Nice effects though.

What begins as a feel-good-human-interest story turns into a mystery, then a tragedy, and ultimately an outrage.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

There are two ageing "movie critics" in Australia who always wet there pants when an Aussie movie is good. (a rare occurrence). They gave this "different" film top marks. When the two leads don't say a single word to each other , and only have half a dozen facial expressions.....acting can be very easy !!! (both performances were only average) The strange thing is...when any of the small cast DO actually talk...they don't do it very well. This is one of those very annoying movies that screams at the viewer "I am an art--house movie, like me". This is not a piece of work that you would want to watch more than once. It does not represent the Aboriginal peoples drastic existence in outback Australia. (its a lot worse than this). The ridiculous happy ending was a pure cop out.

Samson and Delilah, for the most part, appears to play out like True Romance as directed by Abbas Kiarostami; a love story of sorts between two relatively down and out people slowly chugging along in their lives, and yet pertaining to whatever law exists, within a working community torn apart by squalor and down-trodden existences whom decide to high tail it out of there in an attempt to start over out in the wider world. It is to first time director Warwick Thornton's credit that he manoeuvres a story about two disparate youngsters of opposing genders down a path that more-so resembles something such as Malick's Badlands than something in the vein of True Romance; Samson and Delilah a really rather wonderfully executed coming of age piece set amidst the lower echelons of Australia's indigenous community, a political parable linked to Australia's indigenous communities' 'place' in Australian society and a rather sweet, underplayed love story with ample attention to the duality those therein share.The film begins with one half of the titular duo waking up on this, another hot; lazy; sluggish morning in dusty Outback Australia. We wake up into the film with him, a young boy named Samson, played by Rowan McNamara and here cutting rather-a dash as Lasith Malinga, whom lives alone with his brother in a small wooded house in a small street doubling up as an entire community. Samson enjoys sniffing motor oil, a batch of which he has tucked away in a plastic bottle enabling him to remove the lid once in a while so as to inhale a fix. In other areas of living, the man is positively Neanderthal; the drawing on walls calls to mind that of crude scribblings on caves one might have done millennias ago, his lack of speech going hand in hand with his ambling around from place to place – attempts at 'wooing' a female ending as we predict whilst the clubbing of a wild animal during a bout of Heaven-only-knows-what instills a crude, highly primitive sense about the guy. Upon waking up, he tries to steal a quick five minutes on his brother's guitar, a musical instrument requiring grace and precision, and he does so very badly before he is forced off it: dismissing those whom go on to strike up a good sound as a four-man-band.Additionally awakening on this morning is Delilah, and additionally played by first-time actress Marissa Gibson; a character whom must care for her elderly grandmother, her last surviving relative and make sure to provide her with the correct medicine and such in what is a demonstration of precision and grace instilled into an activity which Delilah is able to execute. Delilah and her relative additionally spend their time creating neat mosaics on basic canvases so that they may be sold in a nearby town, activities again which require creativity and precision which it's established the man Delilah shares the title of the film with lacks. Samson and Delilah converge, once, outside of a store during this day; very little is said but much is implied through body language and suggestion, an early coming together a demonstration of the pair of them communicating through action and reaction which will go on to forge the essential characteristics of their bond.In the evenings, music is again an item that arises; for Samson, the tuning into an FM radio as a DJ churns out popular music for anybody willing to send in a request is the order of proceedings; his lack of having a definitive taste and therefore having to feed off of what everybody else wish to hear prominent. Delilah, on the other hand, tunes into a very specified brand of music; a tape cassette of Latin American music which she enjoys by herself in the confines of an automobile on its tape player. These characters could not be any further apart in this sense, and yet opposites begin to attract; a final instance of binary opposition as the catalysts which push them together being the shooting of Delilah through hues of red as Thornton constructs an objectification of Samson around her gaze: his wiry shirtless dancing to blued out compositions having her come to feel what she previously did not.The film mutates into the having of them leave the slum, a branching out into the wider world driven by two tragic instances that befalls either character; instances specifically linked to internal problems with whatever little family each of them has, a breaking up through whatever means or for whatever reason ultimately the item that pushes the disparate pair together. The leaving of the township for a homeless existence beneath a flyover bridge sees them maintain a solid partnership for the best part without ever actually saying anything; an unusual characteristic that will for some carrying with it problems more broadly linked to realism but in actuality, is probably some sort of sociological metaphor for the general marginalisation of Australia's indigenous people (that is to say, the literal taking away of their voices) by the state itself. Thornton strikes us as a competent director, his cine-literacy rendering this on screen silent romance one of which is executed with the sort of vigour imbued within, whilst most probably drawing inspiration from, something such as Chaplin's City Lights. Regardless of sources of inspiration, and more-over the mere labelling of it as "Kiarostami does Natural Born Killers by way of City Lights", the film is an exciting; enthralling debut from someone whose future work ought to be looked forward to with great anticipation.

The only two ways in which this immediately absorbing modern Walkabout resembles the old testament couple is in love and hairdressing. Samson is living in a dessicated existential limbo with his brothers. Delilah (we assume that's her name) looks after an elderly relative. Communication in the dust bowl town is harder to come by than water. Thoughtless, reactive violence accelerates the rudimentary relationship between the two who set off out of town. Further violence, passive and otherwise, visits itself upon the two. Yet, by the end, they find themselves not only together but discovering a necessary co-existence.I was completely gripped by the film, literally unable to take my eyes off the screen for a frame in case I missed a spasm of action, a moment of meaning. Everything seems pregnant with some sort of possibility, even if that turns out to be really very nasty indeed. And yet, even by the end, I simply didn't feel that the characters had learned a great deal. Whilst the film shows a loving bond growing despite an almost total absence of conventional conversation, it also shows the dreadful isolation in which failing to communicate results. Samson's symbolic self-tonsure is a profoundly expressive moment, mimicking the earlier act of the person who has caused it, but it is directed at a void.There is a dark segregational subtext too. Where Delilah has the upward mobility instigated by compassion and an artistic bent, Samson - who may have a learning difficulty, compounded by his petroleum abuse - seems shackled with a lack of imagination. Both are part of a community kept at a vague arms length by the white community in the local town of the second act, small factions of whom use, abuse and more generally ignore them. This cultural apartheid is a dramatic colouring though and is not a part of the drama. By the end the constant, tepid conflict of that drama have an ambiguous outcome, though its clearly an optimistic one. Perhaps the conclusion from this is that, at whatever civil strata, surviving a rite of passage is intrinsic to benefiting from it. 6/10

Having seen this movie on ABC TV here in Australia last week, I have to say that I feel a bit guilty about not seeing this film in the cinema, when it screened a few months backs. This is "black arm-band" guilt no doubt...I had toyed with the idea of seeing it, but never got around to it...wasn't sure how good it would be. Australian films in general (this is the first Aboriginal movie I've seen) can often have poor acting and weak scripts and be otherwise uninteresting once you overcome inertia and finally pay up. So, this inertia I could not overcome to pay up and see it. Anyway, this is a very good movie and it would have been nice to pay money to see it and thus contribute to the film makers.Overall, the acting is of a very high quality, but the movie is quite minimalist and bleak...the cinematic equivalent of a sepia photograph in mood. There is very little dialogue and learning that the actors in this movie are often doing it for the first time makes that situation seem for the best. The physical acting of the two young leads is excellent, and the scene where Samson (Rowan McNamara) dances to music is quite cool (check out the excellent "Making Samson & Delilah" where Marissa Gibson (Delilah) has something to say on this).Set in a shanty town village, "Samson & Delilah" is the story of a blossoming relationship between the two young teen leads. Their circumstances are, like I say, very bleak. It's for this reason that I think that this movie doesn't really have any 'replay' value, but others may no doubt find more hope in it than I did. Despite not really being a 'popcorn' movie you can veg out to often, I highly recommend this movie to anyone.As I've said, the acting in this movie is highly engaging...more so than many movies by white Australians where the content is pitched to American audiences. E.g. Mitjili Napanangka Gibson as "Nana" is a delight. So too is Scott Thornton as "Gonzo"...there is humour and good will in this movie, despite its bleakness.The Age newspaper's "Green Guide" lift-out of 19/11/2009 has a long article on this movie as well as reviews of the movie and the making of documentary which screened a few days later. Reviewer Scott Murray says something remarkable..."And why is there no attempt to explain the poverty?" (p34). Well Scott, personally I think that there WOULD be something to explain if the native Australians lived in anything approaching a decent way of life. It's quite natural for some white people (of which I'm one) to perhaps infer that because black Americans can live in luxury, that black Australians can too, to a large degree. Pretty sure that I've seen police officers here pull over cars with Aboriginal drivers...their logic seems to be that it's incomprehensible to them that an aboriginal would ever be in a position to own such a staple of white society.You should definitely see this movie, and close attention can pay off (I PVRd the movie and was glad I did, so that I could do a 'double take' on certain scenes). E.g. there would be scope for a "Hollywood" type of resolution in this movie, when you see Delilah strolling a mall in the big smoke, and finding something familiar there (an interesting point of comparison would be the film version of "Once were warriors" (which was brilliant art) and Maori writer Alan Duff's more didactic novel (which lessened the story as art). In any case, a writer like Duff might have made much more of the possibilities of that scene in the mall than the movie did).Lastly, for something which definitely has repeat viewing value, check out the Making Of. It's definitely thought provoking in some of the background information it provides about the actors...you would wonder how such information could have coloured people's perceptions of the movie. Challenging, in any case. The featurette is, however, a lot of fun too...in fact, the performances by the two leads is even more remarkable considering what the featurette shows us! And some cultural differences are touched on too...the perception of the two young leads concerning two scenes (dancing and the shop store scene) is illuminating. I think that The Green Guide also mentions some cultural differences in courting practices for Aboriginals in the movie itself...I was interpreting it from a white point of view, so maybe this aspect could be expanded on for any bonus features on the DVD.This movie is bleak, spartan, minimalist and dour, but gee, you gotta go see it. Terrific.