The following is an excerpt from our High Ground Study Companion, available on the resources page of our website.
Given its release date of 2021, High Ground allows a contemporary audience the opportunity to consider the brutality of Australia’s history and the treatment of First Nations people. Some critics have described the film as following the tropes of a traditional ‘western’. ‘Westerns’, films centred around the conquest of the American west and the battles between ‘cowboys and Indians’, told stories of revenge and of heroes in battle, doing whatever necessary to advance their cause. Where High Ground is unique is that it is not told from one solitary perspective, and no clear hero emerges from the text. Australia’s history is littered with violence and dispossession. Johnson offers no perfect solution, nor justification for the past. Rather, the audience is left with the discomfort of the futility of the violence, with no clear resolution reached come the end of the film. Johnson depicts the horrors of massacres in an overt fashion, displaying the violence and the horrors of the murders carried out at the beginning of the film. Such a devastating scene creates an uneasy experience for viewers, with Johnson raising questions of the brutality of the past and the inherent violence of those who looked to ‘settle’ the land.
“You know how civilisation’s built, son? Bad men. Bad men doing bad things, clearing the way for the others to follow. Bad men like me and you. Whatever made you think you could change who you are?”
A modern Australian audience can consider the brutality of Australian history whilst examining the attitudes of characters such as Moran and Eddy. Eddy is seemingly unaffected by the massacre, reminding Travis that “they’re dead” and “what matters is that we act as a unit”. This is emblematic of a cavalier and indifferent attitude, further exhibited through his exclamation that “you can’t share a country”. Further exploration of how one could come to feel such indifference to other human beings is examined as Eddy angrily challenges Travis, asking if he “blame[s]” him and whether the massacre, “all of it”, is his “fault”. Through this exchange, the audience can question the extent to which an individual can be held accountable for the prevailing attitudes of a larger group, or whether it is the willingness of individuals to carry out such abhorrent behaviour that allows groups such as the European settlers to impose themselves upon another culture so aggressively and arrogantly.
What is clearly conveyed is the desire to ‘settle’ the land and the dismissal of the Indigenous Australians and their way of life. Moran looks to justify his attitude and the behaviour of the men working under him as a necessary function of settlement. Through his ceremonial uniform, and the taking of various photographs, Moran is dedicated to weaving a narrative of the white settlers creating a life for themselves amongst a hostile land. He believes that it is the “responsibility of those who make history to record it”, a statement that fails to acknowledge the existence of the first Australians who had lived on the land for thousands of years previous.
Ben Taylor - The English Lab
We have lots more to say about this text! If you’d like for Ben to speak to your students or to your teaching team, please contact hello@englishlab.com.au
Please also look around our website for further resources and services that can help your Year Twelve teachers and students get the best out of themselves. Our study guide (of which this post is an excerpt from) is available by clicking on the ‘Resources’ tab at the top of this page.
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