Character review for Australia : The Drover

In these movie, there are quite a lot of interesting character, but the character that draw the most attentions from me after I watched this movie is the Drover played by Hugh Jackman. Why? I think is because this character has shown quite a lot of humanities in the movie, both positive and negative side, which make this character more alive and acceptable. This character shows a few changes which is quite obvious in the movie.

What's a drover? The drover is a freelance Australian drover who makes his living steering thousands of heads of cattle across hundreds of miles of outback. The Drover is a solitary man. He used to live alone in his life of driving the cattle and horse. He is his own man. He doesn’t want to be beholden to anybody. He relies on no body. He takes care on no body and what he concern is only himselfs. This is not to say that Drover is selfish, but that is the personality that the surrounding had shaped on the Drover. Although the drover is a white man, he is friendly with the Aborigines due to his job, and therefore he shunned by many of the other whites in the territory. Consequently he needed to take care of himself and fight for his right in order to survive in the society.

However, things start to change after the arrival of Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman). The Drover did not live alone anymore. Lady Sarah Ashley travels to her husband's down under cattle ranch to finalize the sale of the rustic homestead to local Aussie cattle barons. The Drover is hired by Lady Sarah Ashley to help her drove her cattle across the Kuraman Dessert to the port of Darwin to sell the beef to the Australian army which is now preparing for a war with the Japanese. The drover has shown his loving and caring personalities. As a leader of the band, he took good care of his member regard health condition and accommodation, but in fact he failed to do so. One of the members, the alcoholic accountant Kipling Flynn (Jack Thompson) is dead when he is stepped over by the stampeding cattle. The drover cried with his tears on his eye. These scene touch me because the Drover has shown the true feeling of a human. He love Flynn and he felt sad for his death. Moreover, there is an attraction between the Drover and Lady Sarah which can be considered as “love”. Along the journey with all levels of interference from nasty cattle thieves, scorched deserts and stampedes, they have a push-pull relationship. But finally, Drover fall in love with Lady Sarah.

However problem arises after the Drover success to drive the cattle across the dangerous “Never Never” desert. The Drover has different perspective regarding his relationship with Lady Sarah. As a drover, the Drover prefers to live alone. He is more comfortable out there with his horse and the cattle than he is with people. That is why someone like Lady Ashley presents quite a few problems for him. Lady Sarah thought that she has found her new life and want to stay together with the Drover. Sadly the drover refused to do. He leave the Faraway dawn to be a drover of the Australia Military Team. Lady Sarah is left aside with Nullah in the old place. Here, the Drover gives a bad image. He failed to face the truth that he has owned Lady Sarah and no more alone. After living alone for so many years, he still thought that he is his own man. Therefore he made a decision to leave Lady Sarah heartlessly, continue his destiny as a solitary man. For me, he is so irresponsible in handling his feel toward Lady Sarah and he is coward man who tries to hide behind the truth.

Moreover, his growing attachment to Nullah is totally different from what Lady Sarah think. Lady Sarah wanted to keep Nullah beside her in the Faraway Dawn and try to stop Nullah from doing walkabout with his grandfather, King George. Actually this is a way to perform a ceremonial coming-of-age for the ancestor of Nullah. In this issue, Lady Sarah is use some lame excuse that Nullah is still a child and is too dangerous for him to do the walkabout. On the other hand, the Drover is quite understanding in handling this issue. He thought that the walkabout is the best way that Nullah can do in order to grow into a true man and learn more things from King George. He respects the culture and tradition of the aboriginal native where each member must do the walkabout when they are old enough to do so. The Drover is strongly insisted with his idea and he started to argue which cause the breakup of the couple after that.

After that, Japanese army attack Australia. Drover, who had quarreled with Lady Sarah and gone droving apparently never to return, hears (mistakenly) that she has been killed in the bombing. He quickly returned to find but he didn’t managed. He felt very sad and regretted not to stay with Lady Sarah. Start from here, I start to fell that the Drover has change. He faces his true feeling toward Lady Sarah and begins to repair the problem that arised between them. However that is too late for him to meet Lady Sarah again. But the Drover does not depress but he started to look for Nullah. He finds out about Nullah’s abduction to Mission Island. At that time, the mission island is not safe as Mission Island is the first place attacked by the Japanese Army. The situation there is very dangerous and no one is allowed to go there. Drover who thinks he has lost Lady Sarah thought that he must save Nullah ehich is his only relative left other than Lady Sarah. A shock and brave decision, he sets out to rescue Nullah and the other children from the island using a sailboat. Here he show his love to Nullah and concern about his safety. This is what a person should do for their child. Without thinking of his own safety, he bravely save Nullah and other mixed-race children. I fell that the Drover has shown a good example to all of us that the power of love is incredible which help us to do something impossible and achieve our goal. Finaly, the Drover and his member make it safely back to Darwin.

Later, Drover and the children sail back into port at Darwin. To

his surprise, he see Lady Sarah standing in front of him. She is still alive. Drover is very happy as he finally united with Lady Sarah and Nullah. He is not coward anymore. He accepts Lady Sarah as his family member and wanst to stay with her. He doesn’t want to separate with Lady Sarah anymore. He has changed, from a person who cares about himself only to a person who thinks of others.

In a nut shell, I think that the character “the Drover” is rarely a uniique person. He has both good and bad characteristic but at the end of the story, he became a better person than before. That is why I admire this character and found that this is the most interesting character in the movie “Australia”.

The movie "Coach Carter"

Coach Carter....

Coach Carter is 2 1/4 hours of MTV-produced tough love, with a dance break and pool party to relieve — momentarily — a series of motivational rants from lead Samuel L. Jackson. This is a film inspired by the real-life heroics of basketball coach Ken Carter, who made national news by benching his entire squad for academic ineligibility. The film starts with Carter (Samuel L Jackson) being offered the basketball job from his old coach (Ray Baker) at Richmond High, the school where Carter still holds many of the basketball records. Carter lived in Richmond in better times and wants to bring some of the glow back to his alma mater. Richmond is a troubled area. The high school dropout rate is 50 percent… and residents are more likely to go to prison than college. Teenage pregnancy is as common as the flu, which puts added pressures on an already strained economy. The school is now plagued by violence and the boys on Carter's squad are statistically more likely to go to jail than college. Basketball is one of the few things the young men have that can take them away from the pains of reality. It stands as the highlight of a life that will likely lead to, at best, a life in poverty and at worst gangs, drugs, and an early death. So when Ken Carter, a former All-American basketball player and now small business owner in the city takes over the team, As much dismayed by the poor attitudes of his players as well as their dismal play performance, Carter sets about to change both. He looks to not only lead a revolution on the court, but in the lives of the men who play for him. To turn the players around Carter introduces a four-point contract with his basketball team: keep a 2.3 Grade Point Average; no truancy; sit at the front in class; and wear a shirt and tie on game day. He believes that his charges should be students first and athletes second; a radical concept for most people around Richmond High. The initial resistance from the boys is soon dispelled as the team under Carter's tutelage becomes a undefeated competitor in the games. However when the overconfidient team's behaviour begins to stary and Carter learns that too many players are doing poorly in the class, he make a immediate action. to the outrage of the team, the school and the community, Carter locks the court in the midst of their still-undefeated season, cancelling practices and forfeiting games until the team shows acceptable academic improvent. He meets great resistance from Principal Garrison (Denise Dowse), his charges, school officials and community members. In the ensuing debate, Carter fights to keep his methods, determined to show the boys that they need rely on more than sports for their futurs. The school board eventually votes to end the unpopular lockout, despite dissenting votes from the principal and the chairwoman of the board. He is about to quit, but he finds the palyers sitting at school desks in the gym, with teachers tutoring them. The players point out that even though the gym is reopened, the schoool board can't force them to play. Carter is heartened and decides to stay, thanking the players. The team makes it into the state high- school championship playoffs. The climactic game takes place in the tournament's first ground against the first ranked team in the state, St. Francis (starring a superstar NBA prospect, Ty Crane). In the last second, Crane makes the winning shot to end Richmond" season. Over the closing song, it is shown that six of the players went on to attend college.

My opinion about this movie........

This movie is a good movie, a lot of things are hide behind the story and the plot. It is not an ordinary basketball movie, for me, is more toward a educational movie. From the begining of the story until the end of the story, moral values and lessons can be seen throughtout the movie. The deepest impression i get from the movie regarding the lessons i get after watching the movie is respect can win everthing. Coach Carter, in order to change the team, in both aspect of performance in the court and the live of the player, respect the player without looking down at the player who mostly come from a poor and bad surrounding. Why he do this? It is clearly stated in the movie about the power and magic of respect in out human live. By showing great respect towards the player by refering them as "sir", Coach Carter has gain the trust from the player. As time passing, the behavoiur of player change, from opposing the requirement asked by Coach Carter to follow each instruction given by the Coach like do push-up 500 times. This can only be done if the players believe him. Determination is another moral value that can be seen in the movie. When Coach Carter say he want his player to go into colleges, it look like a joke to the teacher in the school, even though the player felt that it is a mission impossible. In the fact, the high school dropout rate is 50 percent and nearly only 6% go to college. However Coach Carter thinks of changing all this unfavourable situation because he know that the youngsters need education to improve their life in the future, not only than depending on basketball. The contract has recieve great response from the players' family members and the teacher, where critic is more than support. After persuading the people, the contract finally are carried. But things are not going on as what Coach Carter predicted, he realise the academic performance of the palyers still not improve to the level he asked as the Richmond team has already become undefeated in the league. Determination of Coach Carter to make sure his plan success is shown when he make a shock decision to lock the court to force the player to study until their result become better. Most of the people live in the Richmond strongly oppose the locking of the court. Finally, the court is reopened as a result of voting by the school board. But due to the respect and trust to Coach Carter, the players study in the court by saying that the school board can reopen the court, but they can force them to play. When I see the behaviour of the player in that time, i feel touched and I really feel the importance of respect towards other ans determination in doing something.

Ok, this is what i learned from the movie "Coach Carter". As a conclusion,

< determination =" success">

Here are the some attractive photo that i have found.

Raining again!!!!

Raining!!! It starts raining now.

The water droplets start to hit the ground and roof.

Sitting in a air-conditioned room, i can't feel the difference as it was raining.

I start to enjoy the unique and monotone melody(no music can l listen at this time).

Everyone seem to be feel nothing, continuing their activities,

without a sign of stopping what they do now. It is like the raining bring nothing to them.

I also feel like that, as the situation in library remain quiet as usual

(unless a lighting strike and elctricity is cut off in library, but hope it will not happen forever).

Raining,

a common natural phenomena occurs everywhere and everytime,

is like a new thing for me in Inti here.

Why?

I don't know.

A strange feeling appears suddenly to me when it was raining.

I try my best to seek the answer and solution for this matter.

It always make me think that something wrong is happend

or

feel like something missing from my life when it is raining.

I don't know the reason to have such a strong feel.

May be because the day is always sunny for the first few weeks.

This caused me to make a special formula for Inti Nilai

< inti =" sun" weather =" no">

A weird thing, right?

Again I dont know the reason for me to make this conclusion.

Raining!!!!

It happens in my life so many times,

but only until now I have a new perception towards raining.

No reason is being stated,

but I am sure that finally one day i will find the answer!! Sure!!

Hope you all enjoy raining!!!!

Oh.... raining stop already....

Seek for next rainy day in INTI Nilai!!

HaHa.. I am realy happy.

Finally I finish typing.

Actually this post is an exercise for me before

I start to write the review for "Coach Carter".

This a really new experinece and i find a lot of fun doing it!!!!!

Kindly leave any comment, regarding the content or language,

either good or bad comments,

I will accept them with an open heart.

Thank you!!