Snowtown (2011 film)

Category: Violent murder/psychological drama/biopic

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Oh fucking hell. What a movie. 

Snowtown is as depressing as it is disturbing as it is hard-hitting as it is well-crafted as it is based on true events. And to me, it's made all the more impactful by the fact that I lived and worked only a handful of miles from where all this was happening!

In case you're not familiar, the name Snowtown refers to the small rural town approximately 100km north of the capital of the state of South Australia where four men, led by John Bunting, stored the remains of some of their murder victims in a former bank vault in the town at the time the four were arrested and their murder spree was ended in late 1999. Thus, Snowtown is synonymous with the string of murders committed by the four. 

Having said that, this movie is not a documentary - for all intents and purposes, this movie is a retelling of the Snowtown murders, but with details changed. For staters, the suburb where the perpetrators lived is changed, as well as some other things.

The long and short of the movie is that the teenaged Jamie (played by Lucas Pittaway) lives in social housing in a working class northern suburb of Adelaide along with his mother and half-brother. They eventually become involved with John (Daniel Henshall), a charismatic and manipulative man with a violent streak who becomes a father-figure to Jamie. Little does Jamie know that John has a habit of murdering people whom he despises, and the movie then plays out Jamie getting sucked in to John's orbit of murder and body disposal, with the last scene of the movie being an unwitting victim walking into a bank vault, the door slamming shut fading to a black screen describing the arrest of the four perpetrators.

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So with the plot out of the way, let me say it - Justin Kurzel is a hell of a film maker. His movies and their subjects may not be to your taste (he also directed Nitram, which will be its own review in good time), but you cannot deny his talent. Two thumbs up. Three thumbs up if I had three.

Numerous things in the movie stuck out for me:

The cinematography:

I simply loved the way a lot of the shots were placed and put together. One of the best examples that comes to mind is the scene where John teaches Jamie how to ride a motorcycle out in the open plains of outer-suburban Adelaide - the use of framing complements the mesmerising soundtrack. It really gives the impression of how Jamie feels impressed upon by John.

There is also a scene where John assaults Jamie in a car on a grey and gloomy day. The close-up shots of John assaulting Jamie in close quarters, the empty and impoverished Adelaide street, the grey and depressing skies. It's brilliant stuff!

The location/setting:

Both the setting of the movie and the murders is the northern suburbs of Adelaide, noted for being a lower socio-economic area entrenched in intergenerational welfare dependence and whose landscape is marked by suburbs full of social housing. As someone who grew up and worked not too far from where all this happened, so I can tell you that Kurzel has captured the aura of depression and despair of this area brilliantly. So much so that I felt instantly transported back to some memories of my childhood.

The church scene.

There is a scene in the movie where Elizabeth (James' mother, played by Louise Harris) attends a church service. The scene itself is relatively short, but having been an avid church-attender in a previous life, there is a certain characteristic that Kurzel has captured brilliantly (again). The type of church that Elizabeth attends is a small start-up that holds services in low-key environments such as school gyms or community halls and that appeal to people who don't want high-brow theology or ceremony. I used to be in this type of church, pastored by the same kind of pastor that is in this film, and I felt a cringe flashback watching this.

The rape scene.

There is a scene in the movie where James is raped by his half-brother, Troy (Anthony Groves). It's distressing viewing, and I can only congratulate all of those involved for portraying such a horrible act in a professional manner.

To add a touch of nostalgia, there is television commentary of the cricket playing in the background which adds a hauntingly mundane soundtrack to such a despicable and life-changing thing.

The nude photograph scene.

If I was to make one criticism of this movie, it would be the inclusion of the scene where John manipulates an overweight woman into undressing for him. I get that you would include this scene for the purpose of showing how far John's manipulation can go, but given that we already saw for ourselves with John's manipulation of Jamie and the others, I felt this was unnecessary and actually clashed with the rest of the film. The film is moody and depressing and scary, but then all of a sudden, here are these two people in a well-lit and well-furnished loungeroom doing something absolutely non-violent!

To me, Kurzel has already made this movie impactful without the need for nudity.

Aspects of the film aside, I did also want to address the fact that Kurzel attracted controversy by making this film, be it because of the subject matter or that the perpetrators of these crimes are still alive or that this movie has been described as "torture porn". I'll agree in that this movie is not for the faint-hearted. It's hard-hitting. You'll probably need to watch a kids cartoon afterwards to balance things out. But personally, I didn't feel like Kurzel made this film just to be a sicko who likes shocking people - he made it to honestly tell a sad story about real events that happened to real people and how it was allowed to happen.

To which I'll ask the question - when are we allowed to make movies after a dramatic event? Two years? Five years? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? Just for comparison, the 2012 movie Zero Dark Thirty was about the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden that took place in...2011. Too soon?

STAR RATING: 4.75/5