A FAR OFF PLACE
A film review by David Pimmel
Copyright 1993 David Pimmel
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Ethan Randall, Salek Bok, Jack Thompson Directed by Mikael Salomon Written by Robert Caswell, Johnathan Hensleigh, and Sally Robinson Based on Laurens Van der Post's books Rated PG for language, mild violence
Synopsis ========
Two teens and a bushman guide are forced to cross the Kalihari Desert in order to escape from the ivory poachers who killed their parents. Along the way they discovery themselves.
Review ======
Okay I'll admit that this film is riddled with formula. And I'll admit several key aspects are highly predictable. However, this is my favorite 1993 film to date. Granted, we aren't very far into the year, and I've only seen a half dozen or so '93 films, but this is at the top of the list. Herein I would like to outline several of the key reasons I liked the film. This will be hard to do with out giving something away, but as I said the film is somewhat predictable.
First, the story is interesting. The struggle of the two teens and the bushman against the Kalihari gets right at the core man's existence. For all their nastiness, the evil men never come close to being as menacing and dangerous as the disinterested nature. The real antagonist in this film is Mother Nature, not the poachers. Of course the poachers are some of the most despicable people I've heard about. The opening sequence to the film, where a band of poachers attacks a herd of elephants with submachine guns and then takes power saws to their tusk is one of the most horrifying images I've seen on film because it is so very real. Also the story is paced very well. The kids spend a long time in the desert, but we never get tired of desert scenes. Each is fresh and reveals new information about the characters and the environment they are moving through.
The second reason I like the film was because of the solid performances by the three leads. The first of three we meet is Nana. Reese Witherspoon is outstanding in this role of the free spirited, determined young girl. Ethan Randall's character Harry is the next we see. At first his character is stiff and uninteresting, however, over the course of the movie, as the character changes, the actor brings more and more life into him. The final major character is Habo (sp?), played by Salek Bok, the bushman who leads them into the desert. His character is probably the primary reason I liked the film. Many will find the bushman voodoo magic to be a poor plot device, but having studied the bushman some, I find it fascinating. The bushman as a people are so in tune with nature and the world around them that they see and feel things we can't. I really believe that. Their dependence on nature is complete, and they must be completely in touch with it in order to survive.
A third strong characteristic of this film is the cinematography. I'm not going to get into an in-depth analysis of camera angles and such. What matters is that the filmmaker does an excellent job of catching a very striking landscape. While this doesn't paint a portrait of the Kalihari as a vacation spot, it shows one of the last remaining areas of the world that man hasn't destroyed. Of course Mother Nature hasn't made it real hospitable for man to go to either.
The one major flaw with the film is the highly predictable poacher/bad guy story that spurs the much more interesting desert journey. In fact wrapping that story up nearly ruins the end of the film. But I guess the end was necessary for narrative closure.
In summary, I would strongly recommend this film to anyone. Small children might lose interest, but older kids should like it. Most of the kids around me seemed to be enjoying it for the most part. The poacher story line is fairly predictable, but the desert journey was simply fascinating, particularly if you are interested in non-Western cultures and ideologies.
Rating ======
Thumbs Up! **** out of ****
Added Bonus ===========
The new Roger Rabbit cartoon, "Trail Mixup," before the film was a little disappointing. The animation was excellent, particularly during the wild flying about scenes, but it just wasn't that funny. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more, if I hadn't been expecting so much.
-- David Pimmel pimmel@cs.wisc.edu
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