Australian Movie Classics - Shame

Warning
This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,
and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.
                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.
Also, hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers. 

 

 

-------------------------------- 

Shame - Movie 1987 Australia 94 Mins-- DVD/ SBS On Demand/ Kanopy

Classic, feminist masterpiece – not to be missed

Professional woman on a touring holiday, Asta Cadell limps into a small outback town on a crippled motorcycle. While she waits for parts, Asta stays at a local garage.
She soon discovers the town’s local sport is gang rape. Some women are intimidated, others make excuses and the law looks the other way – but nothing ever changes. Attacked herself, Asta is drawn in to the struggle of the town's women for safety and dignity.

Don’t be put off if you saw and hated the U.S. remake with Amanda Donahue – there was no way it could survive the transition because the people who tried to remake it completely missed the point.
Plus, you definitely need to see an early Deborra-Lee Furness award-winning performance. She is joined in this great piece by Simone Buchanan and Tony Barry.

Thirty years after Shame was first made there are still some towns in Australia that I, as a woman, would not voluntarily go anywhere near – they just reek of the threat of rape and make my skin crawl.
That said, there are plenty of small towns in Australia that are predominantly male or very “old school” that are far more tolerant of difference and welcoming than they appear on the surface – you could drive a Pride float down the main drag so long as you don’t upset the sheep, and if you got a flat tyre the locals would give you a cold beer while they helped you change it.

On the surface, Shame appears to be a movie about a small sexist town but the town of Ginborak is really just a metaphor for patriarchal society as a whole – it is about a society where the police turn a blind eye to violence against women, where women carry the shame of violent acts committed against them, and where women are reluctant to complain because they have little economic power.

Ginborak is a fair representation of 1988 Australia, which is when this movie was released. If we want to look at the history from state to state of things like laws relating to sexual assault, rape in marriage, decriminalisation of homosexuality, police standing orders relating to domestic assaults, the availability of refuge for battered women and more, Shame explains why Australia needed its second wave of feminism in the 1970s.

(Well, have a look at Parliament House in 2018 and you'll see why Australia needs a third wave of feminism... but I digress. Ahem.)

There are one or two moments in this movie where the acting is a tad hammy, or the events are a bit clichéd or melodramatic, but I have never been able to watch it without being moved.

Asta takes Lizzie to the local swimming hole... and they imagine a safe married life :

 

I'll get a face lift at forty

 

Gentlemen will kiss your hand…

Lizzie, when I meet a gentleman - he can kiss me where ever he likes!

 



It’s a timeless classic. Hard to find – available to buy online through Umbrella Entertainment.
If you are in Australia you will find a Digitally Remastered version is available to watch free online at SBS On Demand til July 2019. Also on Kanopy.