Ten Canoes (2006)

unique setting can't overcome dull storytelling

**1/2

Despite its exquisitely photographed and exotic locale, "Ten Canoes" is strictly for those who still need a bedtime story to help them fall asleep. Set in the Australian outback, this tale of life among the Aborigines is as beautiful to look at as it is tedious to sit through. As we watch a group of men building canoes, a wizened but droning narrator spins an ancient yarn about a stranger who wanders into a village, forever altering the lives of those who live there (interestingly, while the scenes in the past have been filmed in color, those set in the present are in black-and-white).

"Ten Canoes" may have value as an anthropological study of sorts, but its desultory pacing and lack of compelling drama make it a very dull slog indeed for even the most adventurous of armchair-traveling moviegoers. June 27, 2008

Cute, politically correct daycare production.

Kids MIGHT like it - this ' yet another ' visit to the underpriveleged (??) circles so overused today.

Cute, but no cigar ! Boring & simply another production filled with misleading presences of mysticisms, ' ain't they wonderful ' clouds of immaturity aimed at some sort of imagined mistakes etc. ' the white man ' made ( isn't everything the white man's fault? ) against these creatures of God who supposedly had lead a wonderful 'Valhalla'-esque existence on the earth until the ugly old white man arrived .........

Nah - way too shallow, way too typically-ga-ga idealistic. My kids aregrown now ... but if they were still kids, I would not provide this sort of overly romantic sugarbowl type of viewing for them.

Again, I say " cute, but no cigar ! ". April 5, 2008

Yolngu Ethnographic Record

Illustrating their culture through oral story-telling, using narration in the original ancient language, fusing archival still photographs throughout the film, accentuating the Northern Territory's visual landscape with enhancing colouring, allowing the Yolngu to craft all of their own costumes, props, and sets, and having an audio track narration in the Yolngu language created a visual living and breathing ethnographic historical record of their culture.

The entire fim is humourous, saccharine, sentimental, and inspirational and uplifting.

One of the film's major themes concerns the circle of life - each human begins his existence as a small fish lurking in the waterhole, and, following his death, he will return to the exact body of water from which he was taken. Likewise, each character in the film follows a cycle of his own. Rather than rushing into drastic actions and disturbing the balance, one must always be patient, for life will always follow a full-circle. And be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it

One of life's most important lessons, life resolves itself by coming full circle. March 30, 2008

Visual Experieince

This is a very interesting film. It is not an action movie and does not have much of a story line. Nothing much happens, but you are part of a fantasic visual experience. You feel like yoy are there with the natives as the live their daily lives (except they speaking in their nature tongue and you need a translator). You are part of the tribe. You see the land as they see it. You are with them as they build canoes and hunt goose eggs. Even more, the director went out of his way to make many of the scenes into works of art. There is balance, striking lines, dimension, and depth. All in all, an education and very visual experience. I highly recommend this movie. Be sure to watch the discussion with the director. February 2, 2008

Aboriginal adventure downunder

As art house films go, this movie is very good, maybe even exceptional. On the other hand, if you like Hollywood type movies, than you might want to pass. However, even if you are not inclined to the type of movies that don't get the publicity or distribution and are stacked thirty deep at your local movie rental conglomerate four months later, you still might enjoy this movie. Remember the Australian classics The Last Wave - Criterion Collection, Walkabout - Criterion Collection? Well, this will probably someday be considered alongside those movies as great movies from Australia. Coincidently , David Gulpili, who starred in the aforementioned movies, narrates , often times tongue in cheek, and as he says ,that is another story. The storytelling is superb, a story within a story, an adventure for the ages and a moral tale that doesn't club you upside the head. The humor is great, it is funny stuff that transcends the cultural differences.The scenery is spectacular, especialy on your giant screen with surround sound. You will feel as if you are walking with the aborigines. The mixture of mystical shamans beliefs and otherworldly scenery, shifting from black and white to color is hallucinatory and adds an extra dimension to an already multi-layered on many levels movie. The ages old lust-for-your-brother's wife is the vehicle for the narration as you join in the adventure two fold(two different time periods)in creating ten canoes from scratch(pulling the bark)as the men embark on a journey that reveals the past in the present. One of the features to not be missed is the making of the movie extra that is included. The directors, Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, take you through the scenes and you see just how difficult it was to get the aboriginal "actors" to act so naturally. It is amazing because they come across so natural in their roles, but it did require alot of coaching. The directors, did a marvelous job and the result was a superb movie. If you are in the mood for some National Geographicesque tribal scenes (some nudity), exotic landscapes and an adventure back in time, then check out this Australian flick that is soon to be a classic.
December 21, 2007

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