Henry ... last night I went to the movies. I saw 'Tomorrow When The War Began'. It is an extraordinary movie and I recommend it to all. The performances are uniformly excellent ... Australia now has a seriously deep and talented pool of actors and technicians in the film industry ... but it is the subject matter that makes it amazing.
 
The film is based on a 'young persons novel' by John Marsden. This writer specialises in this genre and I must admit I have not read any of his material. Others in my family have and it was their recommendation which sent me to Hoyts. The movie deals with the reaction of a small group of country young people who see Australia invaded by Asians from the north. They are determined to take Australia and its resources from our hands because we have so much and they have so little.
 
This statement is made in the middle of the film over the radio by the 'General of the Coalition'. Our group of heroes is led by one of the girls in the group because the long term Australian-descent boys are presented as cowards and dopers who can't function in adult ways. The Asian boy, whose family owns the Thai restaurant in town, is mostly keen to get his hands on the girl leader and the other boy, of Greek descent is the one who behaves most like a soldier. Ironically, reading the screen credits at the end, this boy of 'Greek' descent is actually of Turkish descent, given his name. It is interesting that a muslim cannot be portrayed in an Australian movie as a hero involved with the saving of Australia. Muslims still do not belong to the 'Australian tribe'. This is a problem that they must face and deal with.
 
The magnificent scenery where the action takes place is the Blue Mountains with a coastline added curtesy of computers. The photography is superb and the action doesn't pall for a moment.
 
Unfortunately I was at an early session and the audience was very scant. Hopefully later sessions saw bigger audiences. However, as any reader of your site will know the idea that Australia is 'alone and friendless' in this part of the world is a key part of your world view and mine. There are little speeches in the movie which get a few things wrong but basically the driving idea of the movie met emphatically with my approval: if Australia is attacked we fight back. Full Stop.
 
The movie makes no mention of the Australian government, its reaction or the reaction in the major cities. It is entirely set with how these kids (representative of the nation) react to this crisis. There is a remarkable and delightful deficiency of politically correct b*******t or multicultural nonsense ... no one mentioned giving the invaders ideas or purpose any consideration at all. Their case is totally ignored, as it should be. Reference was made clearly by the young Australians to their own lack of any form of training or skills which would be useful in the crisis that they had.
 
In the end the most 'Ginger Meggs' of the Australian boys redeems himself from his earlier cowardice and does a very Australian thing. The movie ends with the crisis ongoing and the invasion still underway. No mention is ever made of the reactions of other Australians or of a government.
 
Walking home from this movie I wondered whether Australians would actually fight in such a situation. If we were invaded and the invaders said they 'only' wanted the land above the Tropic of Capricorn (that is 40% of the continent, home to a paltry 2.5% of Australians) who among us would agree to this rather than fight a terrible and bloody war to hold onto every last square metre? The Greens would certainly demand the division of the continent. But what would be the consensus on a wider basis?
 
Presumably the armed forces would fight, with or without government approval. The real trouble here would be getting mainstream Australians to understand that such a crisis would be the arrival of our 'Etruscan Moment'. Those of your readers Henry who have a proper education will know that that a long time ago as the young and vigorous group known as the Romans, living in the Tiber Valley on the central west coast of Italy started to 'feel their oats' they encountered their next door neighbors on the Italian peninsula, the Etruscans. They didn't like each other much and a few wars ensued ... the Romans prevailed because they had a real army and took themselves and their place in the world very seriously. The victorious Romans then proceeded to absorb the lands and peoples of Etruria. The Etruscans faded from History and the Romans went onto bigger and better days. History is replete with events like this.
 
What most Australians do not know is that we also can be wiped out by an Asian invader who just arrives on these shores with a demand for 'sharing' the continent. (Who can be opposed to sharing? There is so much and surely we don't need it all, do we? No, we don't say the Greens.) Added to this 'settlement' to avoid a war would be the arrival of a million Asian immigrants a year for the following 20 odd years and there you have it ... the disappearance of the Australians. Both the UN and the USA would strongly urge the 'settlement'. The Greens would love this, but I wonder whether the non-traitor Australians would be happy to disappear from History. Our heroes in the movie last night were opposed to disappearing, but how many Australians even know that this disappearance is a real option in the minds of people who are not Australians. I think that historical disappearance should become a real thought in the minds of ever more Australians. See this movie.
 
Sir Wellington Boote.