BoardChiri
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
ShangLuda
Admirable film.
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
barry benefield
i happened on this movie today on turner classic movies. i love a good 40's era black and white 'family' movie with a plot which this is. i did enjoy it. the movie is also surprising for it's use of an aboriginal actor neza saunders. the flick uses aboriginal 'nature knowledge' a bit more satisfactorily than American treatment of indians like tonto. still i can't get used to the use of the term 'blacks'. the term does not carry the respect that is used now for American blacks. it is insulting and degrading. i also note that the only review of the film repeats the term and that the IMDb quick intro/summary lists the other four children by name but not neza saunders one newspaper story about the film tells the story of the filming and the actors including a story about neza falling from his horse when it wouldn't jump like the others. i am currently doing research about neza saunders who apparently died this summer. i would be happy to make anything i find including urls available to anyone requesting them.
utgard14
Very fun and very different Australian Christmas tale. Some thieves steal horses from a local farmer. The farmer's kids and their friends, a visiting English boy and an Aborigine boy named Neza, take off after the horse thieves themselves. Their pursuit takes them into the Australian bush. Eventually the kids catch up to the thieves and must use their brains to defeat them and get their father's horses back. This is a fun, likable film that's probably unlike anything most kids today have seen. Particularly American kids. I didn't see it until I was an adult but it I enjoyed it a lot. If you want to try a unique Christmas movie, then please try this one out. It's a keeper.
winner55
The story could be tighter and the film shorter, but otherwise it's hard to find fault with this superb adventure film for children. The black and white cinematography is gorgeous - it's actually rather difficult to capture sweeping landscapes on black and white, but here it looks easy, it's so well done. The story is interesting, the dialog well written, the acting is superb - the kids never get annoying and remain authentic throughout, well supported by the adults who display a remarkable naturalism. Certainly it's "just for kids," that was its intent, and it succeeds admirably. If only one of the many versions of "Tom Sawyer" could have achieved such natural grace and energy! Has held up quite well after more than sixty years.
aimless-46
Don't be scared away by the title, "Bush Christmas" (1947) has nothing to do with George W. or his father. They are referring to the Australian "Bush" and this is a children's film that no doubt was a heavy influence on Nicholas Roeg"s "Walkabout" (1971); as well as its source novel by James Vance Marshall. In both a small band of children find themselves in the bush country and out of their element, getting survival tips from a native boy. "A Far Off Place" (1993) and "Alaska" (1996) also appropriated many elements of the story. "Bush Christmas" is the least gritty of the four films but the most believable and the least manipulative. It should remind the viewer in some ways of the modern Australian television show "Saddle Club" as the kids are around horses all the time; even riding them to and from school. And the plot involves Grinch-inspired horse thieves who almost ruin Christmas for the family when they steal their prize mare, leaving her young colt behind. So the five children head into the bush to track down the horse thieves, while their parents and the police attempt to rescue them. There is even a Ghost Town (also found in "Walkabout") although you have to suspend disbelief as the (until then) very perceptive children inexplicably take far too long to recognize that the horse thieves are its only residents. Worth noting is that Helen Grieve plays the only girl in this group of adventurous children but there is no condescension to her, she rides better than the boys and takes on a kind of "Wendy" from "Peter Pan" role in the group. Christmas in the southern hemisphere is a summer event but the holiday is still celebrated with winter wonderland decorations, presents, and a tree. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
