The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978)

Directed by

Fred Schepisi

Genre

Western film, bushranging film

Country

Australia

Runtime

2h

Rated

18A

Rating

6.7 of 10 from 68 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An exploited Aboriginal Australian man commits a series of murders and flees into the wilderness. The film follows his desperate journey and the manhunt that pursues him.

tenseharrowingtragicbleakrawemotionalintenseviolent

What happens

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a 1978 Australian drama film directed, written and produced by Fred Schepisi, and starring Tom E. Lewis (billed at the time as Tommy Lewis), Freddy Reynolds and Ray Barrett. The film also featured early appearances by Bryan Brown, Arthur Dignam, and John Jarratt. It is an adaptation of the 1972 novel The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally. The story is about an exploited Aboriginal Australian who commits murder and goes into hiding. It is based on actual events surrounding Jimmy Governor. The film was critically acclaimed, but lost A$179,000 at the box office. For Schepisi, the film's reception was a disillusioning experience and he left Australia soon after to work in Hollywood, returning to Australia ten years later to make Evil Angels. While not prosecuted for obscenity, the film was seized and confiscated in the UK under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the video nasty panic. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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