Film

Australia

Baz Luhrmann's maximalist epic set in pre-WWII Australia, where a prim English aristocrat and a roguish drover fall in love while herding cattle across the outback and witnessing the Japanese bombing of Darwin. It's sweeping, romantic, visually lavish, and unapologetically theatrical—a film that swings for the fences.

TMDb rating3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love big, old-fashioned epics where sweeping landscapes, a slow-building romance and a sprawling cattle drive matter as much as the plot, and you don't mind a film that wears its heart openly.

Skip it if you want something lean and tightly edited, since at 165 minutes it sprawls, leans on melodrama and shifts tone more than once in ways that can feel uneven.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a long, unhurried ride with big swells of emotion, stretches of quiet travel, and a willingness to let the scale and sentiment carry you.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Out of Africa1985

Another grand period romance between English aristocracy and a rougher colonial lover, set against landscape and historical upheaval. Similar scale, similar emotional architecture, but with a quieter, more reflective tone.

But It moves at a stately pace and rewards patience rather than spectacle. Some find its quietness more moving; others find it slow.

Out of Africa poster

The English Patient1996

Epic romance across impossible terrain with stunning cinematography, a fractured narrative structure, and that same sense of love tested by history and geography. Lush and ambitious in similar ways.

But The love story is told backwards through memory and loss. If you want propulsive forward momentum, this won't deliver it.

The English Patient poster

Brokeback Mountain2005

A story about two men drawn together across a landscape (Wyoming mountains rather than Australian outback), with that same tension between desire and circumstance, tenderness and restraint. Beautifully acted and genuinely moving.

But It's far more intimate and introspective than Australia's theatricality. Much quieter, and it ends in grief rather than triumph.

Brokeback Mountain poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Australia

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Walkabout1971

Both films use the Australian landscape as a crucible where English characters' assumptions are tested. But Walkabout refuses the romance, the triumph, and the centering of English experience—it's Australia's shadow self.

An Aboriginal boy guides two English children across the Australian outback after a tragedy. It's visually stunning, wordless for stretches, and uses landscape as a character the way Australia does—but it's a haunting spiritual meditation rather than a romance, exploring colonialism from a radically different angle.

But It moves slowly, often silently, and the ending is devastating rather than triumphant. It's also a product of 1971 cinema, which means the framing of its Indigenous characters reflects its era.

Walkabout poster
More like this (6)

The Great Gatsby2013

Luhrmann's visual signature is all over both films—opulent, heightened, committed to romance as spectacle. If you loved Australia's aesthetic ambition, this shares its DNA while telling a tighter story.

But It compresses a complex novel into a narrower emotional register. The excess can feel like a substitute for depth.

The Great Gatsby poster

Legends of the Fall1994

Epic family saga across landscape and time, with beautiful cinematography, warring brothers, and a woman caught between them. Brooding and romantic in equal measure, with real historical weight.

But It's melancholic and fatalistic. There's beauty here, but not much joy, and it doesn't end triumphantly.

Legends of the Fall poster

Far and Away1992

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as Irish immigrants crossing America—another Luhrmann-adjacent adventure romance with an accent on spectacle, humor, and genuine affection between the leads.

But The tone is lighter and more playful than Australia. It veers toward adventure-comedy rather than epic drama, which might feel slight by comparison.

Far and Away poster

19172019

A single-take war film following two soldiers across no-man's-land with the same commitment to landscape-as-character. It shares Australia's fascination with how terrain shapes human experience and survival.

But It's relentlessly tense and bleak. There's no romance, little humor, and it views war as meaningless machinery rather than historical event.

1917 poster

Red Dust1932

An earlier film set in French Indochina with a similar triangle: a man, a woman, colonial setting, and the outback-equivalent in lush danger. It's where some of Australia's DNA actually comes from.

But It's in black and white and moves at 1930s pace. The gender politics are dated in ways that matter. You'll need patience and historical generosity.

Red Dust poster

Fury2014

Both films collapse the boundary between personal drama and historical event. But where Australia uses history as backdrop for romance, Fury uses it as a machine that grinds everyone down equally.

A war film about men bonding in extremity across a blasted landscape, with strong performances and a commitment to making historical trauma visceral. It shares Australia's epic scope and its belief that action and emotion can coexist.

But It's a tank-warfare film—brutal, claustrophobic, and unrelentingly dark. There's no romance, little beauty, and it views war as mechanized horror rather than historical moment.

Fury poster

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