Lucky Miles by Michael Rowland

The Movie ‘Lucky Miles’ filmed in Cambodia and South Australia was winner of many awards including ‘Winner of Audience Award for Best film at the 2007 Sydney Film Festival’. ‘Lucky Miles’, set in 1990, is about ten refugees dropped off on the Coast of Western Australia Somewhere. Most of the ten men are quickly caught by officers, leaving three men with nothing in common to escape arrest and find civilisation in this dead land. Three examples of how Michael Rowland uses film techniques to present interesting perspectives on Australia are the sounds of the movie, through the acting and the Australian culture and landscape.

The Music used in the movie ‘Lucky Miles’ is from the different cultures of the refugees, Cambodian, Indonesian and Iraqi. There are lot of drumming, clanging, wind and string instruments playing during the movie. The music is played when something exciting happens like when Youssif was getting chased by another Iraqi with a knife or when Arun and Ramelan were fighting. There is short music during scene changes and a lot of quiet background music during the film. Many sounds in the movie are very powerful like the ocean, birds, insects, wind, sticks being stepped on and other wildlife. They are all magnified so the viewer can hear. Many of the noises heard by the refuges are strange and never been heard by them. Most times the army reservist unit appear on screen with there 4WD you hear the radio on with Australian country music playing.

The acting in the movie ‘Lucky Miles’ is sometimes very humorous and serious. Youssif is a very serious pound independent person and Arun and Ramelan are both sometimes foolish and a bit stupid. The army reservist unit are very Australian blokes, they’re just laid back, don’t really care about much and just taking there own time to find the refugees. They are also very humorous through out the movie. Australians are shown as very snobby strange people in the movie who are mostly drunk. The man in the first small bar who yells at the Cambodians and the lady in the bar who gets them arrested seem like very mean people. The drunken men in the second bar just seem like lazy old drunks. One of the men laughs and says to the others “None of these bastards would have lasted a week” after hearing the story of the refugees on the news. Instead of sayings something about the poor refugees and man tries to be funny. This is how Australian men really are which isn’t all that good. It just shows how easy us Australian have got life.

A lot of the movie was shown with long shots showing the great deadly hot and bare Australian landscape. These thirst clenching sandy landscapes with nothing but a few scrubs and very little wildlife are no position for any human especially someone who does not know the Australian outback and how to survive in it. The refugees thought Australia would be a paradise but instead is hell. During the movie Youssif starts to question whether Australia is a real place. He says to the other Iraqis “If this is such a great country why haven’t we heard of their soccer team?” The Iraqis have faith and hope that they are in Australia. The harsh Australian outback makes you wonder how the refugees survive over a week when most Australians would not be able to do this. When the Cambodian refugees come across the small town they wonder if it is Perth. This tells the audience that the Cambodians have no idea what they are looking for. They are probably not use to a few building in the middle of no where.

There are plenty of film techniques used to present and give the viewers an interesting perspective on Australia in the film, ‘Lucky Miles’, directed by Michael Rowland. The film portrays Australia as Beautiful Hot Desert Country with not very nice people. It shows the audience how badly refugees or foreigners are treated and how easy Australians have life. Three different things that show how Michael Rowland uses film techniques to present interesting perspectives on Australia are the sounds of the movie, through the acting and through the Australian culture and landscape.