The Sapphires

The Sapphires

Introduction

The film 'The Sapphires' is directed by Wayne Blair and produced by Goalpost Pictures. It is Australian comedy drama that portrays the story of four indigenous women that together forms a music group named 'The Sapphires', led by their talent scout named Dave, and set their journey to Vietnam in the year 1968 in order to perform and sing for American troops. The movie defines the life of talented singers originated from a remote Aboriginal mission of the time period of late 60's (Behrendt, 2012). Cynthia, Kay, Julie and Gail are the four young and talented aboriginal girls of the music group who begin their musical lives belting out western'n'country in tatty bars to the disdain of some nose-wrinkling white folk. The movie depicts the treatment and the race of the Australian's Aboriginals' 'Stolen Generation'.

Discussion

Scene # 01 - Kay saved their lives by speaking Vietnamese

Kay is a fair skinned girl who originally is the cousin of the three sisters. Most of the dramatic moments of the movie is delivered by her. Example, before the armed Vietnamese locals, Kay outrageously defends her cousins and participates in the indigenous ceremony portrayed in the Vietnamese language. Quite how Kay became fluent in what I take to be Vietnamese (she says “I speak your language with your permission”) in one crucial scene. Since the racial division was significant in Australia in the year of 1968, therefore, The Sapphires were introduced as American or Tahitian to make them more acceptable to the white audiences. The film portrays the racism and the singers encountered in reflection to the contemporary anger with the Vietnam War (St &Feagin, 1999). The Vietnam War is raging. Thousands of miles away, the four aboriginal girls stand in a row, orange dolls in front of an alien panel. They waver as nerves cut through their steely calm. The film provides a slightly sanitised, but still worthwhile, picture of an interesting time in the world and Australian history (Berndt, 1974). The Aborigines were portrayed as being loving and strong, and how many Aborigines have white as well as black blood, and struggle to straddle both cultures. There's a vague subplot about being ashamed of one's skin colour and a shy swipe at the white government of that time (Morgan, 2011). 

Scene # 02 - The conflict between Gail and Kay

It's 1969, and the McCrae sisters are living together in Melbourne. Gail, the oldest sister is a believer in tough love and stern protectiveness. Kay is the level-headed second oldest sister who loves her family but who always seems a little lonely. They pick up their cousin Kay (Shari Sebbens), a pale-skinned Aboriginal who was stolen when she was 10 by the Australian government and taught to pass as a white girl and rose as if she were white. The other girls, although they know she didn't ask to be taken, resent what they consider being her feeling of superiority to them. Except for a brief return when Kay's mother died, the ...