In a Savage Land

[tipou]

which leaves us to wonder about our rufus' talent for accents. one cannot have everything, i guess.

[rueful]

I think he's generally regarded to have a pretty good facility for accents. Maybe they didn't tell him either

[quoll]

Interesting - I recognized him as an American straight off - mainly because all the Australian actors had such horribly exaggerated Australian accents probably reminiscent of the era of course (think Chips Rafferty).

I did wonder about some slippage of Ruf's American accent but as lizap said, I just figured that he had been dodging around the islands for years that it had become infected with all the accents he would have encountered all around him.

Hated John Howard's rather ludicrous attempt at a Scots accent - that grated on me the whole time.

I lived in PNG for a while and never saw a trader like Ruf I must say - most of them were pretty unattractive. The rugged, laid back, outdoorsy Aussie is a bit of a myth IMHO - those who are rugged, laid back and outdoorsy generally arent hugely attractive folk although I must admit I did see a Victorian member of parliament the other day who would have been the archetypal kind.

[tipou]

ah! good. and australian would know. as i said, i am not real good with english accents anyway, being french speaking.

but one thing i know: forced and unconvincing scottish accent is painful. and i guess it must be physically - and uselessly - painful for the culprit as well.

i thought there might not be a lot of rufus types lying around among any kind of traders... but - sigh - a girl has to dream...

[rueful]

The rugged, laid back, outdoorsy Aussie is a bit of a myth IMHO - those who are rugged, laid back and outdoorsy generally arent hugely attractive folk

I guess that I didn't think of the "rugged" as the myth so much as the "rugged and incredibly sexy" as the myth. There seemed to be a lot of what I'd call outdoorsy types to me, probably because a lot of the climate is conducive to that. That is not to imply that most Australians are unattractive; on the contrary, they are a pretty, pretty people, and that is no exaggeration. After all, Rufus has Aussie genes.

Quoll, sorry to say that the fires are out of the news cycle here in the States (the news media have very short attention spans here). I know the devastating losses will be hard to recover from, but I hope the situation has improved.

[peach]

Hugh Jackman and Bryan Brown come to mind as well. Quite good looking Aussies as I've ever seen. And very talented in their own right.

[ambra]

Ok, this is weird. I had looked at getting a copy of this over at amazon. One copy was nearly 80 bucks and I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much on a dvd. There was another copy for about 6 bucks but I was hesitant to get it because I was wondering why there would be such a huge price difference between two dvds of the same movie which made think something was wrong with the latter so I passed. I go to my mailbox today and there's a package. I'd ordered "Extreme Ops" which I got a couple of days ago and "Dangerous Beauty" so of course, I'm thinking I got "Dangerous Beauty" a couple of days early. I open the package and it's a copy of "In a Savage Land"! I checked both my amazon account and my debit/checking account to see if I'd been charged for it and I wasn't. There's no invoice in the envelope. I don't know if someone just made a mistake or just decided to send me the dvd to get rid of it. It's a Canadian produced dvd so I'm assuming it's going to work with my dvd player and it's rated "PG" by Canadian film standards so I'm wondering if it's going to be like the butchered copy of "Illuminata" I ordered. I guess I'll pop it in when I get home tonight and see what happens.

[ambra]

Just finished watching this film and I thank whatever powers that be for whatever happy mistake landed this dvd in my mailbox today! What a beautiful film! I loved the character of Evelyn and her relationship with Phillip, how she thinks he's this open, liberated thinker only to discover he's just as big a chauvanist as all the other men she's had to deal with in her life. Yet she obviously loves him and feels not only sorrow but guilt at his passing. The scenes of her observing the native mourning ritual are gut-wrenching.

And what more can I say about Rufus that hasn't already been said? One of his strongest performances I've seen so far. He so fully inhabits the character of Mick with each inflection and gesture. I did cringe a bit when he called the natives "worthless n------" although I know it was Mick's way of trying to make Evelyn abandon him. He knew how much she respected these people and if he used such a despicable term to describe them, he thought she'd want nothing more to do with him. Little did he realize she was going to see through this and come back to him.

The ending had me in tears! Although I knew the hand placing the envelope on the table had to be Mick's, I didn't mind the predictablity of what happened once Evelyn discovers the pearl. In fact, I was literally yelling at the screen, "Come on! She's got to find him now! They have to be together!"

This movie is defintely one of my top favorite Rufus movies now, mostly for the performances and the quality of filmmaking but also for the heart-palpitation inducing scenes of Rufus without his shirt. What can I say? The man is gorgeous and that's impossible to ignore!

[tipou]

this movie is on my all time favourite list of movies with or without rufus. we need more movies like this one, we need more good stories, well told, and well acted.
i am so glad you enjoyed it, ambra, i loved reading your review of it, made me want to see it all over again.

[rueful]

Congrats on getting the mystery copy, ambra. It was like a little gift to you from Rufus! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I also loved the ending, so so satisfying. And even though I love his curly hair, I couldn't help but smile at his army haircut. He looked like a little boy. Very cute.

[spice]

Hi, all of my fellow Rufus-adoring-fans............. I checked on Amazon but could not find Savage Land. If anyone of you have seen it or knows where I can get it please let me know. I just received the Dark City Director's cut yesterday from Amazon. My sister and I are really looking forward to seeing it. Thanks !!!!!!

[catdishy]

Amazon.ca has 2 used ones listed this morning for 5.97 .

[spice]

catdishy, Thanks so much. I'll try it and let you know.

[peach]

I loved the look of this film, the muted sepia tones, it fit the period perfectly. This is on my top three films he's done. It's sweet and honest, and completely believable. The ending made we weepy too, the look in his eyes when he sees her again, it's so touching.

I think one of my favorite scenes (and there are many to choose from here) was when he opens the oyster and gives it to her to smell, I think my heart skipped a beat, the rainy scene wasn't bad either.

[spice]

My sister and I watched IASL last night (Thursday). I kept checking Amazon and what do you know............... all of a sudden two DVDs were available. I tried to get one from Canada as catdishy had advised but a message popped up stating that it could not be shipped to my area.
What a beautiful film. The soft sepia tones against the blue of the skies and the turquoise-blue ocean were outstanding. And I loved Ruf in that coral colored shirt he wore. So much has already been said here regarding his acting talent in this film. Here are some of my thoughts. He welcomes the character into his very being and then lets it evolve through his very pores as his acting genius transmits to the screen. One of my favorite scenes was the dance scene, awkward at first then so tender and loving. I hope that Ruf will soon have more opportunities to be involved with and star in movies such as this one.