From the miles of red, weathered sand dunes that characterize the continent’s famed Outback, to the cascading waterfalls and lush wildlife of its scattered rainforest, Australia is a land of extremes. The film explores this landscape and its inhabitants, who represent nature’s burning desire to adapt, overcome and even flourish in the most threatening and tumultuous conditions.
"In life and art weird things are always captivating. Weird is different, weird defies expectations - it can repulse even as it draws us closer. Take the platypus. The first Europeans who happened upon this amphibious duckbilled relative of the kangaroo were sure it was a manmade fraud - God just doesn't joke around like this. Except in Australia. AUSTRALIA: LAND BEYOND TIME is an enjoyable Big Movie primarily because Australia is a weirdly beautiful place.
The filmmakers are to be commended for taking a low-key approach to the voice over narrative and allowing the images to do most of the work. The film utilizes a standard nature documentary approach - a tried and true point and shoot strategy that usually results in an entirely predictable film. But just like in Hollywood - with enough star power you can transform your B movie to something …more. AUSTRALIA: LAND BEYOND TIME has no shortage of stars. See the Horny Devil and his lightning fast tongue. Watch as tree climbing Koala Bears get stuck in nose-to-booty traffic jams. Witness subterranean frogs living on Rumplestilskin time as they wake, dig out and play in the rain. The film is worth seeing because there is quite simply a lot of weird stuff to look at.
The film stresses that existence is first and foremost a result of adaptation. Peculiar natural forces demand peculiar responses from both Australian life and land. Whether it's an ancient rain forest clinging to life or the ability of a kangaroo to put a pregnancy on hold during times of drought - this mostly desert island continent demands survivor skills you don't see on TV game shows. The adaptation message is as true as it is familiar. But by choosing not to include that weirdest and most adaptive animal of all, the film suffers. Are there no humans in Australia? We see Kangaroos struggle to scratch tough to reach spots in the middle of their backs - just like humans - but these sorts of jolly anthropomorphic moments are about the only signs of human existence. Humanity is clearly not the chosen subject - but by excluding the Aborigines, and all others, the science comes across as incomplete.
Throughout AUSTRALIA's score a faint sounding didgeridoo can be heard - so it must be said that there is actually a bit of Aboriginal culture included in the film. Just enough to make one wonder what this film would have been like if the traditional narrative were replaced by an Aboriginal perspective. Every rock, stream, animal and patch of land in Australia is associated with an Aboriginal story-song. The writer and traveler Bruce Chatwin brings this vivid method of history keeping and storytelling alive in his book SONG LINES. It seems that the whole of Australia can be crossed using only these Aboriginal songs as guide - is there a more extraordinary example of life adapting to Australian environment? Large Format films have long lives - maybe this one will adapt, evolve and one day be seen with a voice over that at least equals the power of the images."
- Herb Lash
Slow-mo kangaroos speed hop across the countryside captured in beautiful long cuts. When the camera runs alongside, you can see right into their eyes.
Unfortunately, too soon we fly to the dry, barren outback, cracking into unattractive rocks and cliffs.
Back to the animals, a momma koala carries junior on her back up a tree ... simply charming. And then the crocs.
This is a documentary of traditional style; a narrator educates our ears while our eyes gaze. The picture shifts to a computer animation of the Antarctic split. Though hardly impressive, the land mass division point is made. Back to the animals - which far and away give the most life (no pun intended) to the production. The majestic roos and cute koalas take center stage - surprisingly evolved from the same marsupial possum.
Then all attentions migrate to the vast desert ecosystem comprised of honey ants, ant-eating lizards, a six foot lizard that can outrun a human, the platypus, marble-eyed frogs, fish, a frenzy of birds and pelicans, and the water/dust cycle that rules their lives from reproduction to death. A sweeping storm front moves in in time-lapse, spectacular.
The title of the production unfairly implies a more comprehensive look at Australia. I was actually expecting its political history or at least a look into its people -- aboriginal to modern. These are not among the goals of the film which is at its best bringing to the big screen the natural wonder of some very beautiful and curious creatures mustering along in inhospitable environments. Slight disorganization and the barren wasteland sequence belie the picture's total effect and hamper its conclusion. Still, a very good way to see some of the grounds and critters of the land down under.
Fun Fact not in the film (but in its press notes):
The kangaroo retained its name from the aborigines. When European settlers first encountered the exotic creature, they asked..."What is it?" The Aborigines replied, "Kangaroo." (Which translates to "I don't understand.")"
- Ross Anthony
Leasing information
For more information on this film, please contact Charlotte Lazenberry at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
by phone at (713) 639-4725,
by fax at (713) 523-4125,
by email at clazenberry@hmns.org,
or by mail at:
HMNS Film Distribution,
One Hermann Circle Drive,
Houston, Texas, 77030.
# Of Leases: 56
Gross Box Office: $14,555,799
Formats Available: 15/70; 8/70
Language Version Available: Cantonese, Danish, English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish (Catalan), Spanish (Castilian), Swedish
For more information on any of these films or to request a complimentary Viewing Copy (DVD format) and Press Kit please contact Charlotte Brohi, VP, IMAX Operations & Production at cbrohi@hmns.org or by phone at 713-639-4725
Film Facts
- Year of Release:
- Running Time:
- Co-Producer & Director:
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- Writer:
- Original Music:
- Narrator:
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- Behind-the-Scenes:
- Film Highlight:
- 2002
- 47:03 minutes
- David Flatman
- Sue Flatman
- David Flatman & Les Murray
- David Bridie with Helen Mountfort
- Alex Scott
- Australia: Land Beyond Time is produced by Living Pictures (Australia) Pty Limited, in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Natural Science; Museum of Science, Boston; Cincinnati Museum Center; Denver Museum of Nature & Science; and the Museum of Science, Museum Victoria (Australia)
- To capture the now-famous sequence of two male kangaroos disputing ownership of territory the director and crew spent over six months staking out known kangaroo territory.
- The Earth's largest exposed rock, Uluru, is the symbol of Australia's red heart. It commemorates the relationship between life and the land. Originally named Ayer’s Rock, after its European discoverer, Uluru is the spiritual centre of the vast Australian continent for its traditional inhabitants.
"It opens with kangaroos, of course.
That odd-looking leaper, described by narrator Alex Scott as "the ultimate long-distance athlete," symbolizes the planet's largest island and strangest continent.
"Australia: Land Beyond Time" could not possibly cover all 3,000,000 square miles of that ancient, exotic land mass … about the size of the continental United States. But its breathtaking Imax-sized views impart a sense of awe and appreciation for the wonders of the land Down Under.
Computer renderings show how Australia has evolved, separating from Antarctica, holding a huge inland sea and then, through 50 million years of geological erosion, becoming the dry, flat expanse it is now.
But then the real fun begins with aerial swoops that close in on some of Mother Nature's most distinctive works.
Kangaroos and koalas, we learn, are descended from the same prehistoric opossums … small marsupials that adapted differently to the land's harsh climate.
We see burrowing mice who can go without water; honey ants that store food underground; and the thorny devil, one of the homeliest lizards in a world full of scaly reptiles. The battle between a different giant lizard and a king brown snake is reminiscent of the old Disney nature films, except it's shown on a building-size screen that envelops the observer.
There's also the platypus … the only egg-laying, amphibious mammal … and a nifty assortment of fish, frogs, birds and dingoes, the wild dogs who came over from Asia 4,000 years ago.
After acclimating us to Australia's vast desert, the film quickly shows us the occasional flooding that makes adaptability even more important to native creatures.
It's a quick but exciting visit to a faraway place."
- Bob Ross
"Australia: Land Beyond Time (Not rated, probably G) (43 min.) -- The newest addition to the IMAX lineup at Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry is a throwback to what the format intended to do: immerse viewers in a faraway place. No boy bands harmonizing, no mainstream hits stretched too wide for comfort, just a camera and a continent.
Australia isn't the most picturesque place IMAX has taken moviegoers, but it's certainly among the most interesting. Considered the driest vegetated continent on Earth, the place was a rain forest attached to Antarctica, also tropical, 30-million years ago. It's a continent where a prime geological attraction is the world's largest exposed rock, for goodness' sake. Take away Crocodile Dundee and whatever Outback is selling, and rural Down Under is a rugged dust bowl where survival is barely preferable to the alternative.
Yet, life finds a way there. Revealing how it happens, through 4-billion years of evolution creating some of the world's strangest animals, makes David Flatman's film constantly watchable. Even familiar creatures such as kangaroos and koala bears have more to their makeup than pop culture informs us. Australia: Land Beyond Time is filled with a-ha trivia (Did you know koalas rest for up to 19 hours each day?) and, of course, closer-than-close views of wildlife doing what comes naturally. The 'roos are the stars, and we see them kickboxing for courtship and a "joey" climbing into his mother's pouch.
Flatman's cameras were rolling when the Outback broke one of its droughts, which can last for a decade, kicking off a frenzy of feeding and breeding among fish, fowl, mammals and marsupials. The result is a food chain strong enough to sustain those dry periods, a recurring miracle of nature preserved on film. Alex Scott's scholarly narration often gets as dry as the landscape, befitting such a traditional museum piece.
One postscript: MOSI gets a thank you in the end credits for its financial support. Spokeswoman Beverly Littlejohn said the "donation" was a commitment to show the film for an extended engagement, meaning it will rotate in the IMAX Dome Theater lineup for the next few years. Australia: Land Beyond Time will showcased through Dec. 31. B-plus "
- Steve Persall