Change Your Image
de-64-936514
Reviews
Fields of Fire II (1988)
Review
Fields of Fire, the saga of power, prosperity and prejudice in the cane fields returns with second Mini Series. Most of the original cast return for the sequel including Todd Boyce , Melissa Docker, Ollie Hall, Kris McQuade , Harold Hopkins, John Jarrett, Ken Radley, Patrick Ward, Paul Bretram and Nicholas Hammond.
The strong cast is bolstered by three of Australian best actresses, Anne Louise Lambert, Peta Toppano and Gosia Dobrowolska. Anne Louise Lambert takes on the role of the high spirited Kate and Joseph Spano the role of Franco , an Italian canecutter increasingly involved in illegal activities. Peta Toppano plays Gina a fiery newcomer from Naples, and Gosia Dobrowolska plays Polish refugee Basia.
The two part four hour mini series begins as World War II ends and a debilitated and hungry world slowly recovers, with the sugar cane industry in lush but isolated North Queensland swinging into full production. The end of the war marks a new period of prosperity in the steamy cane fields for old and " new " Australians alike, but migrants suffer the barbed prejudice of narrow minded sections of the community.
Among the thousands of Europeans fleeing war torn Europe to see work and a new future in North Queensland is Gina ( Peta Toppano, a sensual Italian woman destined to cause trouble in the small world of the cane fields.
War has also taken its toll on the cutters- in Tiny's gang Whacka and Jacko are back , but Bluey can no longer cut because of his serious war injury and Tiny's enormous strength has been sapped by Dengue fever.
War has irreversibly changes the lives of the major characters. Years of separation have shaken relationships; decisions between lovers on different continents have been made, while others must reconcile the enormous cultural gap between them.
Fields of Fire III (1989)
Review Fields of Fire 3 6 Sept 1990
The critically acclaimed and successful FIELDS OF FIRE has broken new ground as Australia's first mini-series trilogy.
From the anxious and tenuous times of the pre-war years, to the ravages of World War II, and through to a new ear of rejuvenation, growth and prosperity of the early fifties, FIELDS OF FIRE trilogy tells the story of a unique , dramatic and disappearing part of our Australian history: the story of the canecutters in Northern Queensland. FIELDS OF FIRE III is the final dramatic chapter of this story.
The original cast returns including , Todd Boyce, Melissa Docker, Peta Toppano, Ollie Hall, Kris McQuade, Gosia Dobrowolska, John Jarrett, Harold Hopkins, Danny Simmonds, Robert Ruggiero and Patrick Ward.
The cast is further bolstered with three of Australia's most popular actors, Noni Hazlehurst, Martin Sacks and Michelle Fawdon. Noni plays Dawn , a no nonsense, no frills mechanic in whom Jacko finds a kindred spirit. Martin plays Rinaldo , a young Italian cane cutter whose attraction to his employer , Gina ( Peta Toppano) causes passionate complications. Michelle completes the cast as the good humoured school teacher who convinces Whacka (Harold Hopkins) to complete is education.
Interspersed with real footage of the Fifties FIELDS OF FIRE III focuses on the lives of the Silkwood residents in the cane growing township of North Queensland. It is 1951 and the people of Silkwood have assimilated to the radical changes which World War II brought on their lives and have moved into a phase of relative prosperity. The characters have developed what initially appears to be a comfortable prosperity.
The Italians have been well integrated into the community with Gina Agostini ( Peta Toppano) and her brother Paolo (Robert Ruggiero) successful cane growers. Gina still mourning the death of her husband Franco struggles between a strong attraction to Rinaldo and faithfulness to the memory of her late husband.
Life does not deal all Silkwood residents an even hand. Prime Minister Menzies' 1951 Federal Referendum to outlaw communism causes rifts within the small community. Tiny is torn between love and loyalty to his wife Basia , who fears that a " no " vote will pave the way to a police state as it did in her native Poland , and voting for what he feels is every individual's right of freedom of expression.
Finally a natural disaster, a torrential flood, brings the divided community of Silkwood back together, mending broken friendships and healing political differences.
Fields of Fire (1987)
Review July 8 1987
The " Fields of Fire" of the title are the sugar can fields in the tropical north east of Australia, but since the story starts in 1939 when the war broke out , the eponym extends to the battlefields of North Africa and New Guinea where many of the main characters are sent. These are for the most part tough , hard working and harder-drinking cane cutters and the women who understandingly- if not always uncomplainingly - stand by them.
Anyone who has seen Ray Lawler's play " Summer Of the Seventeenth Doll" or the film made from it, has had an introductory course, but " Fields" takes off in another direction. An inexperienced young Englishman ( Todd Boyce) arrives having seen a newspaper ad for cane cutters. Almost immediately he gets involved in a fight ( here known as a "blue") and gets the nickname "Bluey".
Because of the fierce competition between cutting crews no one wants him , but that only provides the dramatic springboard. From that point the story is how he gets on the team, proves himself , wins the girls, goes to war and returns a hero.
Providing a domestic counterpoint to the arduous cane cutting , on the distaff side is the local pub run by Elsie( Kris McQuade) and her two daughters Dusty ( Melissa Docker) and Kate ( Anna Hruby) already married but deserted, and in the convention of this sort of drama , highly concupiscent. Dusty is attracted to Bluey but it is Kate who has her wicked way with him.
The action and plot move right along and the characters are compelling enough to maintain interest. At the end of episode one , war is declared and the boys go off to join the army, but also signals that they Yanks are coming, and they do in a convoy of trucks and the person of Nicholas Hammond playing an army captain who has an affair with the hitherto unattached Elsie. Dusty goes off to become a nurse and Kate forms a liaison with Franco ( Terry Serio), one of the Italian can cutters who has avoided internment and is now on the run.
The tightness of the scripting varies, but in the main the impetus carries the audience over any lacunae, and inaccuracy in some of the details would only be noticeable to American military history buffs. There are a number of unresolved areas that nag , but there is talk of a sequel, which might clear some things up. Certainly the fade out leaves room for Dusty to come back home from the war with the wounded Bluey.
Technically "Fileds' is superb even by Australian standards, and the quality of the acting is equally high with McQuade and Harold Hopkins as the cook turning in knowing performances. Hammond ever stalwart, makes the initially crass Yank appealing, and Boyce does a nice job with the neophyte who emerges into maturity.
As for Melissa Docker , her appealing pretty face almost gets in the way of her acting ability, but she shines. And Anna Hruby, who gives a finely graded performance never looked better.
Kudos to cinematographer Ross Berryman for getting every lumen out of the extraordinary light that Queensland is famous for. Also due a favorable nod are editors Sarah Bennet and Emma Hay whose work, especially evocative in the cane cutting sequences , is exemplary.
In all solid TV entertainment , that is involving without being unnecessarily demanding. miha