Film
The Squatter's Daughter
A 1933 Australian western about land, livestock, and a headstrong woman caught between feuding sheep station owners. It's the rare early sound film made in Australia that actually feels like it belongs there—dusty, practical, shot with an eye for real landscape rather than studio artifice. For anyone curious about cinema outside Hollywood's golden age.
If you liked this
The Man from Snowy River1982
A rousing adventure about Australian frontier life, with stunning mountain cinematography and a story about a young man proving himself through horsemanship and courage. It has the same love of rugged landscape and pastoral heroism.
But It's a fairly conventional action-adventure film—no narrative surprises, and the gender dynamics won't challenge you.
Brokeback Mountain2005
A western about isolation, forbidden desire, and two men bound to land and duty across decades. Like The Squatter's Daughter, it uses the frontier setting to explore how landscape and social pressure shape relationships.
But It's slow and melancholic, and centres a grief that builds rather than resolves. Not what you'd call entertaining.
The Big Country1958
An epic western about rival ranches, land disputes, and a woman caught between men of different worlds. The same bones as The Squatter's Daughter, but American and in full colour—a chance to see how the story plays in a different context.
But Nearly two and a half hours, and deliberately paced. It's landscape and character, not gunfights.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Squatter's Daughter
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Jedda1955
Both are early Australian films that use the landscape as a character and a battleground, with a woman's agency at stake.
The first Australian feature to involve Aboriginal actors in lead roles, about a girl caught between two worlds. It's a companion piece to The Squatter's Daughter—made 22 years later but still grappling with the same Australian landscape and the question of who belongs to it.
But It's a product of its era, with uncomfortable racial attitudes baked in. The drama is melodramatic by modern standards.
More like this (7)
Picnic at Hanging Rock1975
An Australian film with that same hypnotic quality of early 1930s cinema—mysterious, atmospheric, obsessed with landscape as a force. It's a masterpiece of mood and suggests what's possible in Australian filmmaking.
But It's a mystery that refuses to explain itself. Some find that profound; others find it frustrating.
True Grit2010
A western centred on a determined woman negotiating power in a man's world, with real grit and humour. It has the same interest in character and moral clarity that drives The Squatter's Daughter.
But It's Coen Brothers precious, which some viewers bounce right off. Also very American in sensibility.
Johnny Guitar1954
A strange, brilliant western with a woman at its centre—a saloon owner with her own code, caught between rival men. It's weird in ways that reward repeated viewing, and the gender politics are genuinely ahead of their time.
But It's visually theatrical and extremely mannered. The dialogue is often laughably florid.
The Ballad of Little Jo1993
A true story of a woman who lived as a man in the American frontier. It has the same interest in a woman's agency in a landscape that doesn't want to give her any, and in how identity is performed.
But It's deliberately unglamorous and slow. The tone is measured rather than dramatic.
The Piano1993
A New Zealand gothic about a mute woman, her piano, and colonial desire. It's visually stunning and sexually frank in ways that were genuinely shocking. A woman's interiority made visible.
But It's violent and unsettling, with sexual content that some find exploitative. The pacing is deliberate to the point of numbness.
Wake in Fright1971
It's an Australian film that uses isolation and landscape to explore character under pressure, but inverts The Squatter's Daughter's faith in the land and in human bonds.
A nightmarish Australian film about a man trapped in the outback during a heat wave, descending into drink and violence. It's the anti-pastoral—it shows the same landscape as hostile, isolating, and morally corrupting.
But It's deeply unpleasant—drunk, brutal, and never gives you a moment of comfort. Some find it unwatchable.
Badlands1973
Both use frontier landscape as a reflection of internal states; both are ultimately about whether love survives when the land itself is against you.
Two young lovers on the run through the American frontier, told with dreamlike poetry by Terrence Malick. It has the same interest in landscape as destiny and in how love and belonging play out against wilderness.
But It's a style film above all—more interested in images and sound than narrative momentum. Some will find it pretentious or dull.
People
Cast
Constance WorthJoan Enderby- Grant LyndsayWayne Ridgeway
- John WarwickClive Sherrington
- Fred MacDonaldShearer
- W. Lane-BayliffOld Ironbark
- Dorothy DunckleyMiss Ramsbottom