AustLit

'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), directed by Fred Schepisi, is an Australian New Wave film about a young Indigenous Australian man’s struggle for recognition in pre-federation Australia, a futile pursuit that leads him to commit acts of violence against his colonial oppressors, an event based on the 1900 Breelong murders. It is this element of violence, in particular, the first act against the Newby family, that emerges as a paradoxical element that has troubled many critics of the film. Several immediate local reviewers of the film specifically addressed this aspect, claiming that the violent act “unbalances” the film (Jennings 26) and feels “overprepared and under-defined” (Connolly, qtd. in Donnar) and that otherwise “there seems insufficient reason” for it (Coster, qtd. in Donnar). The film’s violence also led to difficulties in its international marketing, with its inclusion in the United Kingdom’s “Section 3 Video Nasties” list of VHS films liable to be seized and confiscated, as well as having to be reedited in order to be released in the United States.' (Introduction)