Black and White (2002 film) - Wikipedia Max Stuart case
Black and White (2002 film) - Wikipedia
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Black and White (2002 film)
| Black And White | |
|---|---|
| |
| Directed by | Craig Lahiff |
| Written by | Louis Nowra |
| Produced by | Helen Leake Nik Powell |
| Starring | Robert Carlyle Charles Dance Kerry Fox David Ngoombujarra Colin Friels |
| Edited by | Lee Smith |
| Music by | Cezary Skubiszewski |
| Distributed by | New Vision Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Box office | A$177,866 (Australia)[1] |
Black and White is a 2002 Australian film directed by Craig Lahiff and starring Robert Carlyle, Charles Dance, Kerry Fox, David Ngoombujarra, and Colin Friels. Louis Nowra wrote the screenplay, and Helen Leake and Nik Powell produced the film. For his performance in the film, Ngoombujarra won an Australian Film Institute award in 2003 as Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Plot
[edit]Based on real events, Black and White tells the story of Max Stuart (Ngoombujarra), a young aboriginal man who was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the murder of a nine-year-old girl on what was considered questionable evidence. It follows the fight by his lawyers David O'Sullivan (Carlyle) and Helen Devaney (Fox) to save Stuart from execution, as well as Crown Prosecutor, Roderic Chamberlain's (Dance) efforts to convict Stuart. Rohan Rivett editor of an Adelaide paper, The News, and its publisher, Rupert Murdoch (Ben Mendelsohn) also feature as leading the public response in the campaign to save Stuart.
In the final scene of the film, Max Stuart appeared as himself as an older man, driving along a dirt highway near Alice Springs where he lived at the time, and saying: "Yeah, some people think I'm guilty and some people think I'm not. Some people think Elvis is still alive, but most of us think he's dead and gone."[2]
Cast
[edit]- Robert Carlyle as David O'Sullivan
- Charles Dance as Crown Prosecutor, Roderic Chamberlain
- Kerry Fox as Helen Devaney
- David Ngoombujarra as Max Stuart
- Colin Friels as Father Tom Dixon
- Ben Mendelsohn as Rupert Murdoch
- Marshall Napier as Prison Warden
- Frank Gallacher as Justice Reed
- Roy Billing as Detective Sergeant Turner
- Penne Hackforth-Jones as Mrs Aston
Critical response
[edit]On Rotten Tomatoes Black and White has an approval rating of 43% based on reviews from 7 critics.[3] Australian reviewers praised it as "the sort of film Australia should be making"[4] and "another notch in the belt for the Australian film industry".[5] On its theatrical release in the UK, reviewers called it "[a] gripping, well-crafted tale",[6] and "a challenging film that dares to trust our intelligence".[7] !-- "[a] watchable fictionalisation [that is] interestingly ambiguous where another sort of film might have been content with PC certainty".[8][citation needed] - review not found --> However Philip French, writing in The Observer, called it "heavy handed".[9]
Awards
[edit]In 2003, David Ngoombujarra won the Australian Film Institute award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role.[10]
Festivals
[edit] |
- Sydney Film Festival 2002 (opening film)
- Toronto IFF 2002
- London International Film Festival 2002
- Hawaii International Film Festival 2002 Gala
- Pusan International Film Festival, Korea 2002
- London Australian Film Festival 2003
- Dublin Film Festival 2003
- Taipei Film Festival 2003
- Valenciennes Film Festival France 2003 Competition
- Belfast Film Festival 2003
- Taos Film Festival USA 2003
- Singapore International Film Festival 2003
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2003
- SXSW USA 2004
- Beijing Australian Film Festival 2004
- Guangzhou Film Festival 2004
- Cancun Film Festival 2004
- Australian Embassy Roadshow – multiple countries
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Australian Films at the Australian Box Office", Film Victoria Archived 9 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine accessed 11 November 2012
- ^ Penelope Debelle (2002). "Max Stuart reflects, finds peace". The Age. Retrieved 21 February 2006.
- ^ "Black and White (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ Andrew Urban. "BLACK AND WHITE". Urban Cinefile. Archived from the original on 24 December 2002.
- ^ Insight, October 2002
- ^ Neil Smith (January 2004). "Black And White review". Total Film. GamesRadar.com.
- ^ John Cooper, The Times, 9 December 2003.
- ^ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 9 January 2004
- ^ Philip French (11 January 2004). "Other films: Cruise round the Orient". The Observer.
- ^ "Australian Film Institute Awards 2003". Australian Television Information Archive. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
External links
[edit]- Black and White at IMDb
- Black and White at Oz Movies
- Black and White at the National Film and Sound Archive
===
User reviews
Black and White
10 reviews
Hide spoilersReview
RatingsShow all
Sort byFeatured
8/10
Evocative recreation of 1960's Australian cultural confusion
Black and White captures the essence of South Australia in the 1960's. Parochial, racially insensitive, a stuffy English "aristocracy" and the overtones of the hidden menace in Adelaide, are all revealed in this movie. It is hard not to watch this film and not feel anger at the injustice of it all. The camera work was great and attention to detail, costumes and cars, was noticeable because it wasn't noticeable. Having a "big name" (Carlyle) to play the lead didn't add anything to the film. It was hard to feel any compassion for the lead character which, given the sacrifices and stress he endured, was disappointing. He felt detached and uninvolved. Outstanding performances by Nagoombujarra, Charles Dance and Colin Friels lifted this film where it might easily have lapsed into caricature and stereotype. The arrival of Rupert Murdoch into the scene was nicely underplayed and added an element of reality. Enjoyable, provocative and a slice of history. Well worth a watch.
Helpful•16
1
gemstones
Apr 25, 2003
Permalink
6/10
A well put together movie featuring a classic underdog vs. establishment scenario...
Adelaide, Australia, 1958 and a 9 year-old girl is found brutally murdered and raped. The police quickly, perhaps a little too quickly, find a suspect: Max Stuart, a young illiterate and heavy drinking half-caste Aborigine man (Ngoombujarra – CROCODILE DUNDEE IN L.A.) from out of town who, once in custody, confesses to the crime. As it's a legal aid case Stuart is appointed lawyers in the shape of local team Carlyle (THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, FULL MONTY) and Fox (THE GATHERING, THE POINT MEN). Prosecuting is arrogant, experienced and privileged-class Crown Solicitor Dance (ALIEN 3, LAST ACTION HERO). Stuart's story is that he is innocent and that the police beat the confession out of him, but faced with a bigoted community and the overwhelming skill and legal connections of Dance's character, the odds prove too overwhelming for the young, inexperienced duo.
Stuart is predictably found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.
Carlyle's character however does not give up that easily and, helped in his quest by the prison priest (Friels – DARK CITY, THE MAN WHO SUED GOD) and a young newspaper publisher called Rupert Murdoch (Mendelsohn – VERTICAL LIMIT), he continues to discover new evidence and witnesses, and proceeds through the hierarchy of appeal procedures, ultimately speaking before the Lord Privvy Council in London, resulting in seven stays of execution over the following year.
Based on real events, this is a well put together movie featuring a classic underdog vs. establishment scenario, not just in Stuart, who is regarded as just an ignorant savage by 1959 white Australian society, but also in Carlyle's lawyer who is thwarted at every turn by an archaic legal system and a superior foe, and who is risking his reputation and livelihood in the pursuit of justice. The film makes no final judgement and presents both sides of the case equally leaving the audience to come to their own verdict. The audience will of course take the side of the underdogs, but there is an unnerving dénouement where we catch up with the real Max Stuart who makes a very ambiguous comment on his innocence.
The era is well captured and the acting is solid throughout, though the characters are rather obviously drawn.
Not worth owning but well worth a watch.
Helpful•7
1
quatermax-1
Feb 8, 2008
Permalink
7/10
A Provocative Australian Period Piece
South Australian lawyers still argue passionately about the guilt or innocence or Rupert Maxwell Stuart.
A young white girl was brutally raped and murdered.
A part-Aboriginal man was accused. He was drunk (and, by admission, lust filled) at the time the offence occurred.
At the time, the commission of such an offence would have seen Stuart swinging at the end of a rope.
Enter Robert Carlile (playing David O'Sullivan) and Kery Fox (Helen Devaney) his impoverished lawyers, passionate, and alcoholic respectively.
This is the story of how this unlikely (and tragic, for O'Sullivan and Fox, in real life, self-destructed soon afterwards) worked day and night to save Stuart from the gallows.
Instrumental in this was the young Rupert Murdoch (Ben Mendelson) and the Priest Father Tom Dixon.
The point of all this is not Stuart's guilt or innocence. It is about O'Sullivan and Fox, and their 15 minutes of fame. It is about Murdoch, and the ways in which the press influences criminal justice (there were two South Australian hangings after the Stuart case), reported, by Murdoch's "The News" in sober and pro-government terms.
For those reasons, as an examination of long ago attitudes, and of issues of press influence, this is an important film.
A great movie? Probably not? Consider the following. When Murdoch sits down with the defence team to discuss his proposed press campaign for a reprieve, and is told that if the public will not warm to Stuart's case and Murdoch will not personally intervene, "a man will die".
Murdoch replies, "then a man will die!".
This not a movie about Stuart and Chamberlain; it's about O'Sullivan, Cox, Murdoch and the media. It's about hard-working lawyers and cynical Newspapermen. And on that level, it succeeds.
Helpful•7
2
kinnordavid
Nov 1, 2005
Permalink
A stunningly good movie, based on real events.Spoiler
Helpful•15
0
TxMike
Nov 13, 2006
Permalink
6/10
This story deserves a better treatmentSpoiler
Helpful•2
1
yelofneb-63037
Dec 30, 2017
Permalink
6/10
More of a near miss than a resounding success
A half-caste aborigine in 1950s Australia is sentenced to death on little more than racist supposition over the rape and murder of a young girl. Penniless and inexperienced good-guy lawyers, Robert Carlyle and Kerry Fox, go up against the system to save the man's neck from the gallows. David Ngoombujarra, as the half-caste, turns in a moving performance, the story has sufficient emotional pace, legal twists and unusual setting, yet for some reason manages to peter down like a wet squib. The climax doesn't seem to do the rest of the film justice, and the reminder that it is based on true events comes too late (at the very end of the credits) to have the proper impact. Black and White is an interesting film, but more of a near miss than a resounding success.
Helpful•4
7
Chris_Docker
Jan 20, 2004
Permalink
9/10
excellent production values
I came across this one accidentally, and I'm very glad that I did. This is very much an attempt to make an historical document - it is along the same lines as rabbit proof fence, instead focusing on the ridiculously prejudiced and stunted legal system that Australia was so proud of during the 'white Australia' policy years. Every branch of police and court were determined to hide each others mistakes and inequalities because it was simply easier to condemn our own mistakes - if it is believed that all black fellas are inherently flawed, even evil, then it is so much easier to not feel guilty about what we did.
That being said, the production values are so high in this film that one never gets the sense that it is preaching or unnecessarily hammering the audience with the all the guilt of the white man in Australia. The story came through sufficiently, and there were fascinating links to all kinds of branches of Australian life - the turn of public opinion against the death penalty, Rupert Murdoch learning the value of politics over helping out the ordinary man, the idea of 'Englishness' in the colonial nation - and best of all, a wonderful interview with the condemned man himself, still alive despite all the odds.
Highly recommended.
Helpful•8
2
meredithconnie
Sep 16, 2007
Permalink
3/10
Not very realistic
It tries this film but ultimately it does not live up to the expectations that are on it. Despite some very good actors it gets bogged down in a slow script. It contains important issues but unfortunately the director cant really deliver
Helpful•3
17
shirlty56
Jan 11, 2004
Permalink
An interesting piece of history
As a former resident of Adelaide, I can recall the actual events portrayed in the film (and knew the film's director at university - Adelaide is like that .... a very small place).
It is a restrained and accurate rendition of the sorry episode. Notable in that it captures the atmosphere of the old 'colonial' Adelaide I knew ..... the 'precious' social 'pecking order', smotheringly conservative (repressed?), 'stiff upper lip' ... and the smugness of being the only 'free colony' in Australia (with the imported English social structure this brought with it).
The crafty and cynical state Premier, managing the political fallout, the ambitious newspaper publisher, just starting out on his quest which will lead him eventually to world media 'mega-stardom', who uses the case to build his paper. The honest (and suffering, 'doomed') defence attorney..... and worldly-wise assistant, the innocent(?) accused, the bungling and prejudiced police, the aristocratic crown prosecutor ..... the naive (and sadly too honest) newspaper editor (a survivor of 5 years in the infamous WW2 Changi concentration camp) whose career is ruined when he is 'cut free' by his publisher under the political heat generated by the case and the paper's crusade (initially supported by the publisher who subsequently caves in to the politicians). A great recipe for a political-legal drama.
The tale is well handled by director Lahiff, well paced, understated, cautious ..... but leaving the viewer convinced that 'something stinks in the state of SA'. A lesson on the realities of politics and the exercise of power .....
Well done Craig! Your film deserves more attention than it has received.... (I am waiting its release on DVD so I can add it to my collection, along with the also under-rated and potential 'cult' film, 'Heavens Burning' filmed with Russell Crowe, on the cusp of his meteoric rise to super-stardom.)
Helpful•25
2
realbobwarn
Dec 26, 2003
Permalink
A harsh reminder of what still lies under the surface
The world of the movie is one of the few areas where Australians care to face up to their unjust and brutal treatment of the Aboriginie. This movie is based on a disturbingly recent true story and is brilliantly understated. One never feels one knows what really happened, but the legal processes are a shocking inditment of racial prejudice and power politics. Even today Australia still struggles to come to grips with this shameful side of their past. Black and White should be seen in every Australian household as similar events almost certainly still go on today in the far flung reaches of this vast land mass. Highly recommended. (Available on dvd in Australia.)
Helpful•9
2
rokhopa
Feb 7, 2004
Permalink
===
User reviews
Black and White
10 reviews
Hide spoilersReview
RatingsShow all
Sort byFeatured
8/10
Evocative recreation of 1960's Australian cultural confusion
Black and White captures the essence of South Australia in the 1960's. Parochial, racially insensitive, a stuffy English "aristocracy" and the overtones of the hidden menace in Adelaide, are all revealed in this movie. It is hard not to watch this film and not feel anger at the injustice of it all. The camera work was great and attention to detail, costumes and cars, was noticeable because it wasn't noticeable. Having a "big name" (Carlyle) to play the lead didn't add anything to the film. It was hard to feel any compassion for the lead character which, given the sacrifices and stress he endured, was disappointing. He felt detached and uninvolved. Outstanding performances by Nagoombujarra, Charles Dance and Colin Friels lifted this film where it might easily have lapsed into caricature and stereotype. The arrival of Rupert Murdoch into the scene was nicely underplayed and added an element of reality. Enjoyable, provocative and a slice of history. Well worth a watch.
Helpful•16
1
gemstones
Apr 25, 2003
Permalink
6/10
A well put together movie featuring a classic underdog vs. establishment scenario...
Adelaide, Australia, 1958 and a 9 year-old girl is found brutally murdered and raped. The police quickly, perhaps a little too quickly, find a suspect: Max Stuart, a young illiterate and heavy drinking half-caste Aborigine man (Ngoombujarra – CROCODILE DUNDEE IN L.A.) from out of town who, once in custody, confesses to the crime. As it's a legal aid case Stuart is appointed lawyers in the shape of local team Carlyle (THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, FULL MONTY) and Fox (THE GATHERING, THE POINT MEN). Prosecuting is arrogant, experienced and privileged-class Crown Solicitor Dance (ALIEN 3, LAST ACTION HERO). Stuart's story is that he is innocent and that the police beat the confession out of him, but faced with a bigoted community and the overwhelming skill and legal connections of Dance's character, the odds prove too overwhelming for the young, inexperienced duo.
Stuart is predictably found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.
Carlyle's character however does not give up that easily and, helped in his quest by the prison priest (Friels – DARK CITY, THE MAN WHO SUED GOD) and a young newspaper publisher called Rupert Murdoch (Mendelsohn – VERTICAL LIMIT), he continues to discover new evidence and witnesses, and proceeds through the hierarchy of appeal procedures, ultimately speaking before the Lord Privvy Council in London, resulting in seven stays of execution over the following year.
Based on real events, this is a well put together movie featuring a classic underdog vs. establishment scenario, not just in Stuart, who is regarded as just an ignorant savage by 1959 white Australian society, but also in Carlyle's lawyer who is thwarted at every turn by an archaic legal system and a superior foe, and who is risking his reputation and livelihood in the pursuit of justice. The film makes no final judgement and presents both sides of the case equally leaving the audience to come to their own verdict. The audience will of course take the side of the underdogs, but there is an unnerving dénouement where we catch up with the real Max Stuart who makes a very ambiguous comment on his innocence.
The era is well captured and the acting is solid throughout, though the characters are rather obviously drawn.
Not worth owning but well worth a watch.
Helpful•7
1
quatermax-1
Feb 8, 2008
Permalink
7/10
A Provocative Australian Period Piece
South Australian lawyers still argue passionately about the guilt or innocence or Rupert Maxwell Stuart.
A young white girl was brutally raped and murdered.
A part-Aboriginal man was accused. He was drunk (and, by admission, lust filled) at the time the offence occurred.
At the time, the commission of such an offence would have seen Stuart swinging at the end of a rope.
Enter Robert Carlile (playing David O'Sullivan) and Kery Fox (Helen Devaney) his impoverished lawyers, passionate, and alcoholic respectively.
This is the story of how this unlikely (and tragic, for O'Sullivan and Fox, in real life, self-destructed soon afterwards) worked day and night to save Stuart from the gallows.
Instrumental in this was the young Rupert Murdoch (Ben Mendelson) and the Priest Father Tom Dixon.
The point of all this is not Stuart's guilt or innocence. It is about O'Sullivan and Fox, and their 15 minutes of fame. It is about Murdoch, and the ways in which the press influences criminal justice (there were two South Australian hangings after the Stuart case), reported, by Murdoch's "The News" in sober and pro-government terms.
For those reasons, as an examination of long ago attitudes, and of issues of press influence, this is an important film.
A great movie? Probably not? Consider the following. When Murdoch sits down with the defence team to discuss his proposed press campaign for a reprieve, and is told that if the public will not warm to Stuart's case and Murdoch will not personally intervene, "a man will die".
Murdoch replies, "then a man will die!".
This not a movie about Stuart and Chamberlain; it's about O'Sullivan, Cox, Murdoch and the media. It's about hard-working lawyers and cynical Newspapermen. And on that level, it succeeds.
Helpful•7
2
kinnordavid
Nov 1, 2005
Permalink
A stunningly good movie, based on real events.Spoiler
Helpful•15
0
TxMike
Nov 13, 2006
Permalink
6/10
This story deserves a better treatmentSpoiler
Helpful•2
1
yelofneb-63037
Dec 30, 2017
Permalink
6/10
More of a near miss than a resounding success
A half-caste aborigine in 1950s Australia is sentenced to death on little more than racist supposition over the rape and murder of a young girl. Penniless and inexperienced good-guy lawyers, Robert Carlyle and Kerry Fox, go up against the system to save the man's neck from the gallows. David Ngoombujarra, as the half-caste, turns in a moving performance, the story has sufficient emotional pace, legal twists and unusual setting, yet for some reason manages to peter down like a wet squib. The climax doesn't seem to do the rest of the film justice, and the reminder that it is based on true events comes too late (at the very end of the credits) to have the proper impact. Black and White is an interesting film, but more of a near miss than a resounding success.
Helpful•4
7
Chris_Docker
Jan 20, 2004
Permalink
9/10
excellent production values
I came across this one accidentally, and I'm very glad that I did. This is very much an attempt to make an historical document - it is along the same lines as rabbit proof fence, instead focusing on the ridiculously prejudiced and stunted legal system that Australia was so proud of during the 'white Australia' policy years. Every branch of police and court were determined to hide each others mistakes and inequalities because it was simply easier to condemn our own mistakes - if it is believed that all black fellas are inherently flawed, even evil, then it is so much easier to not feel guilty about what we did.
That being said, the production values are so high in this film that one never gets the sense that it is preaching or unnecessarily hammering the audience with the all the guilt of the white man in Australia. The story came through sufficiently, and there were fascinating links to all kinds of branches of Australian life - the turn of public opinion against the death penalty, Rupert Murdoch learning the value of politics over helping out the ordinary man, the idea of 'Englishness' in the colonial nation - and best of all, a wonderful interview with the condemned man himself, still alive despite all the odds.
Highly recommended.
Helpful•8
2
meredithconnie
Sep 16, 2007
Permalink
3/10
Not very realistic
It tries this film but ultimately it does not live up to the expectations that are on it. Despite some very good actors it gets bogged down in a slow script. It contains important issues but unfortunately the director cant really deliver
Helpful•3
17
shirlty56
Jan 11, 2004
Permalink
An interesting piece of history
As a former resident of Adelaide, I can recall the actual events portrayed in the film (and knew the film's director at university - Adelaide is like that .... a very small place).
It is a restrained and accurate rendition of the sorry episode. Notable in that it captures the atmosphere of the old 'colonial' Adelaide I knew ..... the 'precious' social 'pecking order', smotheringly conservative (repressed?), 'stiff upper lip' ... and the smugness of being the only 'free colony' in Australia (with the imported English social structure this brought with it).
The crafty and cynical state Premier, managing the political fallout, the ambitious newspaper publisher, just starting out on his quest which will lead him eventually to world media 'mega-stardom', who uses the case to build his paper. The honest (and suffering, 'doomed') defence attorney..... and worldly-wise assistant, the innocent(?) accused, the bungling and prejudiced police, the aristocratic crown prosecutor ..... the naive (and sadly too honest) newspaper editor (a survivor of 5 years in the infamous WW2 Changi concentration camp) whose career is ruined when he is 'cut free' by his publisher under the political heat generated by the case and the paper's crusade (initially supported by the publisher who subsequently caves in to the politicians). A great recipe for a political-legal drama.
The tale is well handled by director Lahiff, well paced, understated, cautious ..... but leaving the viewer convinced that 'something stinks in the state of SA'. A lesson on the realities of politics and the exercise of power .....
Well done Craig! Your film deserves more attention than it has received.... (I am waiting its release on DVD so I can add it to my collection, along with the also under-rated and potential 'cult' film, 'Heavens Burning' filmed with Russell Crowe, on the cusp of his meteoric rise to super-stardom.)
Helpful•25
2
realbobwarn
Dec 26, 2003
Permalink
A harsh reminder of what still lies under the surface
The world of the movie is one of the few areas where Australians care to face up to their unjust and brutal treatment of the Aboriginie. This movie is based on a disturbingly recent true story and is brilliantly understated. One never feels one knows what really happened, but the legal processes are a shocking inditment of racial prejudice and power politics. Even today Australia still struggles to come to grips with this shameful side of their past. Black and White should be seen in every Australian household as similar events almost certainly still go on today in the far flung reaches of this vast land mass. Highly recommended. (Available on dvd in Australia.)
Helpful•9
2
rokhopa
Feb 7, 2004
Permalink
===
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