Van Diemen's Land
Tags: dark, murder

Plot synopsis:
This is the true Story of Alexander Pearce, an Irishman who was sentenced to forced labour on the island of Van Diemen's Land (Now Tasmania).The Film is initially about the brutality of this wild untamed wilderness for seven runaways. Van Diemen's Land appears to be a place bereft of any kind of life other than the escapees themselves. The cinematography captures a horrendously cruel wilderness.Initially on their escape from captivity, the convicts are able to sustain themselves upon small morsels of bread. After a short time, however their meagre food is totally exhausted; leading them to consider more drastic measures for their nutrition. Robert Greenhill (Played by Arthur Angel) plots to murder another of the escapees, Alexander Dalton (Mark Leonard Winter) and eat the meat from his corpse. This plan is not shared with the complete group however. The murder of Dalton is quite graphic and nothing at all is left to the imagination. On the completion of this vile act, the group - rather than rally around and agree that "needs must", become morally split. Two of the older members of the group are totally aghast at the measures that Greenhill and his lackeys are going to and they decide to make their own way, having refused to eat the new "feast" on offer.Anyway to cut a long story short - John Mathers (Torquil Neilson) is next for the chop when he starts to go mad. As the story progresses the madness intensifies and everyone remaining in the larger party becomes a target, culminating in the remaining two antagonists, Robert Greenhill and Alexander Pearce (Oscar Redding). As the film reaches its climax the coveted hatchet becomes the machine gun of its day. The wielder is the "boss" and holds sway over the other. Greenhill has the hatchet initially but the early bird catches the worm as they say and Pearce snatches it as the other man sleeps. Immediately Greenhill starts to wakefulness and blurts out - "Get it over with then" - Pearce obliges before hacking off a forearm and eating it raw.This is the end of the movie. Overall an excellent film and well made with wonderful shots of the landscape and the hardship endured. It isn't particularly one to watch with your girlfriend at Primetime on a Saturday evening though.....

Review: Despite moving at a slow pace and sometimes lacking in exposition, Van Diemen's Land is an impressive film.
The story of Alexander Pearce's escape, along with 7 other convicts is gut-wrenching, especially when we take into account it is inspired by a true story (to which extent, we may never know).
As soon as the movie begins, you are hit by jaw-dropping cinematography that definitely takes you in this very different place and time.
The movie does not rely on much dialogue and at times, suffers a little from thisThe characters are very life-like, even if they aren't sketched very clearly to start.
Not a cartoonish Hollywood-like evil but rather, the terrible things men can do and the group dynamics displayed when acts of cruelty are done.
The narration by the character Pearce did not work all that well for me, and the movie felt a tad long to me due to its slow pace but this was an uneasy viewing.
When all that Life has left you is no future, a few rags and a brutalized nature then the consequences can reach unfathomable depths.I've read some of the negative reviews for this film and can understand it when viewers who watch 'sanitized' Technicolor visions of what are classed as the 'norm'that is their benchmark and they don't like concepts that stray beyond that.
But when one has watched unglamourous brutality and emotions in such good, raw films like Saving Private Ryan, Last of the Mohicans, Apocolypta, Fateless and the superb Kokoda, then one can appreciate what this true-life film was trying to achieve.There are no heroes in this filmand no villains, just survivalists.
From the uniformed officers and men posted to what seemed a god-forsaken land, to the convicts they had control of, they all had one thing in commonthe desire not to be there!I'll not watch this film again for a couple of months as I'd like my senses to be on an even keel next time, but already I'm looking forward to it..
This is based on a true story and although I'm not to fond when movies come along with tags like that, I really liked this one.
So as you can imagine, I didn't know the true story behind this movie and if you can, don't read anything the movie or it's origin and just watch it to be surprised.
This feels like a 'Tourism Tasmania' commercial with a touch of cannibalism, truly a great combination.The movie is based on the true account of Alexander Pearce, Australia's most notorious convict, and the events that took place in 1822, as Pearce and a group of convicts escape into the Tasmanian wilderness.
The group is then left at the mercy of nature, themselves, and notably the human desire to eat.This is truly a beautiful movie, the cinematography of sweeping landscapes and rugged bushland is worth watching the rental/ticket price alone.
This is also one of the main strengths of this film, it makes you want more; I was always wondering what was going to happen next, what's that guy going to do, where are they going, what's around that corner, what does that taste like etc Ultimately this factor leaves the viewer a tad unsatisfied yet appreciative of the movie as a whole.On the Fruit-Meter, Van Demons Lands gets the "KIWI-FRUIT" - A bit grizzled and rough on the outside, but once you peel off the skin it's fresh and tasty, but it was a small fruit and I want some more.
In one scene the director focuses on a mountain top for longer than five seconds (It was long enough for the thought to enter my mind- did he hike up here with a camera and say, well I made it up here so this shot is taking up at least six seconds of this movie!)Budgetary constraints doesn't mean the film couldn't have been successful, engrossing, and in some ways this gave it an advantage over any big-budget films that may succeed it.
Whereas they would spend time on back-story, by cutting straight to the shock value of the cannibalistic 'middle part of a possible trilogy' as suggested by an earlier comment, Auf Der Heide could have given a definitive interpretation of it.
Time saved on earlier scenes could have been used to give more depth to the inter-group dynamics, leaving the viewer wondering 'who would be voted off next', in a Survivor-like scenario.
If you're making a film like this with a low budget, the focus has to be more on the human aspects of the group.
How could it have better elicited tension and emotions?· Fleeing the prison- dialogue about having to escape the deadly conditions would have helped us see the need for escape· The decision to resort to cannibalism- the portrayal of how the resources diminish isn't done in a way that builds tension, it's merely documented.
· There was no moment of catharsis where he reaches the village and is 'saved', if a man can be saved after what he has been through.Ultimately it's a poor script that failed to bring out the potential of the subject matter or to deliver any character I would either remember (the Alexander Pearce of my memory is the one whose character was explored in the documentary I saw) or whose survival I actually cared about even in the closing scenes of such dramatic potential..
The actual events of what happened after Alexander Pearce's first escape from the prison colony in Tasmania, according to Pearce himself, are shown in this movie.
The cinematography showing the Tasmanian wilderness is visually splendid.Do not expect a typical slasher/horror film, this movie is much more intelligently written and directed.
It is a good opportunity to know the history by watching this film, and to think about what action we would take if we were in that position, deeply review ourselves..
Went to watch a movie with my mrs and as you do look for hours to find a good one except this was a complete scheissehouse of a thing.....
A horrifying tale of murder and cannibalism in Van Diemen's Land.
File it away for future reference, because this young Tasmanian director has chosen for his first feature film a story so dark and grim, a tale so horrific, that you will want to keep a 'watching brief' on his career to see what he follows Van Diemen's Land up with.The film first saw light in an early short as Jonathan's Victorian College of the Arts graduation film called, Hell's Gates, which went on to be named Best Student Film at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2008.Van Diemen's Land, as every adult Australian would know, is the first name given to Tasmania by British authorities during the early years of white settlement.
A dreaded penal colony, with a fearsome reputation, Van Diemen's Land saw more than its share of horror and barbarism meted out to the convicts unlucky enough to end up there.This film, set in 1882, tells the 'true' story of eight convicts who escape from a working party and head out across the Tasmanian wilderness in search of Macquarie Harbour (the Hell's Gates in the title of the original short), where they believe a ship will be waiting to carry them away from the island.One of the escapees is Alexander Pearce, a Gaelic speaking Irishman.
Pearce, was in fact, the only convict to survive the harrowing trek across Tasmania's wild mountainous peaks and valleys, and following his recapture, told a horrifying tale of murder and cannibalism that still echoes and shocks more than a hundred years after the original events took place.Filmed entirely on location in Tasmania and Victoria's Otway Ranges, the film has a dark foreboding quality about it that doesn't let up across its entire 100 minute length.
The air is constantly heavy with rain and damp, and one can only imagine what these convicts from England, Scotland and Ireland must have thought as they set out on foot to cross one of the harshest and most forbidding environments on earth.The film is hauntingly narrated by Pearce, who peppers his comments with poetical insights into the human psyche that are often as shocking as they are profound."I've looked up at God looking down", intones Pearce in his native Gaelic, "He dances with an axe in his hand." Or this: "Let God have his Heaven.
Although it felt like a rewarding experience, Van Diemen's Land is not what you would call an easy watch.
The score is haunting, and the film is beautifully shot, with bleached-out greens emphasizing the unforgiving nature of their surroundings and predicament.The trailer gives a good indication of what to expect, including two of the more iconic sequences that stayed with me long afterwards – one scene where the group are running time-lapsed and ghost-like through the forest trying to escape their pursuers, the other the shockingly swift brutality with which the second inmate on the menu meets his maker.
Elsewhere, we experience the messy and protracted depiction of how hard it is to kill a man, and as the numbers dwindle whilst the tension and paranoia mounts, individual camp fires become the order of the night, as the lengths men would go to survive become increasingly desperate.On the downside, I struggled to hear some of the heavily-accented dialogue (especially when the speaker was off screen), and it was hard to believe that there were no other nutritious animals in a rainforest, bar a solitary snake.
Van Diemen's Land is a beautiful film to behold but a lot more work was needed on the screenplay..
In 1882, several convicts escaped custody to brave the harsh conditions of Van Diemen's Land in Tasmania.
One of the escapees throughout the film is based on the real life convict Alexander Pearce (Oscar Redding).
Much of the tension throughout the film is derived from each man knowing that he is at risk of being the next person to be killed.The first feature film from director Jonathan Auf Der Heide is a great technical achievement.
The cinematography throughout Van Diemen's Land contains some of the most beautiful shots you are likely to see this year.
Heide previously made the short film Hell's Gate, which shared the same story about Pearce and his escape, and also starred Oscar Redding.
The performances throughout the film are solid with sporadic dialogue, but we needed to get to know these characters well so that we could care about their struggle more.Perhaps one of the most fascinating elements that can be taken indirectly from the cannibalism is the subversion of the Australian archetype of mateship.
The film's most damning death occurs before a blow is landed, as a convict is bitten by a snake, inevitably suggesting that he will not be able to continue and will have to be slaughtered.Van Diemen's Land is a beautiful film to behold but a lot more work was needed on the screenplay.
Like another film based on a true story from Australia - Snowtown - this is a grim telling of a very unpleasant tale.
The palette of the movie is gritty and washed out with a persevering lack of hope, and just in case you were in doubt the musical score reflects the vast and dark land.
As a horror genre fan no horror movie is anywhere near as horrific and haunting as I found this one, because it's a real story about a terrible thing.
"Wasn't the devil in you when you brought me here?"'Van Diemen's Land' opens up a window into the darker chapters of Australia's convict settlement past, when the British penal colony was a harsh, unforgiving wilderness populated by struggling pioneers and convicts sent to the other side of the earth for stealing so much as a loaf of bread.
In 'Van Diemen's Land', we join the convicts on the day of their escape attempt and follow the grizzly events that ensue.The story of Alexander Pearce is perhaps not unsurprisingly missing from the school curriculum in Australia, and it was only through this film that I myself became familiar with this dark chapter of White Australia.
'Van Diemen's Land' inspired me to fire up my browser and learn more, with the realisation that in movie terms, I was watching the middle part of a trilogy.
Director and co-writer Jonathan auf der Heide, however, appears to be fixated upon the middle part of the story, and while the moment when Pearce acquired a taste for human flesh strikes an undeniable discord with all but perhaps the Korowai tribe of Papua New Guinea, I can't help feeling that it's a little like telling the tale of Ned Kelly focusing only on the killings at Stringybark Creek.
Oscar Redding, perhaps the best-known, creates an Alexander Pearce just possibly capable of redemption, up until the moment he agrees to sacrifice a member of the party for food, while Arthur Angel portrays a Robert Greenhill you wouldn't want to be within twenty miles of when it came time to sleep.
Filmed on location in south-central Tasmania, the authentic natural backdrop does much on its own to sell the concept that the escapees are not only at the end of the earth as they themselves suggest, but that the land is cold and unforgiving - just as much today as it was in 1822.
If I have issues with the film, therefore, it's the storyline.By focusing purely upon the escape attempt and the descent into cannibalism, the tale feels reduced somewhat into a B-grade exploitation horror.
There is far more to the Alexander Drake story than we are witness to in 'Van Diemen's Land'.
Certainly any proud Australian and film fan should see 'Van Diemen's Land' for this purpose, and genre fans everywhere will appreciate what it does achieve.
I didn't know much about the story apart from the setting and that there was some cannibalism involved.Contrary to what IMDb says about "Australia's most notorious convict", I have lived in Australia for 20 years and had never heard of the main protagonist.
I only wish that I had had the opportunity to display subtitles for the English as well as the Gaelic as some of the phraseology and accents were hard to catch.There was a scene in the second half where the picture quality deteriorated for a minute or two but that may have been down to a bottleneck in the bandwidth.I was in two minds as the credits rolled about the beginning and end of the film.
We can only wonder grimly how we too might act in similar straits.It's a film that shows a rare side of humanity, an unexplored piece of history and features some excellent music, cinematography, acting and an intelligent, believable script.
It's a simple story which makes it difficult to adapt to a feature length film, and this attempt fails dismally.It is an incredibly dull and flat movie.
Making a film set 200 years ago, about a group of escaped convicts in a remote part of the world, and who end up turning to cannibalism is not an easy task, quite obviously.
That this film succeeds to the degree it does is a testament to the people behind it.There must have been a lot of time spent by the writers and director trying to work out the right approach for Alexander Pearce.
This was a man transported to the colonies for the theft of six pairs of shoes, not any type of violent act.The need to eat your fellow escapees would have been a slow dawn of horror, and that is captured quite nicely here as these uneducated men stumble off into a world they knew nothing about.
The acting is good as well, and the use of Gaelic for the occasional introspection of Pearce helps to prompt the viewer to think of just how someone can end up so far from home, and in such a horrific situation.Unfortunately there are a few stumbles as well, forgivable as this is the director's first feature.
To be fair, though, the depiction of cannibalism as the inevitable outcome of tackling this terrain with limited supplies is the main story, and given the limited budget of the film they were probably wise to focus on that aspect exclusively.All up, congratulations to the filmmakers for tackling such a tough subject and making it watchable.
The film is not easy to stomach (pun intended!) but you cannot watch it and not be affected, and is that not the aim of any movie?
But this film makes you think about your own response to landing in such an awful situation as these men.
And why is this story worthwhile a whole feature film?
If people are without food for a prolonged time they actually loose weight, and the characters as portrayed in Van Diemen's Land, although made to look somewhat dirty, seemed as healthy as anyone can be!
So, I recommend passing this movie unless you like watching people bashing in each other's brains for no particular reason whatsoever.
Auf Der Heide has crafted the best of all the Pearse projects- stark and uncompromising, the film doesn't shy away from the brutal fates the eight convicts escaping into the Tasmanian outback suffered- the men butchered for meat don't die quick and easy, as in many a Hollywood film.
It is a difficult and uncomfortable story to tell, but nonetheless a story well worth telling, and in my opinion, well told.I thought the actors we well chosen and played their characters descent into madness with frightening realism.The director was clever enough to shy away from gratuitous gore, but still managed to tell a very convincing horror story.I am 40 years old, and watched this with my wife and the in laws who are both in their sixties.My wife and I both liked the movie, but the in-laws disliked it.