The New Boy
Warwick Thornton’s historical fable set in 1940s Australia is both unforgettable and unsatisfactory.
Cate Blanchett and Aswan Reid
Born in 1970 in Alice Springs, Warwick Thornton has for some years now been a leading figure in Australian cinema working as photographer, writer and director. Significantly he is one of the country’s Aboriginal people, a Kaytetye, and that fact has played a key role in the films that he has made himself. In 2009 it was his Aboriginal tale Samson and Delilah that won the Camera d’Or as best first feature in the Cannes film festival and his other most memorable work, 2017’s Sweet Country, was a tale set in the 1920s which again incorporated racial issues. Now we have The New Boy which takes place during the Second World War but is located in the Australian desert and focuses on the experiences of a nine-year-old Aboriginal boy (Aswan Reid). When running wild he is seized and taken to join other children in an orphanage where Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett) is in charge.
The story that unfolds carries echoes of earlier films, not least Phillip Noyce’s much-admired Rabbit-Proof Fence of 2002 which studied the injustice of government policy in Australia in 1931 which involved the removal of Aboriginal children to be put into servitude in white homes. The New Boy although set in the next decade begins by referring to the declared intention of the authorities to "Breed Out the Black" and, regardless of the particular era depicted, this is a theme which resonates today in a world still so marked by racist issues but also now looking back and reassessing actions taken in the past. That alone is sufficient to explain why Thornton would want to make this film and why Cate Blanchett would want to be involved in it not only as an actress but as a producer. Nevertheless, in addition to that it draws on the fact that in his own life Thornton was an indigenous child placed in a Catholic school.
In the event, however, The New Boy proves to be an uneven work. Its virtues are clear and self-evident. Thornton is once again the photographer and the wide screen images are splendid readily maintaining his high reputation in this field. It is also the case that the casting of Aswan Reid is a major asset: this child actor is not only wonderfully natural in his acting but is also possessed of a most expressive presence and that is all the more significant because the boy does not speak English and so much needs to be conveyed about his feelings without the use of words. The music provided by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is very well judged and I count it a further gain that, despite the film being so critical of what is being done in the orphanage, the portrayals of Sister Eileen and of her helper who is always referred to as Sister Mum (Deborah Mailman) present them as sincere and concerned in their Christian outlook. There is no risk of caricature here and Blanchett and Mailman play their roles accordingly.
But, if these aspects ensure that there is much of quality in The New Boy, there is also quite a strong debit side. Apparently when the film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival it run for 116 minutes but it's now been reduced to 96. I don't know the circumstances of that change but would guess that the extra footage would not help to resolve the film’s most basic problems. When I saw Thornton’s Samson and Delilah, I considered its wonderful imagery far better judged than its storytelling and subsequently had a decided preference for Sweet Country. Perhaps it mattered that Thornton was a co-writer on the former film but had no screenplay credit on the latter. Now on The New Boy he has the sole writing credit and has made a number of decisions that I find problematic. First and foremost, there is the fact that the central concern of the film – white Christian supremacy imposing on ethnic minorities with other beliefs – lends itself to a naturalistic presentation and, if in this instance it turns out that the boy has extraordinary healing powers of his own, that is an extension that could be but is not necessarily too extreme (he enables one of the other boys to recover from a snake bite by sucking out the venom). However, Thornton goes beyond that by giving him totally unrealistic abilities as when from the palm of his hand he is able to set off trails of light that seem afire. This comes close to introducing an element of magical realism into a tale that does not call for it and indeed as the film becomes ever more symbolical and contrived there are scenes that seem to want us to see the boy as himself akin to a Christ figure even to the extent of giving him stigmata.
Rather less crucially, the film has a back story that is never properly examined (unless by any chance the longer version of the film filled it out). There is no obvious need to do more than to show the boy placed with others already in the care of Sister Eileen. Nevertheless, we are introduced to her as somebody who claims to be helping the old priest who is running the orphanage when in reality he has died. That fact is covered up so the real standing of the two sisters and of the man who helps them (Wayne Blair) is decidedly dubious despite their religious beliefs being devout. However, one accepts this set-up without too much difficulty. What is far more problematical is trying to understand what all the fanciful additions around the boy are meant to mean. Some heightened scenes could be taken as a sign that regardless of the historical accuracy of the background The New Boy is intended to be taken as not that far removed from being a parable or a fable. But, even if one can accept it on those terms, the film still needs to be a work that speaks clearly. Although we know where our sympathies lie historically, Thornton’s elaborations serve only to confuse. Thanks to the best things in The New Boy, it is impossible not to be impressed by it, but at the same time I wonder how many viewers will ultimately regard it as being a satisfactory film.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Aswan Reid, Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair, Cate Blanchett, Shane McKenzie Brady, Tyrique Brady, Tyler Rockman Spencer, Laiken Beau Woolmington, Kailem Miller, Tyzailin Roderick, Kyle Miller.
Dir Warwick Thornton, Pro Cate Blanchett, Lorenzo De Maio, Kath Shelper and Andrew Upton, Screenplay Warwick Thornton, Ph Warwick Thornton, Pro Des Amy Baker, Ed Nick Meyers, Music Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Costumes Heather Wallace.
Dirty Films/Scarlett Pictures/Fremantle/Longridge/Screen Australia-Signature Entertainment.
96 mins. Australia. 2023. UK Rel: 15 March 2024. Cert. 15.
