THE SAPPHIRES B
Australia (103 mi)
2012 d: Wayne Blair
Official site
This may be the feel good movie of the year, inspired by
real events, a reenactment of the lives of four Koori Aboriginal singers in Australia, based on a 2005 stage
play written by Tony Briggs, the son of one of the original singers, Laurel
Robinson, along with her sister Lois Peeler, and two cousins, Beverly Briggs
and Naomi Mayers. The director Wayne
Blair and cinematographer Warwick Thornton, who directed the uncompromisingly
bleak Samson
and Delilah (2009), are both of Aboriginal descent, as is much of the cast,
set in the late 60’s, an era when the State was still raiding Aboriginal
villages to remove light-skinned children and raise them in a white world, an
era known as “The Lost Generation.” In
the film they are all sisters coming from the Yorta Yorta community in
Victoria, the oldest Gail (Deborah Mailman, the only member of the original
cast), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), Julie (Jessica Mauboy), and Kay (Shari
Sebbens), who was stolen by the government and raised as white in Melbourne.
The film actually opens with John
Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater’s “Run Through the Jungle” Creedence Clearwater Revival:
Run Through The Jungle - YouTube (3:07), which includes the actual sound of
a Viet Cong rocket at the opening, a prelude of what’s to come. The two oldest sisters are seen holding their
own in an otherwise all-white talent contest singing Merle Haggard’s “Today I
Started Loving You Again” Merle
Haggard - Today I Started Lovin You Again - YouTube, where if truth be
told, they are the only act that can carry a tune, which certainly catches the
attention of the young, barely sober talent scout, Dave (Chris O’Dowd), who
attempts to offer them a complement afterwards but gets shot down by a fierce
independent streak from Gail, wanting no favors from some white Irishman who
wants to take them out of country & western and introduce them to soul
music. Cynthia has seen an ad looking
for talent to entertain the American GI’s in Vietnam,
and with that, Dave weasels his way into becoming their manager, where the real
talent is the next younger singer Julie, but her mother thinks she’s too
young. One of the other elders recalls
when the four sisters all sang together, and if their audition was in Melbourne,
they should look up their lost sister Kay.
With that, the journey begins.
While Dave is infatuated with Otis Redding, the girls are
hesitant, preferring Charlie Pride, but after a few quick lessons on soul
inspiration give Motown a whirl in their audition, Smokey Robinson & the
Miracles “Who’s Lovin’ You” The
Sapphires (2012) Audition [HD] - Chris O'Dowd, Deborah Mailman YouTube
(2:14). In no time, they’re whisked off
to Saigon, not really sure yet of their own identity, but they’re immediately
pushed onstage, sink or swim, to a room full of mostly raucous black GI’s,
performing Linda Lyndell’s “What a Man” THE SAPPHIRES - clip: What a man!
YouTube (2:20). As they make their way through Vietnam,
they only get stronger and more confident, where their costumes and dance
routines grow more sophisticated, becoming an Aboriginal version of the
Supremes. Like a road movie, each of the
girls is affected by the journey, where Gail has to give way being the lead
singer to Julie, but she still bosses everyone around, where Dave calls her the
Mama Bear, always looking after her cubs.
The film doesn’t duck much of the anger and resentment of the late 60’s,
including the Martin Luther King assassination, which left many American cities
in flames afterwards, and much of the film was shot in Vietnam, a racial
conglomeration where the girls are treated like rock stars, yet the film’s
greatest asset is the humorous interplay between the sisters, who continually
needle each another, but also belt one another on occasion, and seethe to the
racial strife that surrounds them. While
the lip-synched performances are often slightly askew, the songs are a
revelation, as the girls immerse themselves in soul classics, singing to
perfection the uplifting gospel sounds of Mavis Staples and the Staples
Singers, The
Staple Singers - I'll Take You There [Full Length Version] YouTube
(4:37). Jessica Mauboy as Julie was a
former Australian Idol runner-up,
actually winning the part over Casey Donovan, the youngest Idol winner ever at the age of 16, who held the role the longest in
the play, and Julie’s insertion to lead singer changes the entire dynamic of
the group, as her style is more pleadingly soulful, though the film is careful
to also insert a few chilling renditions of Yorta Yorta songs as well.
At first the viewers might think their immediate success was
without casualty or incident, as the initial focus is upon their instant rise
to success, but in Vietnam the war was never far away, actually finding them on
occasion, where Laurel Robinson recalls they often slept onstage, “It was so
scary—one night a bomb went off, the bed fell down and the place shook.” And while there are jolting moments where
they are literally caught up in firefights, the film never loses sight of the
interplay between characters, where the well-written dialogue is completely
believable. Dave’s all too humane role
takes on a certain prominence, where these girls literally resurrect his life,
much like he does for them. Perhaps
because he’s always forced to fight his way through the big sister protecting
her flock, whose acid tongue continually sets him straight, they develop a special
closeness, where the chemistry between Dowd and Mailman is magical, beautifully
expressed in the reading of a letter once they get separated by an incoming
hail of bullets. The drama of the film
is nicely balanced by both internal and external forces, as each of the sisters
develop challenging relationships, where the immersion into a war zone leads to
plenty of anxious and restless moments, but parallels Dave’s immersion into the
black and Aboriginal culture, where this kind of inquisitive social exploration
is a reflection of the late 60’s, an era not only of Civil Rights and social
justice in America, but in Australia it’s when Aboriginals were first given the
historic right to vote. Largely joyful
and uplifting, the film has a rousing power of its own through music and
performance, where we learn three original members of the group now work at the
Aboriginal Medical Service where Naomi Mayers has been the chief executive for
30 years, and Lois Peeler was Australia’s first Aboriginal model and is now
executive director of a secondary education facility for young Aboriginal women.
