not unless she was standing next to a huge electric generator, which would, feasibly, have caused those distortions.
Phoebe Tonkin as Fiona Maxwell
I felt the Fiona Maxwell character was badly written; her sterling silver tongue a salver for serving up clueless rich girl clichés, so annoying, it pulled you out of the film monetarily to mentally fulminate at Beattie for stooping so low! Worst examples; she has never heard of two minute noodles...really... Another one; (SFX: of the wop wop wop of a helicopter approaching) she has no idea what that noise is. It is lazy and idiotically simplistic writing. Or am I just being too old, too ‘crusty’ and too critical?
However, if you wish to portray a spolit rich girl as a fish out of water, then you would be better concentrating on what the character would not do, like clean up the dishes, or improvising a toilet in the bush.
Then there was the evening fly over, by the invading force; as our intrepid campers, (the modern day version of the “Famous Five”) lay in their sleeping bags at their campsite, in ‘Hell’, one asks, “What’s that smell?”, the other responds that it is jet fuel. Well, they probably would have smelt fuel, if the jets were dumping fuel on top of them; yet, all we see is very high up jets flying fast. If they were dropping napalm bombs, then okay, you would smell something funny.
Andy Ryan as Chris
Then there is the rich stoner dude, Chris, played by Andy Ryan, who the group encounter as they run and hide from the invaders in the township. Chris explains that he had come across a car crash, and checked to see if anyone was hurt; inside were a man, woman and a baby, all dead and riddled with bullets; “Either I’ve been smokin’ some really weird shit or something is goin on...” ...or words to that effect, yet another awful hackneyed cliché, that wasn’t funny when Cheech and Chong did it in the 1970s.
There was one amusing moment, before they set off for Hell; while Robyn was trying to convince her uber-religious father to let her go on the camping trip, with her pals, a water cooler makes a small ‘comment’.
Okay, I’m being churlish and pedantic again but, a brief mention (radio report) that the forces got here by hiding in containers on ships sounds feasible, even clever, but how would that work with the vast amount of aircraft we see?
Or did the hundreds of fighter jets, bombers and air tankers fly all the way from... somewhere is Asia? In which case, we definitely would have seen them coming, as we are part of ECHELON, the biggest spy system on Earth. echelon info
Anyway, these problems started my disengagement with the story. I was further annoyed by other technically inaccurate events, such as the fuel tanker truck explosion. Better than, but akin to, the hoary old Hollywood B Grade action films, we see the explosion from a number of angles.
These initial minor explosions were followed by a massive explosion at the end, when in reality, that last big blast would have been the one and only event; one earth shattering bang, which would have sent Ellie, (who always seems to hang around the danger area too long), sailing through the air by the percussive force of the blast, if not kill her at that range.
At the minimum, the production doesn’t need to spend much more money, although less obvious CGI would have helped in a couple of sequences, it only needs to have a re-edit to improve the film enormously. However, if I was producing it, I would suggest a rewrite of a couple of scenes, as indicated by my aforementioned dialogue criticisms. There were other scenes, that I found needed tweaking, but this is enough to give an idea.
Ellie hides from helicopter just outside
However, Beattie is a good writer, with wit and imagination, as his work with Johnny Depp clearly shows, and he has talent for direction, which this film shows. My criticisms aside, he handles the action scenes extremely well, with some amazing moments, and he can encourage an engrossing performance from his actors but, years hence, will this film be regarded as a classic Australian cinema experience? I doubt it.
I’m sure it will do well at the box office and hopefully there will be sequels. If so, I want to see a film that takes me on a ride that doesn’t have its impact affected by, albeit momentary, technical faults and clapped out old clichés; I want to see a film that dramatically grabs you by the throat from the opening scene and never lets you go, till the last gasp at credit roll.
After asking Beattie whether he is lined up for the next instalment, he said it was all predicated on the box office receipts, and he hoped he would be given another go at directing/writing it.
I think Beattie should be given another go.
Quentin Tarantino loved our gutsy approach to action, in our 70’s and 80’s films; back then action sequences were real (and very dangerous) stunts. In today’s insurance controlled film world we need to be not just technically sophisticated, as we are, but respect the audience’s intelligence. Give the audience a big action scene that defies physics and logic and a lot of people will still like it. But do the same action sequence respecting logic and physics, and the audience will rave about it.
After my labouring the point of technical faults with this film, I also must admit the film gathers pace and tension, it hurtles along to a cliff but does not entirely fall off, and we are left hanging for the next instalment. When a film runs at one hour forty three minutes, and it flies by, you know this film is no ‘turkey’.
DOP Ben Nott excells in his camera work and lighting, as he ranges from capturing the tranquil grandeur of the Australian mountains to fast and furious chase scenes and the night scenes come across as natural, no obvious show of artiface.
The editing by Marcus D'Arcy was, for the most part, seamless and helps propel the momentum. However, I had some reservations, in the chase scenes, but, you can only cut what is available to be cut, which means there were certain oversights in the shooting that could have made some of the actions sequences a lot more effective. But that is not, as I say, the fault of the editor.
The look of the film is of international standard; the Production Design by Robert Webb, the Set Decoration by Beverley Dunn, the Costume Design by Terry Ryan were all excellent.
The Art Direction, by Damien Drew and Supervising Art Director Michelle McGahey, was on the whole successful, however, I have problems with the lack of blood flow and lack of compression being applied, during the scene where one of the characters is said to be bleeding to death.
Also, I have a problem with the petrol tanker explosion. I will give the Art Directors the benefit of the doubt on this one, and presume the idiotic Hollywood-esque, muti-angle, multi-staged detonation was due to their objections being subjugated by the Producers, who insisted we see more bangs and fireballs.
So realism is abandoned and the audience disengages momentarily to ponder the cartoon like nonsense, instead of being impressed by a realistic stunt. Result, it backfires, as it is not based on the laws of physics, (see my earlier gripe). Then there is the cab of the garbo truck being riddled with large gauge bullet holes, and yet the two occupants climb out without a scratch.
The score, I have to admit I do not remember, but, that is not a negative criticism of Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek, in fact, in filmic terms, it could be considered the ultimate compliment.
The film’s almost guaranteed popularity with the youth may not just be the work itself alone, there might be something else at work here, of a generation unremarkable finally finding its own place, a voice and an identity. For now they can see their favourite novel’s characters finally come alive before their eyes.
Rachel Hurd-Wood as Corrie MacKenzie
In closing, I cannot ignore ‘the bull in the china shop!’. The enemy in Marsden’s books is never specifically identified, it is a coalition, but there are a couple of references that some are Asian, and Marsden has steadfastly refused to be drawn on to say who the enemy is. Now that the enemy has been put to celluloid, the producers were left to choose who the enemy would be, and we see an Asian face beneath their helmets.
So, what will be the repercussions in our region? What will our neighbours think? Will this film further convince them Australians are a small minded, genetically dirty, redneck cloud of racists?
I sincerely hope not. I love the Asian peoples. Their collective cultures are ancient; steeped in as much war as wisdom, as much compassion as cruelty; they honour the elderly and prefer politeness to rudeness, creation to destruction.
The Asian people, particularly China, helped civilise the Western world with its inventions and science; paper, suspension bridges, the compass, porcelain, silk, printing, toothbrush, wheelbarrow, toilet paper, tuned bells, rudder for steering, the fork utensil, gun powder, rockets, exploding shells, land mines etc, etc, etc.
So I say, to the Asian people of our region, look at this film not as some hysterical eructation of Australian prejudices and fears, see it as an exploration into what invasion does, when one culture attempts to destroy another. If we can all stand in the shoes of the people being invaded and usurped, maybe it will help us avoid it in the future. All our cultures have experienced this tumult, on one side or the other.
Many Asian nations have already undergone usurpation by foreign European powers, but some invasions were perpetrated by Asians themselves. Maybe this film will resonate deeply with our poor hapless brothers and sisters in West Papua, which is now called Irian Jaya, also Papua itself, also being controlled by Indonesian forces?
Maybe the people of Timor-Leste (East Timor) will identify with the sudden, brutal military invasion shown in this film? The Balinese too, may identify with the victims. And the monks and people of Tibet, surely they would find something to identify with in this film?
And what of the many nations that were swept under the carpet of the USSR, surely they all would identify? I could continue, but this review is far too long as it is, which also says something positive about the film, because I care enough about it to spend the time and energy delving into it.
So, before any nation objects and raises their voice in rancour let them ponder upon their own history the last 100 odd years or more.
Lastly, what of the Aboriginal people of Australia; when will someone brave enough make all Australians take a hard look at their invasion experience, through Aboriginal eyes? I wonder whether the general public here would be quite so enthusiastic, about seeing that terrible time in our history.
I await the next in the series, of Tomorrow When the War Began, with intrepid anticipation!
Official poster copyright
Directed by
Stuart Beattie
Produced by
Andrew Mason
Michael Boughen
Executive producers:
Christopher Mapp
Matthew Street
David Whealy
Peter Graves
Written by Screenplay:
Stuart Beattie
Novel:
John Marsden
D.O.P.:
Ben Nott
Starring
Caitlin Stasey
Rachel Hurd-Wood
Lincoln Lewis
Deniz Akdeniz
Phoebe Tonkin
Chris Pang
Ashleigh Cummings
Andy Ryan
Colin Friels
Music by
Johnny Klimek
Reinhold Heil
Studio
Ambience Entertainment
Omnilab Media
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures
Release date
2 September 2010
Running time
103 minutes
Country
Australia
Language
English
Budget
Aus$20 million
IMAGE CREDITS COPYRIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS:
All images copyrighted and owned by production company and/or distributors, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Images used here for illustration of product and promotional and critical purposes only, low res reproductions not for redistribution.
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Mountain Fog
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
tanx for the compliments, mucho gracias!
Yes, it really is worth the ticket price, as this film, even with its shortcomings, (which kept me busy scribbling notations throughout the viewing, and I have edited out about 1,500 words from the first draft as it is!), it shall be a contentious work, and it has two more films to go, then a TV series!
I cannot think of a dramatic work that has had such a potential impact socially, both here and overseas.
It was annoying and disappointing that there were so many tech logic/mistakes, but, it is what it is, and it looks a slick production, very well shot, I should have mentioned that actually.
Might do an add-on for the DOP!
cheers matey,
fog
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
I'm not sure if they updated the story as well as they could have for these cellular/video game times but at the most basic level it gets the character stuff correct - even if they missed a whole bunch of opps to raise the stakes and ratchet the tension.
My 1 for the night - a pro screenwriter - described it as competently mainstream, and it's a tag that suits the film despite the often large gaps in logic and sledgehammer subtext. My review will be up next week.
Comment by Mountain Fog
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Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
I guess being Beattie's first film as director, things may have overwhelmed him, however, he wrote it, so no excuses for the corny cliches.
cheers
fog
Comment by JONNY
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Hey Foggy one.
This throughly doesnt appeal - despite my enthusiasm over it pulling the safety pins out of Australian films
Fine review as usual which is why I think I'll give this and Pirhanna 3D a miss - proof that australian films biggest flaw is still in creating interesting characters.
that Fiona Maxwell looks like a real buzzkill
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
thanks for commenting!
Actually, I don't think there will be any repercussions for Asian-Aussies, as you are Aussie, but, I am unsure as to how people in neighbouring countries will take the movie, let's hope it is all taken the right way, and makes everyone think more about the issues.
cheers
fog
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
hehe! Shaun that made me chuckle!
I still say you should see it, there is some good with the bad, but, as for Piranah, are you kidding? Piranah in 3D!!! I'M THERE!!!
CHEERS
fog
Comment by JONNY
Yes the impact on the north is what really worries me to, because 80% of them up there gonna take it the wrong way if it ain't reasonable understood. Trust me they'll want answers.
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
oh, well that doesn't sound too good at all, but, maybe you can help, by letting anyone you know up north that it isn't anti-Asian, it is about the effects of an invasion, also, maybe the points I raised at the end of my review will help?
cheers matey, and you can call me "fog", everyone does.
fog
Comment by JONNY
I'll do my best, I don't like the Ultra Pan-ism that may happen from up north or the misguided nationalism that may happen in both sides, there will be always be Extremist that's gonna start trouble.
Right now the Asian region is in a bit of a crisis of their own especially Cambodia and Thailand. Something that is the cradle for both Asian countries that share so much in common is drowned by Blinded Ultra Nationalism. And North Korea's threats to the south. Nationalism and War is a curse my friend, something every nation should know very well.
Being invaded and at war its never great that's for sure, the only thing that people would ever wish for is to outlive those moments and to move on that's the main theme for the movie I think.
For a fact if one day crisis does happen, Aussies of Asians ancestry will stand with their White, Black/Indigenous/Others Brothers for what is right.
Cheers Mate
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
thanks for that insight, all those areas you mention are indeed areas of tension, but there is another that is far more worrisome, that of Myanmar.
Just saw a doco on it, the military dictatorship is working towards large long range rockets, and developing nuclear bombs are the end goal, they already have a huge underground network of large tunnels in preparation, this may propel other nations in our area to follow the same path. This info came to light from a whistle blower who worked in the complex, he took photos too, and who knows their ultimate plans.
I agree, the ultra nationalistic attitude, in everyone's countries, is something to be very wary of.
cheers,
and also, you should start a blog here, and open up topics about SE Asia for discussion, I think that would be an excellent thing to do. If you want any help in setting it up, just ask me.
fog
Comment by JONNY
I almost forgot about Myanmar, is still a war zone over there, just no one really cares anymore ASEAN 3 (all the east asian countries) is turning blind eye. Most if not all the North and South East Asian are under Authoritarian or Single Party rule, there are opposition parties but they really if never make it at elections.
We might think we might saw the last of the East Asian Co-pros Sphere, but it still exist in one form or another to this day. The thing with Asia at the moment stopping their potential union is the lack of a main external threat.
And yes I used to think like them all the Pan-ism and more, but as time moved on I've grown to understand its not the best interest of all things right. These ism groups are volatile.
If Asia does became a great union I hope its for the greater hope of humanity, and hopefully not for conquest or revenge on those that underestimated through time. The East is very brutal and ruthless foe. Based upon their shared values yet diverse.
Western values are no different from our own Fogs, its just changes in these Gen X.
It would good if can set a blog up! Cheers Fogs.
'Honor, Loyalty, Respect, Charity from the mountain to the sea is what makes us.
Comment by JONNY
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
all you have to do is select a title for your blog, a name that says what your site is about, like Eyes on Asia, or, SE Asia News, or Asian Opinion, or Aussie Asia, or Aussie Asian Eyes, whatever, then go to this part of Orble, and read the steps for setting up a blog;
Blogging Tips link
On that page "Welcome to Orble" once you have read the info, on the right hands side column, you will see "Start an Orble Blog", click on that and enter your info.
Any questions, just ask, once you have been given a blog you can email me privately and ask whatever.
cheers and I look forward to seeing your new blog and contributing to it matey!!
fog
Comment by Anonymous
I'll have it up and running soon just busy at the moment, family life. cheers!
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
thanks fro commenting.
Yes, I admit, if one had read the book series, there would be a lot more identification with the characters, however, having agreed on that point, I still insist that, if you put a work up on screen, it should stand up on its own, and maintian its won reality.
It should also avoid any 'in joke' "deconstruction", as that only serves to break the suspension of disbelief that is necessary for the film to work dramatically, for example, the the book/film reference, which overtly refers to the book, which may seem nice, if you are a young student having just read the book, but to older people it shows up the insecurity of the screenwriter by appealing to a select audience to share that in joke, it spoils the dramatic structure in the film, in my opinion.
cheers,
fog
Comment by Anonymous
Fully understand and agree with what you are saying about a having it stand up on its own and when I read these books 14 years ago, I always hoped they would make it into a mini series rather than a movie.
I still think that any little references that those who have read the book would appreciate serve to act as a small reward for their loyalty.
cheers