After looking at these comments I must say that I am quite disappointed to see such a lack of diversity in the opinions of viewers. The majority of the comments describe the movie as brilliant, moving and a real 'tear jerker' however when I watched the movie the only tears I would have been likely to cry would have been tears of boredom. I really disliked this movie, partly because it was not created as well as it could have been . The way in which the story is presented is quite disappointing. It is a story that had the potential to be interesting, thought provoking and cause a real sense of empathy for the girls, but I feel that this was not done adequately. Despite this there were some bearable scenes, however these were far outnumbered by the boring, uninteresting feel of the entire movie. This made a story that could have been a compelling and interesting journey for viewers a boring and painful form of torture.
The other reason that I dislike this movie is its failure to address the other point of view, for want of a better word "the white persons" point of view. It makes out the white Australians of the time were racist and only trying to harm the aboriginals when this was not the case. While, in retrospect we can clearly see that what they did was wrong, the people at the time could not. They had good intentions and were only doing what they believed was right. What this movie, and unfortunately the majority of people who see it, fail to recognise is that in a lot of cases removing these aboriginal children from their homes was actually beneficial in many cases. Many of the children were living in absolute squalor and were rescued from that and offered the chance at a decent life. To those people who deem this to be wrong I ask them to take a look at Australia's current welfare and foster care system. Is this really any different?
As a senior school student in Australia, we are currently studying this movie and the 'Stolen Generations' in English. And I am afraid that this is not giving the right message to international viewers. It does not give them the full story, something that is definitely needed to understand the complicated and controversial issue of the Stolen Generations. It paints a racist, almost evil Australian society that was never in existence. It also unfairly prejudices them to believe that white Australians are evil and Aboriginies are innocent victims as well as subjecting them to a boring story and ninety minutes of torture.
The other reason that I dislike this movie is its failure to address the other point of view, for want of a better word "the white persons" point of view. It makes out the white Australians of the time were racist and only trying to harm the aboriginals when this was not the case. While, in retrospect we can clearly see that what they did was wrong, the people at the time could not. They had good intentions and were only doing what they believed was right. What this movie, and unfortunately the majority of people who see it, fail to recognise is that in a lot of cases removing these aboriginal children from their homes was actually beneficial in many cases. Many of the children were living in absolute squalor and were rescued from that and offered the chance at a decent life. To those people who deem this to be wrong I ask them to take a look at Australia's current welfare and foster care system. Is this really any different?
As a senior school student in Australia, we are currently studying this movie and the 'Stolen Generations' in English. And I am afraid that this is not giving the right message to international viewers. It does not give them the full story, something that is definitely needed to understand the complicated and controversial issue of the Stolen Generations. It paints a racist, almost evil Australian society that was never in existence. It also unfairly prejudices them to believe that white Australians are evil and Aboriginies are innocent victims as well as subjecting them to a boring story and ninety minutes of torture.