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Bookmark this pageThe Overlanders (1946)
Director: Harry Watt
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Ealing's plans to dramatise the Australian contribution to the war effort didn't mature until after hostilities ceased, but the success of this epic reconstruction of a 1942 cattle-drive (virtually a displaced Western, but given an emphatic political context - the drive is occasioned by a 'scorched earth' policy in face of the advancing Japanese threat - at odds with a counterpart like 'Red River') ensured a continuity of antipodean production that lasted until the home studio itself folded in 1959. Watt brought both a documentarist's research and eye to the project, exposing the outback as a viable location and incidentally elevating Rafferty to the status of a national icon.Author: PT
User reviews of this film
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- Coalbanks said...
- Posted on Nov 22 2008 03:21 Very good documentary-style movie, tough, gritty, individualistic "Western" without getting mock-heroic or overly sentimental. Propaganda? Sure - but it was made in 1944, right?
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Cast & crew
Director: Harry Watt
Producer: Michael Balcon
Cast: Chips Rafferty, John Nugent Hayward, Daphne Campbell, Jean Blue, Helen Grieve, John Fernside, Peter Pagan, Frank Ransome full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Duration: 91 mins
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