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BY MAGGIE SCOTT

At one point in the sprawling saga of Australia, the genteel lady turns with flashing eyes to her stalwart male companion and says, “We can’t let them win!” There are several “thems” in the story, most having had significant impact on the history of the continent: the Japanese, land grabbers, racists, well-meaning clergy.

Any one of these could be and have been the subject of a film. But, director Baz Luhrmann is making an epic here (about his native land, no less), and he’s got to cover all the bases; particularly if the runners headed for home are the “sexiest man alive,” Hugh Jackman, and the Chanel No. 5 girl, Nicole Kidman. Consequently, the major themes and the country get short shrift.

Like Gone With the Wind before it, Australia is really a big, sniffling love story played out amid the sturm und drang of major social and political upheavals. Like Scarlett, Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) initially doesn’t know the value of the land known as Faraway Downs. She believes it’s just a failed business enterprise and a distraction for her errant husband.

She arrives from England in 1939, determined to extricate him from not just the “cows,” but the women; and to sell the property. Her fashion plate appearance has the seaport of Darwin buzzing about the “looker;” but she’s soon taken down a peg or two, starting with a brawl that tosses her lingerie into the dusty red earth.

Next, she meets her nemesis, the Drover (Jackman), who is heartily unimpressed with her blue blood and her shrieks of feminine dismay at the sight of a cute kangaroo being shot and hog-tied to the jouncing lorry taking her to a rendezvous with the other life-changing man in her life—Nullah (Brandon Walters).

This resourceful, perceptive pre-teen is what’s called a “creamy;” a mix of white and aborigine races. Although he has a caring mother, he is in danger of becoming one of what will be known as Australia’s “stolen generation:” aborigine children taken from their homes by the government and placed with the church to begin the process of assimilation.

Nullah is not just any boy needing the steadying hand of “civilized” caretakers. He is the embodiment of the spiritual teachings and mystical powers of his aborigine grandfather, King George (David Gulpilil); the “murderous black” accused of slaying Sarah’s husband.

Nullah can see Sarah’s potential; knows how she will be transformed by the “strange power” of the vast country and will in turn be “like the rain and heal this land.” Before she reaches that lofty goal, “Mrs. Boss” will face: the perils of a cattle drive; will face off against King Carny (Bryan Brown), the man determined to have her land and livestock; will tap into her suppressed mothering instincts; will fall in love with a man who “mixes with dingoes, not duchesses;” will nearly destroy her bond with Drover demanding he not go on another cattle drive and with Nullah insisting he not go on his “walkabout.” She will believe steadfastly in reunion with both even in the face of ruthless invaders.

Some Australian film critics are incensed with this film, believing its Hollywood-style treatment of sober themes and kaleidoscopic history is campy, contrived, clichéd caricature (honestly—all used in one reviewer’s piece).

Since we Yanks are still pretty clueless when it comes to Australia, but we tend to eat up big, brawling adventures that include plenty of derivative references to other films (not to mention bestowing Academy Awards on same, particularly if they are seven-hanky films),

Australia will thrill and delight a fair share of impressionable viewers. 20th Century Fox release, rated PG-13 for some violence, sexuality, brief strong language.

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