Snowy (TV
mini-series)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Episodes: B-
Australia has much television that has not
made it to the states, including mini-series like Snowy (1993), which attempts to bring to life the 1949 attempt to
tame the wild at Snowy River with a damn. When this works, the previously inaccessible
area becomes quite accessible. The
current residents are not quite ready for this, and that is where the drama
begins.
Unfortunately,
it becomes a soap opera and drawn-out melodrama, not the more serious
examination of an historical Australian event as Phillip Noyce’s recent Rabbit Proof Fence was. Being a more commercial enterprise for
Australian TV, it decided to play it safe.
The acting is not bad, but the co-directed shows by Paul Moloney and Ian
Gilmour could have taken place almost any time, as the history is relegated too
much to the background. Roger Simpson is
responsible for the writing, which may cohere well, but never manages to go
beyond its many standard restrains of storytelling.
The full
frame image shows its age, being from a TV master from its release year a
decade ago, but cinematographer Brett Anderson, A.C.S., only got so much out of
the camera. Color can be good, but is a
bit muted throughout, though some of that is absolutely intentional to capture
the time. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is a
simple stereo at best, articulate, due in part enough to its recent
vintage. The music score by Michael
Atkinson and Michael Easton is just too much, often filled with the self-importance
of a bad Hollywood epic mess. It inadvertently feels like a knock-off of
Bill Conti’s theme song for the U.S. camp classic soap opera Dynasty.
Extras
include the bio/filmographies of cast and crew, production notes, trivia on the
Snowy Mountains, all text and all of which are
informative. Best of all is The Snowy – A Dream of Growing Up – The
Building of the Snowy Mountains.
This hour-long program is actually more interesting than the mini-series
and it is a shame we did not have more of this kind of material in it. Too bad it was not longer.
One last
point. In the final chapter, a movie
theater is playing film a widescreen 1.75 X 1 aspect ratio. Though the series covers a few years, it
lands up in the early 1950s and I doubt widescreen reached Australia that soon. Certainly, they did not have newsreels at
that ratio, and the films on the posters do not qualify either. It echoes a lack of authenticity that runs
throughout the mini-series. This is only
for the most interested viewer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
