Ernie Dingo Movies

Based on the best-selling memoirs of the late Dame Mary Durack, this big-budget Australian historical drama miniseries traces three generations of the Duracks. After several family deaths, the Duracks flee Irish famines of the 1840s for a better life Down Under, where they make a fortune with Queensland cattle -- only to lose it all in a property crash near the turn of the century, prompting patriarch Patsy Durack (Stephen Dillane, of Welcome to Sarajevo) to reflect, "If it's kings we are, it's kings in grass castles that may be blown away in the wind." Compressing 75 years into four hours, the Durack saga is set against the wider tapestry of pioneering Australian history during the 19th Century. Premiered March 29, and April 5, 1998 on Seven Network Australia. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Rita Rudner was both co-writer and co-star of this multi-plotted romantic comedy, set in a bed and breakfast in the middle of Southern California's wine country. In the course of the film's 90 minutes, a number of curiously matched couples will find true romance -- and sometimes even true happiness. Standout performances amongst the star-studded cast include Rita Rudner's turn as a pregnant food critic, Jack Lemmon as a desperate concert promoter, and Dudley Moore as a lonely vintner. Made for cable television, A Weekend in the Country debuted June 12, 1996, on the USA network; a mildly R-rated version was later prepared for home video release. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Burned Bridge concerns the racial tensions that escalate between white people and aboriginals after the murder of a native girl. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Imagine, if you will, the plight of poor inner-city youths in crime and gang-ridden neighborhoods, combined with the problems that many native Americans experience off the reservation in terms of divided loyalties and separation from their culture and families. That is a pretty fair approximation of the situation many Australian Aborigine young people experience today in large cities. This stark drama is based on a book by Aborigine writer Archie Weller. Doug (John Moore) has already had some run-ins with the law, and is just getting out of prison. He wants to remain law-abiding, but the pull of his old family and friends (who are deeply embroiled in a life of crime) is very strong. When he is asked to help a friend pull off a robbery, he knows it's a bad idea but he goes along anyway, with tragic results. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Wim Wenders's sprawling cyberpunk noir epic -- shot in no less than nine different countries -- is set in 1999 and stars Solveig Dommartin as Claire, a young Frenchwoman who comes into contact with a large sum of money stolen during a bank heist; in her travels she picks up a mysterious American hitchhiker (William Hurt), who himself steals some of the money before parting from her company. Upon discovering the theft, Claire sets out on his trail, with both a Hammett-styled German private eye (Rudiger Vogler) as well as her former lover, a novelist portrayed by Sam Neill, in tow. The hitchhiker is really Sam Farber, the son of an underground scientist (Max Von Sydow), and his mission is to travel the globe in order to acquire the funding necessary to develop the technology which will allow his blind mother (Jeanne Moreau) to "see" visual recordings of her family members; the second half of the film takes place largely in the Farbers' compound in the Australian Outback, where Sam, Claire and the others take refuge while attempting to bring the sight project to its fruition, in the meantime pondering earth's future in the wake of a nuclear disaster in outer space. Wenders' most ambitious film, budgeted at $23 million, Until the End Of the World ran into serious issues given its whopping length. The original cut ran 20 hours. Realizing that this would make theatrical screenings impossible, Wenders heavily edited the picture and wound up with a 5-hour cut with which he is reportedly satisfied (known as the 'Director's Cut'). Warners wouldn't go for this either, however, and whittled it down to 2 1/2. That version - which premiered theatrically in the U.S. on Christmas Day 1991- makes little sense ,with a disjointed narrative that doesn't shift gears so much as grind them as the action moves from country to country. Unsurprisingly, it confounded critics and lay viewers and infuriated its director, who all but disowned it. (Echoes of Once Upon a Time in America!) As with the Leone film, though, the Director's Cut of World did evetually see the light of day. It's now widely available in a multi-disc collector's set throughout Europe, and the public response to that version has been far more favorable. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Waltz Through the Hills is set in the Australian outback. A pair of orphans, not wishing to be separated, attempt to traverse the Down Under continent in order to reach a ship bearing their loving grandparents. They are aided during their odyssey by affable native Ernie Dingo (wanna bet that's not his real name?) Though initally frightened by Dingo, the children come to love him as dearly as any blood relative. A Waltz Through the Hills debuted in the US as a two-part presentation on PBS' Wonderworks television series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bruce Beresford returned to the austerity of his first Australian films with The Fringe Dwellers. Kristina Nehm stars as an Aborigine woman named Trilby, who along with her tribespeople lives on the fringes of "accepted" Australian society. Trilby's mother (Justine Saunders) urges her family to remove themselves from squalor and move up to a fashionable all-white suburb. What with the snobbery of her new neighbors and an onslaught of visiting relatives, Trilby never has a moment of happiness. She seeks solace in the arms of her boyfriend (Ernie Dingo), but this only results in an unwanted pregnancy. Her "escape" to a better life is an indirect result of her newborn child's death. Bruce and Rhoisin Beresford adapted the script of The Fringe Dwellers from the novel by Nene Gare. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi