Stabbing the movie with three stunted prongs:
1) I don’t always agree with reviews. I often don’t agree with Margaret Pomeranz. I certainly don’t this time. Nor, it turns out can I agree with The World’s Finest at rottentomatoes.com and Cannes Film Festival alike. You see, I didn’t LOVE the film Samson and Delilah. It was pretty slow to begin with. And I never cared for Samson as a ‘hero / anti-hero’. (Oh, how shallow I am?)
2) I rather feel that critics across the globe will see this as “the second film to come out of Australia recently.” The other was Baz’s “Australiana”. (eg Empire says “every person who saw … a movie called Australia [should make] it up to themselves by buying a ticket to Samson And Delilah.) S&D a fine film compared to the commercial (yet fully watchable!) schmaltz that was “Australiana”. Samson and Delilah has all the film making qualities that all film makers should aspire to. Bravo. Although, I don’t think Tourism Oz is likely to use S&D as promotional material.
3) My beef is not with the calibre of the filming but with the slow start and the general misery of the film subject. I think it is a fabulous film – but bloody miserable. The director, Warwick Thornton, should be compared to the likes of Ken Loach and Lars Von Trier. All amazing storytellers. Amazing. If you’re in the right mood. Go rent out Kes (Loach) or Breaking the Waves (Von Trier), just not on a date on a Saturday night!
My conclusion? Well, my mistake was to go see the movie with my fiancee on a Saturday night, when really we both would have enjoyed something more uplifting. Something more delightful. D’oh. I’ll revisit it when it’s out on DVD and when I’m fully prepared.
Listening to stories 
May 31, 2009 at 11:52 pm
I beg to differ. Baz’s ‘Australia’ was a good blockbuster film, very appealing and obviously a highly romanticized depiction of Australia. I still loved the film despite the fact that it did not capture the real state of Aboriginal Australia (but then again it wasn’t a documentary). ‘Samson and Delilah’ on the other hand was not a blockbuster film that is meant to serve a promotional purpose, but a documentation of the some of the harsh realities of Indigenous Australians. It was the most gripping account we have seen on the big screen and I congratulate Warwick Thornton for capturing it all, misery included.
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:04 am
Thanks, Miss Wretched. I agree with your comment re indigenous communities in Australia: “It was the most gripping account we have seen on the big screen.” As I say, I put Thornton with two other social commentators and critically acclaimed auteurs, Von Trier and Loach.