Skip to main contentWith larger-than-life heroes battling equally nefarious villains on the big screen, it can be easy to forget that the most compelling stories are those that speak most directly to us. Arriving for the holidays--a time meant to celebrate goodwill toward others--Antwone Fisher and Rabbit-Proof Fence explore the dark corners of human interaction.
After his much-heralded win of a Best Actor Oscar for Training Day, Denzel Washington seems to have his eye on an Academy Award for Best Director with his directing debut, Antwone Fisher.
Inspired by the life of Antwone Fisher, who wrote the screenplay, this autobiographical film earns its place among the more heart-wrenching films of the past few years. Screen newcomer Derek Luke makes an impressive debut as Antwone, a 24-year-old sailor with a history of violent outbursts. Facing a discharge from the Navy, Antwone is placed on restricted duty and order to undergo a psychiatric evaluation by Jerome Davenport (Washington). Reluctant at first, Antwone eventually opens up to Davenport, reliving his horrifying life. Born in a women's prison two months after the murder of his father, Antwone never knew his family and was raised in a foster home where all he ever experienced was abuse, neglect and a total absence of love. As the relationship between Antwone and Davenport grows, and as the young man falls in love with a young woman, he slowly begins to heal from the wounds of his past. But, as Davenport tells him, in order for Antwone to fully recover from the trauma he has endured, the young man must confront the furies that chase him--the violent foster mother and the family that abandoned him to the world.
Not since Michael Roemer's 1964 film Nothing But a Man, starring Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln, has there been a more compelling drama dealing with the experiences of a black man in America. Like Roemer's brilliant film, Antwone Fisher speaks of the resilience of a man who started with nothing and no one. There is no way someone like Antwone should survive the life he endured in his youth and still come through so unscathed--and yet he does. "It don't matter what you tried to do to me," Antwone tells the foster mother who used to beat him into unconsciousness. "I'm still standing. I'm still strong. And I always will be."
As a directorial debut, Washington couldn't have chosen a better film. He wisely sticks with what he's best known for as an actor--human drama--and concentrates on the personal dynamics of the film's characters. The result is believable, finely tuned performances from his actors.
As a universal tale of finding hope in the eye of pain, Antwone Fisher should resonate with all people, but on another level, it is a story unique and intrinsic to the black experience. Ultimately, at its heart and soul, this film is about the healing and restoration of the black family. It's a topic seldom addressed cinematically, and even when it is, silly humor or contrived melodrama work to compromise the integrity and import of the subject matter.
As a companion piece to Antwone Fisher, director Philip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence reverberates with many of the same thematic tones of familial restoration in the face of insurmountable odds. For the better part of a century, the Australian government had a policy of relocating all children of mixed parentage--known as half-castes--and raising them to be white. Referred to as the "stolen generations," these children were groomed to take their place as domestics and servants, while any trace of their Aboriginal culture was beaten out of them.
This was the world that 14-year-old Molly (Everlyn Sampi), her 8-year-old sister Daisy (Tianna Sansbury) and their 10-year-old cousin Gracie (Laura Monaghan) find themselves thrust into when, in 1931, they are stolen from their families and placed in an internment camp. Determined to reunite with her family, Molly gathers Daisy and Gracie, and the three flee the camp, setting out on a 1,500-mile, nine-week trek home. Using the rabbit-proof fence that runs the length of Australia as their guide, the girls elude Moodoo (David Gulpilil), the Aboriginal tracker sent out to capture them. And as the girls manage miraculously to avoid capture every step of the way, they begin to evolve into folk heroes.
Based on the book by Molly's real-life daughter Doris Pilkington, Rabbit-Proof Fence quietly, and defiantly, emerges as one of the cinema's best treatises against colonialism and racism. This is not a film like Cry Freedom or Dances With Wolves that tries to address racism, while at the same time feeding the need to appease white liberal guilt by making white audiences feel better about themselves. Director Noyce and screenwriter Christine Olsen seem to have no desire to make white people feel better or worse for the crimes they've committed against people of color. Instead, they have simply set out to tell a story, and in doing so, let emotional reactions run their course.
As a director, Noyce expertly navigates the rocky emotional terrain of the film just as the characters navigate the inhospitable landscape of the Outback. Noyce, best known for such loud films as Patriot Games, returns to the character-driven roots of his earlier Dead Calm, which also explored themes of survival in the face of adversity.
While Noyce's direction brings the film together, it's the girls who make it all come alive. All non-actors, Sampi, Sansbury and Monaghan bring great humanity to their roles--these are three young girls running for their freedom.
Rabbit-Proof Fence is one of those rare movies that everyone should see, especially families. As epic as anything chronicled in The Lord of the Rings, both Rabbit-Proof Fence and Antwone Fisher are real-life adventures that serve to inspire and stand as testimonies to the indomitable spirit of common men and women.
Rated PG-13 Opens Wednesday, Dec. 25.
Rated PG Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 223-4515. 7 and 9 pm Wednesday- Thursday, Dec. 25-Jan. 9. Additional shows 4:45 pm Wednesday- Tuesday, 2:30 pm Saturday- Tuesday. $6.
WWeek 2015