Bitter Springs (1950)

 

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Bitter Springs (1950) – R. Smart

Well-intentioned but still problematic film about colonialism and racism here in Australia.  Chips Rafferty, beloved 1940s film icon, plays against type as the racist white settler & sheep rancher who purchases title to some land in South Australia (the film is shot near Quorn in the Flinders Ranges) situated around a water hole used by the local Indigenous tribe.  As he and his family (and several others who have joined them for the trip) arrive, they are met by a local Trooper (played by Michael Pate) who explains that the family should plan on sharing their land and the water hole with the local tribe.  When Rafferty bristles, Pate explains that the other options are to either force or perhaps ease the Indigenous people off their land but that it would be difficult because it is sacred to them.  The rest of the film shows us the conflict between Rafferty and the Aboriginal people (played authentically by real uncredited Indigenous non-actors, who unfortunately may not have been treated or paid appropriately) along with a distracting romantic subplot and ridiculous vaudeville performer brought in from the UK to “star” (Tommy Trinder).  In some ways, the film feels like an American Western, perhaps later in the cycle when Native Americans were accorded a greater degree of humanity.  In Bitter Springs, we don’t quite get to know any of the Indigenous people (save Blackjack who arrives with Rafferty’s group but soon allies himself with the blackfellas) and we don’t necessarily see things from their perspective – but the film is nevertheless sympathetic to them.  However, one has to wonder whether some in the audience may have sided with Rafferty – the original ending to the film apparently had the entire family wiped out after the tribe takes possession of the water hole but this proved too grim for test audiences.  Instead, a tacked-on coda shows Rafferty changing his ways and working together to raise sheep on his land with the Indigenous people at his side.  That said, the film has some beautiful vistas (in gorgeous B&W) and, you know, its heart seems to be in the right place.  If only Australian government actions were more attuned to the needs of the traditional owners of this land.