Film Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Kangaroo
Directed by Tim Burstall
Universal Studios Home Video 1986 DVD/VHS Feature Film
R

"You want power out of the depth of your own weakness." Harriet tells her literary husband Richard in Kangaroo. They have fled England in 1922 and come to Sydney, Australia, in search of a less constrained life. Through his macho neighbor, Richard is introduced to Kangaroo, a charismatic military leader of an underground Fascist movement. The revolutionaries want him to serve as their muse.

This Australian film directed by Tim Burstall artfully translates D. H. Lawrence's novel to the screen. Colin Friels capture Richard’s ambiguous feelings about politics and his own sexual confusion. But it is Judy Davis’s depiction of Harriet which gives Kangaroo its dramatic clout. She realizes the threat to her marriage and her husband’s craft inherent in the Fascist cadre, which he characterizes as "little boys playing deadlier and deadlier games." By force of will and a heart-felt expression of love, she convinces him to dissociate himself from these mane and their dream of power.

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat