Sweet Country

A somewhat grim western set in the 1920s, "Sweet Country" takes the familiar tale of the murderous native pursued by the authorities and plays it on a wider scale. Warick Thornton started as a cinematographer and he captures the outback in impressive scale, He's also got a pretty solid cast - Hamilton Morris as the farmer who's antagonized by a young war veteran until circumstances force him to take violent revenge, Bryan Brown as the trooper who goes after him and Sam Neill as the preacher who comes on the journey in hope he can stop things from getting too violent. Ewan Leslie as the war vet is, perhaps, a little overplayed (Leslie is a powerhouse stage actor but, at least in this case, he's a little adrift in a character that allows little place for subtlety). 

The film is at its best while the pursuit is underway - Brown and Neill play against each other well, and the images of people chasing through the outback are breathtaking. The ending feels a little flatter and perhaps a little drawn out on its way to a grim resolution. But all in all this is a reasonably solid film.