Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

barry benefield i happened on this movie today on turner classic movies. i love a good 40's era black and white 'family' movie with a plot which this is. i did enjoy it. the movie is also surprising for it's use of an aboriginal actor neza saunders. the flick uses aboriginal 'nature knowledge' a bit more satisfactorily than American treatment of indians like tonto. still i can't get used to the use of the term 'blacks'. the term does not carry the respect that is used now for American blacks. it is insulting and degrading. i also note that the only review of the film repeats the term and that the IMDb quick intro/summary lists the other four children by name but not neza saunders one newspaper story about the film tells the story of the filming and the actors including a story about neza falling from his horse when it wouldn't jump like the others. i am currently doing research about neza saunders who apparently died this summer. i would be happy to make anything i find including urls available to anyone requesting them.

MartinHafer Today, I saw Leonard Maltin on TV talking about his recommendations for new DVDs. One of these was "Bush Christmas"--and he said it was a nice family film. So, I decided to check out the film--especially since it currently is streaming on Netflix. After watching it, however, I found I wasn't nearly as positive in my opinion on the film and didn't exactly love the picture.The film is set in the Mara-Mara region of Australia--a desolate place which is being use for ranch land by locals. It seems that there is a problem there with rustlers and the problem is dealt with by the local kids instead of their parents! It seems they've seen the rustlers and the parents don't believe them. So, they set out to stop the crooks themselves--and use their brains to defeat the thieves again and again.There are some things to like about the film--such as its very sympathetic treatment of aboriginals. One of the kids in the film is an aboriginal and he's treated by the others like an equal--and he is VERY helpful during their tracking of the thieves. But the film suffers a bit from some unnecessary narration as well as a cliché I hate--you know, that kids are somehow smarter than their parents. In 1947 it must have been pretty novel--in the 1980s it was a stupid epidemic in films and on TV. All in all, a passable film but one I certainly did not love. Not bad--just not all that good either.

MARIO GAUCI This pleasant kiddie flick has the benefit of being located in the relatively unusual Australian outback despite its Christmas period setting; as everyone knows, Australian Christmases are hot summery ones rather than marked by the cold weather which is so intrinsic to the Christmas spirit for the rest of the world. Although I've become familiar with a handful of Australian movies in fairly recent years, this is undoubtedly the oldest one I've watched so far – although, technically, this is a British-Australian co-production. For the record, the film was quite popular on its home turf and was, in fact, remade much later in 1983 with a young Nicole Kidman featured in the cast! Anyway, writer-director Ralph Smart had a hand in concocting several earlier, notable British comedies – ALF'S BUTTON AFLOAT (1938), CONVICT 99 (1938), etc. – and later went into TV where he dealt with such heroic figures as William Tell and Robin Hood; indeed, BUSH Christmas adequately displays his light touch and sense of adventure which makes for a decent, low-key entertainment which passes the time amiably enough. The unassuming plot has to do with a group of young children (including a bungling, bespectacled Briton and a half-Aborigine tracker) falling foul of three horse thieves (one of whom is played by popular Australian actor Chips Rafferty).

bkoganbing I'm sure that the producers of both the Home Alone movies and the Spy Kids films must have seen this one at some point in time. Bush Christmas combines good elements of both those film series and has innate charm of its own.Australia where they never dream about a White Christmas serves as the backdrop for the kid's adventure. Children are on a quest for stolen horses after encountering the thieves Good location photography out in the outback really sets the tone for the kids. No crazy special effects, but the Australian background accents the danger of the kids search. I wish this original version had been done in color, but that was all, but unknown in the nascent Australian film industry.I like the kids here because they are real. When you watch something like Home Alone or Spy Kids you can't forget you're seeing Hollywood personalities no matter how talented they are. These Aussie kids are real and charming.Finally to recommend this film is the presence of the first real star who worked and developed the Australian cinema. Chips Rafferty plays Long Bill, one of the horse thieves and even though he's the bad guy, he's a likable cuss as he is in all his films.At 6'5" Chips is kind of hard to miss and he doesn't exactly have matinée idol looks. But whenever I do see him, I think he represents Australia the same way Maurice Chevalier became an international Frenchman or Harry Lauder is the quintessential Scot. He's tough, he's funny and he had to be the inspiration for Crocidile Dundee. He never gave a bad performance in anything he ever did.This one is recommended for Australians wherever they might be on this old globe of our's.