The Good, Bad, and Mixed Changes of 'Faraway Downs'

Thoughts on how the miniseries compares to the theatrical 'Australia'

Jan 16, 2024

Back in November, I wrote about the Baz Luhrmann movie Australia, where I provided some thoughts on the film and predicted what we might see in its upcoming televi-sion miniseries version Faraway Downs. Since then, I’ve seen all six chapters of Downs and now wanted to share some thoughts on the miniseries and whether or not it constitutes an improvement on the theatrical cut (TC).

**Screencap:** The main title of the miniseries. Image courtesy of Disney.

In particular, I want to discuss whether or not my predictions for the series panned out, as well as the good, bad, and mixed changes it makes to the assemblage.

So, obviously, this post is going to contain spoilers.

Table of Contents

The Ending

Based on the evidence available both in the film and in its various behind-the-scenes paratexts (interviews, articles, etc.), I predicted that the series would notably expand the rushed opening of the film, fill out the compressed second half of the picture, and most importantly, restore what I believed was the initially intended ‘Drover dies’ ending, allowing the story to conclude on a fittingly tragic note.

Turned out, I was pretty much right about everything.

And while I will talk about some of the other things further down the line, right now I want to focus on the changes to the ending. Fact is, when Downs premiered, I couldn’t help but skip to the final episode and check out the climactic scene where Neil Fletcher tries to murder Nullah to see if I was right about how it would differ.

Well, I ended up doing a bunch of fist pumps, because I’d called it: everything is pretty much the same up to the moment where Fletcher seems to fire. Here, we get an additional sound of a gunshot and then we get a cut to alternate footage, where Nullah now has blood on his face and it’s revealed that the Drover has been wounded. Bleeding out, he says his final words to Sarah and Nullah before dying in their arms.

This to me is indeed the true ending of the movie, and one completely in line with its postmodern subversive ethos. It is a heartbreaking, beautifully tragic scene.

It is everything the movie was building to. It is wonderfully acted by Jackman and Kidman. It is also a little funny.

I mean, the goodbye is so sincere and so protracted that one can’t help but chuckle a little, in my opinion. And I mean that in a good way. Because it’s important to keep in mind that Luhrmann isn’t going for full on melodrama, he’s sending it up a tad.

Probably, the part where people are meant to start registering the irony is when the Drover reveals his real name. And what an utterly unremarkable name it is!

**Screencap:** I can’t sadly get a screencap of the Drover’s death scene. Image courtesy of Disney.

Say it out loud with me now: Jack Clancy.

And it turns out Sarah didn’t know it, which is utterly implausible and yet completely true to this film’s internal logic. After all, The Drover up to this point seemed like an invincible, mythic, larger than life figure. He was “The Drover,” the film’s equivalent of the archetypal cowboy. So, it’s all too fitting that in the end he is completely demystified. By giving Sarah and thus the viewers his name, he becomes fully human.

He was just a guy, who in the end died protecting the people he loved.

This is beautiful, wonderful, post-ironic stuff. And I completely see why audiences would want a resolution where everyone lives happily ever after. Had Luhrmann left it in, I think some folks would’ve burned the theaters down.

So, I’m so, so happy that it’s back in Faraway Downs, allowing it to realize the full tragic potential of Australia.*

*If anything, I wish that Luhrmann had left out the part where Drover tells Nullah that he’s the new station manager. I think this beat is a tad extraneous, especially as in the very next scene, Nullah ends up leaving Sarah as well by going on a walkabout with his grandfather.

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Good Changes

The restoration of the tragic ending is great in and of itself.

But what about the rest of the additions? Well, I wouldn’t have restored everything we get here but most of the new footage really helps fill out the rushed storytelling of the TC, providing the work as a whole with a much better and more consistent pace.

The first and fifth episodes in particular benefit from having extra breathing room, making it easier to follow the setups of the plot and the flow of information about all the different characters and factions involved. Lurhrmann also has found what feel like natural breaking points for the ‘chapters’ to end. There’s an actual sense of some conclusiveness to a given plot setup when an episode fades to black and does its own individual credit role, so it doesn’t feel like the movie was just arbitrarily cut up into chunks as I’ve seen happen with some TV-style extensions (eg. The Hateful Eight).*

* As I suspected, each episode has an intro and ending title credit sequence. The intro is an animated sequence, with a new key song and is pretty nice.

Now then, I’ll share some brief thoughts on specific additions that stood out to me across the various episodes.

10,000 Pounds

There are lots of little things changed in the first two episodes but my personal favorite addition is the subplot about Sarah specifically hoping to secure 10,000 pounds by selling Faraway Downs. This gives her a more concrete narrative goal early on and strengthens her character arc as a whole.

When we get to Episode 4 later and Sarah turns down Carney’s offer of 75,000 pounds, it becomes a lot more evident that she’s pivoted away from being interested solely in money and has come to care about the people that live on her ranch.

Crossing the Kuraman

There is an amazing new sequence in Chapter 3 that shows the main characters crossing the Kuraman, where they have to brave several days of heat and sun in the desert without water before wandering into a massive sandstorm. Things get scary and surreal, as Nullah starts to experience visions of the future after seeing a downed Japanese biplane. I’m REALLY happy to see this restoration, as it is beautiful and it really helps create the impression that they might not make it out alive.

Nature Takes Its Course

The death of king Carney is indeed extended, as I’d hoped, but only briefly. I rather like the new scene itself, but there's a related change that I did not enjoy. In the TC, Carney basically disowns Neil upon discovering that he had murdered Maitland Ashley, claiming that if anything happens to his daughter, then Neil will be cut out. By contrast, in Faraway Downs Carney doesn’t disown Neil but only chastises him, calling him an idiot. This results in an interesting difference character-wise.

I actually like what happened in the TC, as it revealed Carney to be more sympathetic and nuanced than previously believed. Carney in Downs, by contrast, is far less moral a person. He isn’t shaken by what Neil had done, which explains why Carney then takes Neil with him when he goes hunting, a plot point that seemed a tad confusing given their relationship in the TC.

Now, it’s not until the full hunting scene at the very end of Chapter 4 that Carney makes clear to Neil that he is no longer interested in Faraway Downs and that his empire will only ever go to his daughter Catherine. This is a really nice scene as it shows that Carney isn’t at all scare of Neil, who chooses to let ‘nature to take its course’ by basically letting Carney get eaten by a crocodile.

This benefits Neil’s character development but it diminishes Carney’s, who ultimately comes off less sympathetic here in his final moments than in the TC and remains, sadly, underutilized as a character.

Overall then, I think I prefer the TC resolution of Carney’s fate. But I also believe it would’ve been better, had the brief glimpses we got of the hunting scene been removed entirely. That is, Luhrmann should’ve just referenced Carney’s death via newspaper imagery and dialogue, while leaving the rest to the imagination.

An Achilles Heart

I quite like the extensions about King George and the Walkabout, and I do believe there is added footage establishing why Ashley heads to Darwin. There is also a nice little extra scene between Fletcher and Sarah at the end, where Sarah demands all the children taken to mission island be removed and Fletcher comments that she has an “Achilles Heart.” This is why he states he will have the ‘original contract’ with the original offer drawn up.

Not-So-Good Changes

The Mixed: A New Score

Wishing to better foreground the story of Nullah and the plight of the Lost Generations, Luhrmann has given the film’s soundtrack a significant overhaul. There are a lot of new Indigenous tracks in the miniseries. And though I think Luhrmann meant well and the main opening credit theme by Budjerah and Matt Corby is really good, I’m not sure the new tracks always fit the original footage that well.

Take the ending, for example. I love it, and yet I miss the suspenseful music of TC leading up to the shooting. The new score here just doesn’t have the same impact.*

*Perhaps part of the problem is that the new tracks simply don’t mesh all that well with the original instrumental scores that remain in the movie.

The Bad: Colors and Subtitles

Like so many years-later revisions, Faraway Downs has received a new color grade. And I would say that it is unfortunately a step down from the TC.

Australia had a lush, vibrant, and somewhat exaggerated color palette that arguably played up the throwback vibe of the film and its sense of artificiality. Downs, meanwhile, seems to be going for a more naturalistic and muted look overall, losing the TC’s sumptuousnes.

This, in my mind, is not a good change, at least in the early going. The first two episodes just look kinda muddy and bland, at least in comparison to their theatrical counterparts. The scene of Lady Ashley in England in particular suffers from a lack of saturation. Things improve from Chapter 3 onwards, but nonetheless the footage just doesn’t look as nice as it used to.

Another issue I have: the addition of Nullah’s subtitles. It’s a change that I don’t believe was at all necessary, and I find it at times to be downright distracting.

To clarify, whenever aboriginal characters speak in their native language, their dialogue is subtitled in English for audience comprehension. Nullah, by contrast, predominantly speaks English in both iterations of the film but a somewhat broken English, mixed with his own native language, that perhaps isn’t always comprehensible. This, of course, is a mark of his status as a half-caste child.

Adding subtitles to his English is perhaps a means to align him more with the other aboriginal characters. In theory, this isn’t a bad idea, but in practice this breaks immersion by having subtitles for English in some instances and not others. Moreover, it also singles Nullah out, and arguably otherizes him, which conflicts with the work’s intention. Here, I’d say, the TC definitely wins out.

Final Verdict - Which version is the best?

Overall, I would say that both iterations of the film have their pros and cons.

I certainly appreciate the extended length of Faraway Downs, which allows the story to breathe, and especially the restoration of the original ending. But I also think from an audiovisual standpoint, the theatrical film is indeed richer, with a deeper, brighter color palette and a superior score.

I think a truly definitive version of Australia would find a middle ground between the theatrical and television cuts. Imagine much of the extra footage in Downs combined with the colors, music, and unobtrusive subtitles of the theatrical Australia. Maybe we’ll see something like that in 5 years, for the film’s 20th anniversary? Who knows?

One thing I want to add is that I’m sad that Downs isn’t leading to a true critical re-appreciation of the film in the US. Reading the reviews makes it clear that a whole lot of people still don’t get that Australia was a postmodern parody of epic romances.

Oh, well. I’m certain the international reception is better, just as it was in 2008.

But what do you think?

Is Faraway Downs a good version of the film? Is it better than the theatrical?

Does it play well as a streaming series?

Did Luhrmann make the right choice to restore the tragic ending?

Please leave a comment! (Or perhaps a note.)

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