Sundowners
by Fred Zinnemann
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Deborah Kerr, Dina Merrill, Glynis Johns, Peter Ustinov, Robert MitchumDirector: Fred Zinnemann
Cinematographer: Jack Hildyard
Editor: Jack Harris
Producer: Gerry Blattner
Writer: Isobel Lennart
Writer: Jon Cleary
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 133 minutes
Release Date: 1994-01-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Studio: Warner Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Sundowners
Movie Review: From the Land Down Under Direct to Your Living Room - and Heart
Summary: 5 Stars
Few youngsters today have heard of this movie, even fewer have seen it, and their lives are quite a bit poorer for that lack.
In today's world of gun-blazing police tracking down the latest serial killer and movies that try to set records for how many cars they can smash up in ever more inventive ways, this movie stands out as impossibly warm-hearted and simple. It's the story of the Carmody family, itinerant sheep drovers in 1920's Australia, and the only gun in this story is one used to shoot rabbits for the family pot. What makes this movie so watchable are the great and finely nuanced performances by just about all the actors here: Robert Mitchum as a man who can't stand being tied down to one place, but nevertheless recognizes and respects his wife's desire for a permanent home; Deborah Kerr as a strong woman who'll take only so much idiocy from her husband, but who also always finds a way to forgive and understand; Peter Ustinov as a British expatriate who finds the concept of marriage disturbing but is always attracted to the fairer sex; Glynis Johns as the impossibly bright, cheerful, and non-stop chattering pub-owner - each performance is as solid as the hard soil of the Australian sheep country where this was filmed.
The scenery is impressive in its own right, with various indigenous Australian animals each coming in for their own cameo appearances, from kangaroos and koalas to emus and wombats. But the background that really impresses is the portrait of the sheep farming industry itself, from the large flocks of sheep to the shearing sheds to the rough-and-tough men who make their living from the sheep.
There's quite a bit of humor here, much of it provided by Ustinov and Johns, but the thing that sticks, and will cause a possible case of teary-eyed vision, is the relationship between Mitchum and Kerr. This is a marriage that won't fail, a bond much stronger than the vagaries and vicissitudes of life or even their disparate desires for a particular way of life. It's never overplayed, but you can sense the deep chemistry between these two from the opening minutes of the film and it never falls out of sight.
This movie was nominated for five Academy Awards, and though it won none of them, it's almost criminal that this movie has been largely forgotten. Perhaps finally having it available on DVD will rectify that situation.
---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Summary of Sundowners
An episodic account of a family of roving sheepherders in Australia. Paddy Carmody (Robert Mitchum) loves being "someone whose home is where the sun goes down," but his wife (Deborah Kerr) and teenage son are tired of the nomadic life and want to settle down. Director Fred Zinnemann (From Here to Eternity) takes a wonderfully laid-back approach to this likable material, emphasizing the refreshingly grown-up relationship between Mitchum and Kerr as well as the stark scenic attractions of Australia--a continent that, in 1960, was still unfamiliar terrain for the movies. Puckish, portly Peter Ustinov provides the lion's share of the comic relief. One of the high points is a sheep-shearing sequence (the normally self-assured Mitchum was so nervous about accidentally harming an animal that he required a few bottles of beer for fortification before shooting the scene). The Sundowners scored five Oscar nominations, including acting nods for Kerr and Glynis Johns, but won none. --Robert HortonDrama VHS Video
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