Fields Of Fire (Australian TV Mini-Series)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: B-
In an
interesting twist on pre-World War II storytelling, Fields Of Fire (1987 - 1989) has Bluey (Todd Boyce) leaving England
in the late 1930s to Australia, where he does whatever he can to find a job,
until he lands one in a crew cutting down sugar cane. Everything is good and the crop becomes
popular enough to make many people rich, then the war arrives. We’ve heard this story before, but hardly
ever from Australia, and that is what is so
interesting about this show.
As usual,
we have not heard of most of this cast, but obviously, Australia is known as a
place where many good actors spend whole careers without notice outside of the
media down under and the quality of the programs are often worthy of the
talent. Former Spider-Man Nicholas
Hammond shows up as a U.S. soldier. One side twist is discrimination by the
Australian workers towards the Italians, which becomes more twisted as
Mussolini becomes part of the original “Axis of Evil” that makes the prejudice
more twisted as events kick in.
Internment against the Italians included.
It is
that kind of storytelling that prevents this from becoming a tired Melodrama,
we get the kind of story we do not hear enough.
Miranda Downes’ teleplay is adapted from the novel Cane by Robert Donaldson and Michael Joseph, never pandering to the
audience. I appreciated its passing
humor and situations that takes us places we have not been to before. By the third set of shows, the tale takes us
into the early 1950s. Though it has
aspirations of being an epic, it will have to settle for solid storytelling,
with some twists worth sitting for.
The full
frame image originated on what looks like film, but the video source has more
noise than expected from grain, the analog video source and even conversion
from one video format (PAL or an NTSC variant perhaps) to another. Hope the film elements survive. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also on the
small side, showing the age of the production.
There are no extras.
When I
talked about the title with friends, one wondered if it was the latest Riverdance title, but that was not the
case. Fields Of Fire is good television that may have been too bold for
PBS and deserves a new audience.
- Nicholas Sheffo
