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Summary: Beautiful & Affecting Journey Into Past & Across a Continent
Review: In Australia prior to 1970, the law gave the "Chief Protector of the Aborigines" legal guardianship of all the Aborigine people and the power to forcibly remove half-white Aborigines from their homes and place them in schools where they would be educated in the ways of White society. In 1931, the "Chief Protector of the Aborigines" was a man named A.O. Neville (Kenneth Branaugh). "Rabbit-Proof Fence" is the story of three half-Aborigine girls whom Mr. Neville ordered removed from their mothers' care and the girls' courageous journey back home. Molly(Everlyn Sampi), who was the oldest at 14 years, her young sister Daisy (Tianna Sansbury), and their cousin Gracie (Laura Monaghan) were placed far from their home in the "Moore River Native Settlement" for their education. This is the story of the girls' 9-week journey on foot, following Australia's continent-spanning rabbit-proof fence, to try to reach their home and family in northern Australia."Rabbit-Proof Fence" is a true story, based on the book written by Molly's daughter, Doris Pilkington. This is a stunningly beautiful film in its portrayal of the Australian landscape and its native peoples. Thanks to the beautiful cinematography and the excellent performances, "Rabbit-Proof Fence" is riveting all the way through even though the story of people trudging across a continent on foot offers little variation. Everlyn Sampi gives an outstanding performance as Molly, who is responsible for the fate of her young charges for the course of their arduous journey. Molly is a young woman of few words, but she speaks volumes with her eyes and is magnetic in her ability to fix the audience's attention on the screen. The other great performance is that of Kenneth Branaugh as A.O. Neville, the cause of all the girls' -and many other Aborigines'- troubles. It would have been very easy -but inaccurate, I think- to portray Neville as a horrible power-mongering bureaucrat. With relatively few scenes or dialogue, Branaugh effectively communicates that Neville's intentions were essentially good and that he took his responsibilities seriously. That said, the film does not shy away from demonstrating that his actions were misguided and ultimately very destructive to Australia's Aborigine people and to the nation's moral fabric. Highly recommended.
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Summary: A must-see film!
Review: Rabbit-Proof Fence is an amazing movie based on a dark period in Australia's history. Half-caste children are taken from their Aborigine mothers and raised in camps, with the goal of helping them make the transition from their "primitive" lifestyle to the white world. Although the camps are not horrible, the fact that the children/families have no choice is. 3 girls defy the system and escape. Their plan is to follow the rabbit-proof fence (that's being/been built across Australia) to get back to their home - 1200 miles away! The girls range from 8 to 14 years old. They find some help along the way but it's primarily their will to get back home that gets them through. What makes this even more amazing is that it really happened! In fact, the 14 year old made the trip twice after being returned to the camp after her first successful escape. The movie avoids preaching about the wrongness of the Aborigine Act but, instead, focuses on showing the various sides of the story - the whites who honestly feel that they are helping the children, the whites along the way who help the girls even knowing that they have escaped, the Aborigine tracker who can't seem to find the girls despite his skills, and, of course, the children and families impacted. Rabbit-Proof Fence reminded me of the Railway Children in the US - another story that should be told!
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Summary: Haunting "Rabbit Proof" Impresses In Every Way
Review: In 1931, when this story occurs, Molly (Everlyn Sampi), is 14 years old, Daisy (Tianna Sansbury), is eight, and their cousin, Gracie (Laura Monaghan) is ten. At the time the Australian government is separating 'half-caste' Aborigine children from their 'degenerate' Aborigine mothers. All three girls are the daughters of an Aborigine mother and a white father, and are living in the small town of Jigalong. This forced separation is determined by the Australian Chief Protector of Aborigines, Mr Neville (Brannagh), who is compelled to save the children from their selves and exposed to the 'wonders and benefits' of white society and culture. The plan is to train these 'half-caste' children to be the domestic help for the white society, and to ultimately breed the Aborigine out of them. It is the 'Good And Christian Thing' to do. Ripped from their mothers, grandmother and auntie, they are taken to More River, twelve hundred miles away, a psuedo-orphanage, although 'concentration camp' is a term that also fits. Days or hours before they are snatched, a local tells Molly about the 1500 mile fence erected by the Australian government. The fence splits the country in two, erected to keep rodent rabbits out of arable farming land, and you can almost see Molly filing away the information in her head. After they arrive at More River, realising that they must forget their mother's language and culture, to take on a life of duty and responsibility like all 'good Christian' girls, Molly does a brave and desperate thing. She grabs her sister and cousin and takes off, heading into the general direction of Jigalong, sending the 'Chief Protector' and the 'law' into a frenzy of searching. Molly's will and the authority with which she takes up her task, provides a steel and grit required to broach the wilderness alone and unprotected. Her indomitable spirit brings all that make us human into sharp focus. She will not consent to being held, or separated from her mother and family, and she will not give up. That this story occurs against a political backdrop, allows us to juxtapose the aridity of the Australian landscape, with Molly's own journey. However, this is an internal journey for Molly, as much as an external one. Remembering and finding the rabbit proof fence, she finds it and follows it for hundreds and hundreds of miles; home is somewhere along the fence. For Molly, it is the only guide she has in the wilderness. Exhorting her younger charges, she dodges and eludes the skilled Aborigine tracker, Moodoo, and the Australian law enforcement, with wit and tenacity for the two months of the trip. She loses her cousin Gracie to betrayal and capture in the process; but pushes on, often carrying Daisy and living off what little the land provided. In "Rabbit Proof Fence", we watch and find guts to face simple challenges, in the struggle of Molly, Daisy and Gracie to face almost insurmountable challenges. That a story of courage like this one, could and does do that, should not surprise; a well told, well made story is meant to do that. That it is a true story, based on the book, "Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence" by Doris Pilkington, Molly's daughter, strikes even closer to the heart. Although it's a story told in few words, the three extraordinarily photogenic faces of the first-time actresses are haunting, long after the fade to black. Their portrayals are entirely believable and engaging. Brannagh, as the chillingly misguided Chief Protector, displays the arrogance of European colonial perceptions of superiority with skill. Gulpilil as Moodoo who although has not and will not stop seeking the girls, almost cheers whenever clever little Molly eludes him. Sampi's indefatigable Molly, never exhibits defeat only defiance and determination. All three girls are excellent, turning in performances untouched by guile or affectation. Molly's mother, played by Ningali Lawford, oozes the longing for her children with her constant watching along the line of the fence with no words, just her eyes. In a scene where she confronts the law enforcement officer who took her children away, the strength of a mother's anger is powerful and palpable, although again, no words are spoken in the scene. Peter Gabriel's soundtrack, made from adapted traditional Aboriginal music, is so haunting, as to take on it's own character in the film. The cinematography captures the sprawling Australian wilderness without overwhelming the image of these three tiny girls, walking, walking, walking.... The film allows us a view of the subtle and overt cruelty that European colonisation and racism creates, and the dogged pursuance of questionable values. The Aborigines in the story are subhuman to the colonists; as such, there is no wrong doing in their inhumanity. In fact, Mr Neville so convinces himself and his supporters of this policy, that the abduction and 're-education' of 'half-caste' children went on until the 1970s. The Australian government created what has been subsequently called, the "Stolen Generations" among the Aborigine population. The Aborigines still suffer the effects of the child stealing. Many of their children, lost to the white world, have never returned home. The film is impressive in every way; touching chords within the soul, and taking us on that internal journey that humanity faces when the inhumanity of ourselves turns back on itself. It's important because it tells the story of the suffering of the Aborigines in Australia, and exposes the hidden genocide against them. The sadness of the tale, enrages the heart of the conscious against the ignorance and self absorption of European colonisers, and the callousness with which they treat other cultures and races. It also, for this writer at least, allows one to remember the similar suffering still going on today. This story's strength is not in it's angry portrayal of injustice, but in the gritty determination of the girls not to become victims to the racist policies of invaders and usurpers. We find definitive resistance and ultimately the victory of the human heart.
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Summary: Follow the fence
Review: Rabbit-Proof Fence is a remarkable story of brutal racism and the courage of three children. Until as recently as 1970, Australia's harsh policy toward its aboriginal people allowed for the forcible capture of half-white children and their relocation in concentration-camp-like centers, for the purpose of training them to be domestic servants in white society. This film tells the true story of three such girls who escaped from the center in 1932, and walked 1500 miles back to their family. Their only marker, across the desolate desert and bush, was the world's longest fence, the "rabbit-proof fence," which eventually led them home. This story of Australia's misguided attempt to help the aborigines "in spite of themselves" has an excellent script and direction. The children, all non-actors, are wonderfully convincing and sympathetic. Kenneth Branagh has a small role as the government official who tries to recapture the girls. He is a by-the-books, no-nonsense man who believes he is really helping the people whose lives he decimates. David Gulpilil plays the aboriginal tracker who relentlessly follows the girls, and his villainous character was truly frightening. The sweeping photography of the arid outback shows just how tremendous the girls' accomplishment was. Rabbit-Proof Fence is a very sad but important story and I heartily recommend it.
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Summary: absolutely stunning
Review: One word: Incredible. I don't remember this movie getting much press when it was released, but it should have. This is a top 10 movie for 2002 in my eyes. Rabbit-Proof Fence was directed by Philip Noyce (The Quiet American) and is set in 1930's Australia. Australia had a policy regarding the Aborignal natives. A child born of an aboriginal parent and white parent was known as being half-caste. The government would not allow these children to be raised in their aboriginal families and they were taken away. Rabbit-Proof Fence follows three girls who were taken from their village and relocated 1200 miles away. Before I forget to mention it, this is a true story and is based on a book written by the daughters of one of these girls. The film follows Molly, Daisy, and Gracie: three children whose ages range from 8-14. They are ripped from the arms of their mothers (literally) and taken to the reform school more than a thousand miles away (as far away as New York is from California). The school tries to strip them of their culture. They are introduced to Christianity (as a Christian I feel the religion is true and is a good thing, but it should be a choice not forced upon somebody), can only speak English and they are introduced to an entirely new lifestyle. This is inter-cut with the director of this program giving a lecture on why the half-caste children are a real threat and why they should be taken care of and eventually have the black bred out of them. Kenneth Branagh plays this man, and while he is the villain, he honestly believes that he is doing right and that he is doing the right thing by the half-caste children. By no means is he a sympathetic character, but we see that he is misguided and mistaken instead of evil. He truly believes that the school is the best place for the children. We also see a scene of a runaway being brought back in. No runaway had ever escaped for long. Molly leads Gracie and Daisy to escape. Most of the movie is of the trek back to their home and evading the tracker (extremely skilled). They are aided at times by white and black citizens and aboriginals, some knowing exactly where these children came from. It is an incredible journey and if it wasn't a true story I'm not sure I would have believed it was possible. At the very end of the film we see a shot of Molly and Gracie as old women. They are walking together. That was a beautiful shot and even knowing that this was true, that shot makes it hit home. These are the women that escaped as children. The postscript on the screen adds to the heartbreak of the movie. I don't think I can speak enough as to how good of a movie Rabbit-Proof Fence is. It is one of the best of the year and is a movie that deserves to be seen. The more people that see this movie, it will be more likely that films like this will be made.
Rating: 
Summary: A unique, honest and emotional movie experience
Review: In the Australian Outback in the 1930s, three half caste Aboriginal girls are taken from their mothers in their hometown of Jigalong by the authorities headed by Kenneth Branagh, who wants to keep the races pure; and placed in what can only be described as a fundamentalist concentration camp.
However the girls Molly (Evelyn Sampi), Daisy (Tianna Sansbury) and Gracie (Laura Monaghan) escape and begin a long trek home by following the Rabbit-Proof Fence of the title, which is meant to divide rabbits and farmland and at 1,500 miles long is the longest fence in the world. Though it takes the white fullas tracking them half the movie to figure that out.
Directed by Phillip Noyce (CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, THE BONE COLLECTOR) and based on the book by Doris Pilkington, RABBIT-PROOF FENCE is an honest, emotionally-charged and beautifully shot film which does grow a bit tiresome at times (even given its 90 minute duration), but which still leaves the viewer affected. Features "music" by Peter Gabriel.
Special features include making of doco; commentary by Noyce, Pilkington, Gabriel, Branagh and screenwriter/ co-producer Christine Olsen; cast/crew interviews, the trailer, study guides and press releases; as well as DVD ROM features. (Note: My review refers to the 2 disc Collector's Edition).
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Summary: Rabbit Proof Fence
Review: Rabbit Proof Fence is a movie about three girls who get taken away from their mother, then are put in a boarding school. At the boarding school the girls aren't allowed to speak their native language they have to speak English, and they get whipped. So the girls decide to escape. They did escape but they had a tracker tracking them down. The girls were helped by a number of people on their 1500-mile journey across the Australian outback. Two of the girls made the journey but one of them was captured because she gave up. I think that this is a great movie the actresses that played the three girls did a really good job at making this movie very realistic especially the scene where the three girls get taken away from their mom. As well as being realistic the movie was suspenseful (like where they were being tracked by the tracker) and you never knew if they would get caught.
In conclusion I think this movie is one that you should definitely watch. The acting, the music, and story are all great. The documentary after the movie is cool because it shows you how they turned those girls into great actresses.
Rating: 
Summary: Rabbit Proof Fence
Review: A movie about three Aborigines girls. They were tookin by a messed up government. And were put in a bording school. The three Aborigine girls scaped from the bording school. And walked 1500 miles across the desert following the longest rabbit proof fence in Australia just to go home. The Aborigine tracker tracks down the three girls.
This movie is great. It is exiting. Its not really my kind of movie but it made me think a lot of what the Aborigines went through. If you come across this movie at least watch it before you judge it. I am a young viewer and I didn't think I would like it. But after I saw the movie there was lots of things I like and some things I disliked. But mostly, I liked the movie.
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Summary: A very touching biographical movie
Review: Rabbit-Proof Fence is a true and real life biography of a girl being snapped away from her mother because she is a half-caste - offspring of a white man and an aboriginal woman. The movie has a very detail description of the intention of the Whilte Australians in the 30s to whiten all these children by removing them from their mothers, sending them to the training camps. The story depicted 3 girls running away from the camp and walked 1200 miles back home to reunite with their mother. The movie is very natural and touching that you will just be drawn inside the hearts of those girls, who has nothing but strong determination to go home and live a life they want. The movie also described the arrogance of the Whitle Australians until the 1970s, who tried every effort to justify their whitening process of this Stolen Generation. It is a very honest portray of the experience of Molly, who was unfortunately being forced into this generation and lived a wandering and heart breaking life due to this policy. It should be watched by all people so that we could learn to respect other people's life and culture as they are, instead of superimposing what we think is the best for them, for they might end up to be a curse of life for these people. This is a very touching and introspecting production that should not be missed. It does not attempt to achieve a melodramatic effect, but a simple honest reminder for respecting the aboriginals who are actually the native people who live on this island continent. Things haven't been really improved in Australian over the aboriginal issues, but this is a very good attempt to raise the conscious of people over the land that the White Australians conquered 200 years ago, and how much the mentality of some of these people have and have not changed. The cinematography is also spectacular. In all, this is not a movie to be missed.
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Summary: Rabbit Proof Fence
Review: The people who helped the girls were a white farmer, a white hunter, a dark servant, and an Aborigine man. What I liked from the documentary was how they went about picking the girl actresses. They interviewed many little girls. The producer had to pick the right girls for the set. In the move, Molly, Daisy and Gracie arrived at the boarding school, or the "camp." After just a few days, the three girls ate breakfast, took out the urine bucket, and left the camp. Only Gracie said, "I like it here." The movie was very interesting. This movie is worth watching because it taught me about Australia and now I understand what we have been studying all year. By Kelly Lee Small Bear
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