The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

Plot synopsis:
Jimmie Blacksmith, a half-caste child of an Aboriginal mother and a white father, is raised to adulthood by the Reverend Neville and his wife Martha, hoping their influence will civilize him and provide him greater opportunities in early twentieth century Australia. With a letter of recommendation from his foster family, he goes out in search of work to establish himself, but is taken advantage of by multiple parties. His first employer, Healey, repeatedly shortchanges his pay by nitpicking his fencebuilding work, and refuses to write a job recommendation to avoid admitting he himself is illiterate. Jimmie then works for a local constable, Farrell, who uses him as muscle against other local Aboriginals, including capturing a former friend who is later molested and murdered while in custody, and forced to cover up the death. Jimmie finds some stability working on the farm of the Newby family, who still treat him little better than other employers, and decides to summon and marry a white girlfriend, Gilda Marshall, who is already very pregnant when she arrives to move in with him. Gilda later gives birth to a white child, obviously not fathered by Jimmie; while upset at the public embarrassment, he eagerly embraces being a parent.
Shortly after the birth, Jimmie's full-caste brother Mort and uncle Tabidgi come to the Newby property, and Jimmie enlists their help in his fence-building work. However, Mr. Newby uses their presence as an excuse to deny Jimmie his pay and needed provisions, claiming the extra men were not part of their arrangement. Meanwhile, Mrs. Newby and a schoolteacher friend Miss Graf try to convince Gilda to take her baby and leave Jimmie for a teaching opportunity in another part of the country, which Gilda refuses. Furious at the mistreatment his family is facing, Jimmie enlists Tabidgi to help put a "scare" into the Newby women while the men are away, planning to threaten them with hatchets. This suddenly and brutally turns into a rampage that leaves Mrs. Newby, Miss Graf, and all the Newby daughters but one infant dead. Jimmie's family flee the compound, and shortly after Tabidgi, Gilda, and the child are left behind as Jimmie and Mort continue on the run. They soon murder Jimmie's previous employer Healey as well, with Jimmie announcing that he has declared war, in the manner he once heard the fighting against the Boers described. As press coverage about Jimmie's killings become nationwide news, a reporter makes regular probing inquiries to his butcher, whom he is aware doubles as the city's hangman for the police, about what may take place when Jimmie is captured. Tabidgi, since captured and sentenced to death for accessory to murder, tells the convicting court that the decision to kill was not part of the plan and came to them on impulse.
Still uncaptured, Jimmie and Mort come upon a schoolteacher, McCready, who they initially wound by gunfire; he convinces them not to kill him by showing them a newspaper article about their national notoriety. They decide to take him as a hostage instead and take him from his home. As the brothers argue about the morality of their crimes of killing women and children, McCready makes bitterly humorous observations about the influence of white people on the native Aboriginies. He convinces Jimmie to go on alone and abandon Mort by indicating that Mort's soul has had none of Jimmie's detrimental white influences. Mort in turn takes McCready to a farm to recover, but is killed by a hunting party led by the Newby males and Miss Graf's fiancee Dowie Steed. Jimmie himself is shot at in a lake, but manages to crudely tend to his wounds and hide out in a convent for a night. He is found the next morning and taken by police, who vainly try to prevent townspeople from beating him as they take him to jail. In the final scene, Jimmie is read the last rites by Rev. Neville in his cell, as the butcher/hangman from earlier observes them, and declares that despite the (perceived) unique physical characteristics of Jimmie, his hanging will likely go as normal as any other.

Tags: tragedy, violence, murder

Review:
This is a fine example of the breed of excellent Australian films released in the 1970s during the Australian film renaissance (it's interesting to note that virtually all of the directors of these films, including director Fred Schepisi, later moved to the U.S. to make big budget Hollywood films).
This tale of a young aboriginal man who eventually turns to violence following one humiliation after another by white settlers in 19th century Australia asks some very uncomfortable questions of the audience such as: Is it morally justified to use violence against a corrupt, racist, violent system in which there are no lawful means to receive justice?
Additionally, it is up to interpretation whether the violent reactions of the title character are justified: we are clearly sympathetic to him in the beginning, but once he perpetuates incredible brutality on the settlers, can we remain sympathetic?
The U.S. has been asking itself these exact same questions for the past 50 years: Jimmy is very much a close Australian cousin to Bigger Thomas, the main character in Richard Wright's classic American novel "Native Son" - a black man pushed to violence by virtually every aspect of white society.However, like Wright, I admired director Schepisi's decision to carefully straddle the line between whether Jimmy can be viewed as a simple societal construct or whether he is a man in control of his own actions.
That makes the movie even more uncomfortable when one thinks about it afterward.In many ways, this is a very depressing movie; in the end there is no closure, no justice, and nobody has learned a damned thing, except possibly the audience, if they truly think about what they have just seen.
This is a film definitely deserving of a U.S. audience.
Too bad that its controversial (i.e. thought-provoking) nature has probably prevented it from being released on VHS or DVD in the U.S. I understand copies of this are quite rare abroad, as well, so I suggest viewing it if given the opportunity..
The Best Australian Film?.
Fred Schepisi's 1978 film may well be just that but it's not included in my Australian Cinema 12 disc boxed set and I've never known it to be on TV, here.
I became aware of it through my old film 'bible' Halliwells and they rated it very highly, awarding a rare maximum score, citing it as 'one of the greatest achievements in Australian cinema'.It's taken me a good number of years to finally find a copy that was on region of DVD I could play and wasn't a silly price.The first thing you notice is the sheer authenticity.
The language used to describe the aboriginal natives is as coarse and racist as you'll find in any gritty 70's set LA cop show and for that it is both upsetting and rather embarrassing, but at least goes to show the leaps and bounds humankind has largely made on this issue, since.Jimmie Blacksmith is a half-cast, a subject that has been visited in a few memorable films, particularly 'Rabbit Proof Fence' and as 'these' were often the result of rape against white women, were seen as worse than the lowest.
Jimmie (superbly played by Tommy Lewis) does have an advantage, he's overseen by the local white vicar and is known as a hard and honest worker.He soon goes on to work for white farmers, along with his fully aboriginal brother, erecting fences.
He does too good a job and they don't want to pay, so he moves on.
His relationship with a white girl, then marriage results in a child, that by colour alone, cannot be his.
Then, around half-way in, all this pent-up anger boiling up inside the civilised and decent Jimmie erupts.
This is when the violence (extreme in its day, now, maybe sadly, average) erupts as he goes on a vengeful killing spree.I need not go further than this, except that obviously, he is then a wanted criminal and a fugitive on the run.There's a real sense of the epic, with cinematic hints and nods to Nicolas Roeg's 'Walkabout', with the natural geography, fauna and the culture all vividly brought to life, superbly filmed by Ian Baker .Thankfully - hopefully, this can now be seen as a historical drama, the like of which can never happen again.
It is as hard-hitting and making as powerful a statement on in-bred racism there is and is without doubt a five star classic..
Thomas Keneally's THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH novel works on so many levels - a period piece, as a biting satire and as a wonderfully composed drama.
This film of the same name attempts to capture the poignancy and strength of the original classic novel.
The film is excellently acted and the violence is both well shot and vibrantly enacted.
Also the Australian landscape - not to mention its social underbelly, was never shot with as much insight.An excellent starting point to understand such great Aussie films like the tracker and rabbit proof fence.10/10.
This film from 1978 as directed by Fred Schipisi of SIX DEGREES fame and of Thomas Keneally's book - he wrote SCHINDLER'S LIST - is a grim and disturbing depiction set during colonial 19th century Australia of a young Aboriginal man's descent into frustrated violence against his white English landowner masters.
It becomes a really brutal film with explicit axe murders, especially against young girls and older women, and it is this visually distressing depiction that ultimately alienated the cinema audience.
Jimmy's humiliation and cruel treatment is equally explicit and it is a relentless string of unhappy experiences by his inhumane 'boss' that ultimately causes him to crack - and hack.
As a novel it is all in the mind of the reader but as a cinemascope color film, the 'running amok with an axe' sequences make any crowd want to run from the cinema.
It was not seen on TV in Australia for almost 20 years and it is not likely to be either without most of the violence cut out, thus blunting the heavy handed message and the ultimate impact.
Like poor Jimmy himself, the film version is in no man's land either.
Past all that, it is a well made film and with an excellent cast; but very tough going.
It fits well into a series of very sharply observed Australian films depicting the British colonial mind and its misunderstanding or cruelty towards Aboriginies: JEDDA in 1956, WALKABOUT in 1970, this film in 1978, RABBIT PROOF FENCE in 2001 and THE TRACKER in 2003.
It is a head-shaking but enlightening string of films, especially if seen in chronological order....like we all did!
Politically driven film with few positive elements.
If you're the sort of person who enjoys being depressed, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is the film for you.
Young half aboriginal/half white boy is raised by a white Christian family.
As he goes off to find a job, he discovers that every white person in the world is actually a racist.
He tries to get over this fact by trying to lose his 'black soul', and become more like a white man.
He goes and chops up a couple of women and young girls with an axe.
Well it gets better anyway, but I won't give away the whole plot in case you actually want to watch the movie.
It is true that Aborigines were generally considered inferior at the time, and that there was some racism going on.
But this film ruthlessly exaggerates it to prove a point, which appears to be that white society is a corrupter of black people.
Leaving aside the negative storyline and the political point-scoring, however, the acting is fairly decent, and score is alright too.
introspective film that many people miss..
Many miss the point...."he's half white." This film explore what structural racism produces, especially in that individual that seems to have the chance of crossing lines.
This is the point of the film.
It is the potential from the "half breed" that contextualizes the journey to where is own people/ family see him as a devil.
This film is moving on many levels and provides a glimpse into a history foreign to many.
A passionately hard-hitting Australian film!.
In Australia at the turn of the 19th century a part aboriginal man Jimmie, is torn between two different cultures.
One being the traditions of his people and the other is adopting the white customs.
Though, the racism he confronts from his white employers, he finds it unbearable trying to fit in and commits a massacre on a white family.This is an adaptation of Thomas Kelly's stimulating novel of the same title.
Director Fred Schepisi vision of the story is totally stunning in capturing the detail of the Australian landscape and the friction between two cultures, with such confronting and stirring context and some downright absorbing and strong performances.The look of the film is incredibly impressive.
The film is tremendously well shot, with it holding such a noble aurora.
The main leads were excellent and potent in their roles, especially the marvellous Tommy Lewis as Jimmie Blacksmith.
As well there were some effective supporting roles from some well known Australian faces.The violence is brutal; it comes across as uncomfortable to view at times.
Especially the scene involving Jimmie in a fist of rage hacking up some young white girls as the injured mother watches.
The violence is supposed to be shocking and it comes across as truly powerful in evoking the tension of racism that is fuelled between the Europeans and Aboriginals.
The racism is so vivid and it has some fairly shattering dialogue and scenes of confrontations.
The drama is a very heated one, especially the further along the film goes.
Though, it doesn't try to twist the side of things giving each their own good and bad traits of the two cultures.
We feel sympathy for Jimmie because of his treatment, but not pity because of what he has done, but he has become.The tone of the story is fairly bleak, explicit and uneasy.
Though, the emotional effect is never pushed onto you or forced in any way.
Jimmie is caught between the two ways of life, as he was brought up in his childhood through a white European couple.
While, he has a stint in doing white customs and achieving his dreams of a job, marriage and own house, but still his treated real badly and at times humiliated by his bosses, in a society that he will never be accepted in.
This causes the down ward spiral for Jimmie, as he can't take any more of it.Like some fellow users had typed, this is one depressing film that will stir up some emotion towards the material and characters.
(Spoilers) Jimmy Blacksmith is a young, half-caste Australian Aborigine who has been raised into adulthood by an English minister and his wife.
To show concern for the Aborigines the minister is intent on "imbuing one with decent ambition." Being half white gives Jimmy an entry into the minister's world, the thinking being that the white half of him might allow him to turn out acceptably well.
Jimmy goes along with the thought and tries to fit into the white world, the outcome being that he is tragically caught between two cultures.
The minister, seeing that Jimmy has applied himself to getting an education and worked hard, sends him out into the world with a letter of reference.
Jimmy takes on fence building at a couple of farms and both times he is given less compensation than agreed on and then given the boot.
Finally Jimmy winds up working on a sheep ranch.The movie is well paced in that with each indignation Jimmy suffers we see his change in attitude from eagerly trying to join the dominate culture to resenting the abuse he suffers because of his race.
The fuse was set and a sequence of events at the ranch results in a spontaneous explosion of violence.
True, they have bought into an evil doctrine, but how many people are independent thinkers enough to buck societal norms?After the killings Jimmy goes on the lam with his brother Mort.
The second half of the film deals with tracking them down.
And that is not easy, since Jimmy and Mort are skilled at moving about the countryside, being able to move fast and cover their tracks.
As a late attempt to stave off the massive search effort Mort and Jimmy take a hostage, a school teacher.
He comments to Jimmy and Mort, "You can't say we haven't given you anything.
A whole host of improvements."The acting is solid, especially considering that playing Jimmy was Tommy Lewis' first screen appearance.
The cinematography is noteworthy, with the Australian countryside being used to great effect.Being an American, English subtitles would have helped me.This is based on real events in the life of one Jimmy Governor.
Any fictionalized version of real events is always a bit suspect, but this movie has the feeling of authenticity.
I hope that is the case, since the movie deals with topics of such gravity that it would be a sin to rewrite the history to any great extent..
American viewers who expect an old-fashioned story about race in which the minority is treacherous and the white guys are mostly honorable -- "The Birth of a Nation" with African-Americans or "Stagecoach" for Indians -- will be disappointed.
So will those looking for a more politically correct story about white arrogance and noble savages -- "Tell Them Will Boy Was Here" or "In The Heat Of the Night".Instead they'll get something more along the lines of William Faulkner's more mature stories, in which race place a central part and there is a history of injustice, but people are people.I don't think I want to get into the plot too much.
Jimmy Blacksmith is a handsome, cheerful young man, half white and half Australian Aborigine, industrious and polite.
When he leaves the family of the Methodist minister who raised him, he runs into racism in forms that are both petty and materially important.Without much adumbration, there is an explosion of violence involving axe murders and shootings of men, women, and children.
Jimmy feels insulted beyond endurance and finds retribution in murder.
But as I write this, a week ago, a twenty-two year old American, went on a killing spree that left seven dead and thirteen wounded.
He looked and acted normal, but left behind a long list of complaints about having been mistreated by others and having his importunings turned down by attractive women.Are people like Jimmy Blacksmith and Elliott Rodgers driven to madness by their mistreatment?
The film is a reflection of its time.
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.
I found this Australian film listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before Die, like many of the others titles featured, I knew nothing about what to expect, but with good ratings I was looking forward to it, directed by Fred Schepisi (Roxanne, The Russia House, Six Degrees of Separation, Fierce Creatures).
Basically set in early twentieth century Australia, Jimmie Blacksmith (Tommy Lewis) is a half-caste young man, child of an Aboriginal mother and a white father, raised by Reverand Neville (Jack Thompson) and his wife Martha (Julie Dawson).
With a letter of recommendation from his foster family, Jimmie searches for work and hopes to establish himself, but he faces prejudice and people taking advantage, including his first employer Healey (Tim Robertson) while he is fence building, and his second employer, local constable Farrell (Ray Barrett).
Jimmie finds some stability working for the Newby family on their farm, but they treat little better than previous employment, then he meets and marries white girlfriend Gilda Marshall (Angela Punch McGregor), who is already heavily pregnant, she gives birth to a white child, he is upset by the public embarrassment, but Jimmie embraces being a parent.
Shortly after the birth, Jimmie's full-caste brother Mort (Freddy Reynolds) and uncle Tabidgi (Steve Dodd) come to the Newby property, Jimmie enlists them to help with fence building, but Mr. Newby uses their presence as an excuse not to provide Jimmie with provisions and pay, meanwhile Gilda refuses a teaching opportunity suggested by schoolteacher friend Petra Graf (Elizabeth Alexander).
Furious by his family's mistreatment, Jimmie enlists Tabidgi to help him "scare" the Newby women, threatening them with hatchets, but this suddenly turns into a rampage that leaves Mrs. Newby, Miss Graf, and all the Newby daughters but one infant dead.
Jimmy's family are forced to flee, Tabidgi, Gilda, and the child are left behind, while Jimmie and Mort continue to run, they next murder Healey, Jimmie announces he has declared war against all that have wronged him.
Soon Jimmie's killings are covered by the press and becomes national news, a reporter questions the butcher, who also doubles as the city's hangman for the police, what may happen to Jimmie when he is caught, Tabidgi is captured and sentenced to death for accessory to murder, he tells that the killing was not part of the plan.
Jimmie and Mort still uncaptured come upon schoolteacher McCready (Peter Carroll), they wound him by gunfire, he convinces them not to kill him, instead they take him hostage, the brothers argue about the morality of their crimes, specifically killing women and children, McCready mocks that white people have influence over the native Aboriginies.
McCready convinces Jimmie to go alone, Mort takes the hostage to a farm to recover, there a hunting party led by the Neby males and Miss Graf's fiancée Dowie Steed (Peter Sumner) kill Mort.
Lewis does give a compelling performance as the half-Aborigine on a war cry of ferocious rebellion, this film caused some controversy upon its release, not necessarily for its obscenity, but it was caught up in the video nasties panic, the murderous rampage is certainly the memorable material, it is slow at times, but all in all an interesting period drama.