The Nightingale (2018 film)

Category: Violent historical drama

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I previously reviewed Van Diemen's Land, a tale about British people in Tasmania doing bad things to and with each other partly fuelled by their hatred of the English, so in that same vein, I will now review another tale of British brutality in Tasmania, this time with women and indigenous people: The Nightingale.

The Nightingale is, simply put, brutal. It deserves its R-rating. It's not for the faint-hearted.

The basic premise of the story is that Clare (played with conviction and anger by Aisling Franciosci) sets out to take revenge against Lt. Hawkins (played by Sam Claflin, who you may know as either Finnick from The Hunger Games or Oswald Mosley from Peaky Blinders) the man both in charge of their convict settlement in southern Tasmania and who has the authority to grant Clare her manumission. A drunken incident involving Clare's husband ends up costing Hawkins a promotion, thus Hawkins takes brutal revenge on Clare and her family (long story short - two sexual assaults and two murders ensue) before he and his men set off on a journey to the town of Launceston to try convince his superiors to change their mind. Without any help from the remaining authorities or the townsfolk, Clare enlists an Aboriginal tracker Billy (played by Baykali Ganambarr) from outside the town to help her in her mission to chase down Hawkins and crew.

Along the way, we see a growing bond between Clare and Billy as Billy grows to understand Clare's motivation while Billy shares more of his culture and philosophy, and this is juxtaposed by Hawkins growing harshness towards the men in his care, as well as the children and indigenous women he happens across along the way.

As far as the movie itself goes, it is fantastic (as long as you can stomach graphic violence, depiction of racism, and horrific things being done to women and children). Very well crafted and shot. And if you think this is all too much, let's face facts: this was life under British colonial rule - it was violent, racist and mysoginist, and you did what you had to to survive.

Breaking the story down, there were a number of themes and story arcs I noticed running throughout this movie - firstly, revenge. The basis of the story is revenge, pure and simple. Clare has had everything she loved taken from her and wants the man responsible to feel her pain.

But what Hawkins did was a payback for what Clare's husband did to make him look incompetent infront of his CO, which ultimately cost him the promotion he was after (and consigned him to rural Tasmania for the forseeable future).

And alongside Clare and her motivation is the indigenous tracker Billy, who has his own desire for revenge against the British for the way that mistreated his people.

Related to that theme is the treatment (or should I say mistreatment) of the indigenous people - we find out that before Clare convinces Billy to assist her, Hawkins and his men have "conscripted" an elder, Charlie, as their guide to navigate the terrain to Launceston. Along the way, we see indigenous women being forcibly taken and mistreated. Then to top it off, the conversation towards the end of the film between Billy and a group of fellow indigenous people being held in chains where they inform Billy that the British have wiped out the rest of his clan/mob and that he is the last one left. And this is based on historical fact - the British grossly mistreated indigenous people, and it is only in the last 50 years or so that the Australian government (as an extension of the British Crown) have made inroads to correcting the injustices.

I do also need to mention that this plays in to the historical notion that of the genocide of Tasmanian aborigines. I will confess my ignorance on this issue - it has been said that there are no aborigines indigenous to Tasmania remaining and that any current indigenous people were brought in from outside the state; some say there was no genocide; some say that there was a genocide, but that not all the indigenous were wiped out.

Again, not a date-night movie. But if you are a student of history and love a compelling and dramatic period story, you'll love it (once you pick your jaw off the ground).

FINAL RATING: 4.5/5. Be prepared to flinch.