Film Reviews

Samson and Delilah

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• Details: Australia / 101mins (15A).

Moving at a snail's pace, writer-director Warwick Thornton's (who also triples up as cinematographer here) Samson And Delilah may exist only for its message, but the affectionate love story between the titular characters remains the film's selling point.
15-year-old Samson's (McNamara) days are of repetition: living in a tiny Aboriginal community, the kind of backwater hamlet where there is one communal phone and car, there is nothing for Samson to do but wander about the place killing time by sniffing petrol fumes. Down the road a bit lives Delilah (Gibson), a pretty girl who helps her grandmother with her art, which is sold to an anxious and seemingly regular customer. Samson falls in love with Delilah and decides he wants her for his girlfriend; not an easy thing to accomplish since Samson doesn't utter a word and his wooing is reduced to clumsy displays of affection. Delilah rebukes these attempts but when Nana dies and Delilah is beaten by the village elders for taking poor care of her, Samson steals the village truck and takes Delilah along for the ride to the big city...
Samson and Delilah is a big story told as simply as possible. Highlighting the cultural differences and the treatment of Aborigines by the white population is Thornton's modus operandi. Although always in the background - Samson mucks about in a wheelchair signifying the forced handicap of the Aboriginal population - the theme shines through when the teenagers move to the city. Delilah spots a gallery that includes her grandmother's work (sold for a small fortune but bought from her grandmother for pittance), but the gallery aren't interested in her paintings; cafés and shops are indifferent to their plight, ushering them away from customers; the priest in a church lets the obviously needy Delilah vacate without saying a word and the audience is under the impression that he would rather not get involved. In Warwick Thornton's Australia, the indigenous people are unwanted orphans. When Thornton isn't concentrating on that, he displays a knack for some nice touches: the first real connection between Samson and Delilah is when she is sitting in the car listening to one song, while watching Samson dancing to another; Thornton morphs the tunes together delicately.
It might sound that Samson and Delilah is inescapably bleak but there are pockets of humour to enjoy from the non-professional cast, who more than just hold their own, and the brief sojourn with the homeless man (Scott Thornton). It's also sweet: immature as Samson is, his romancing of Delilah is full of the 'aw' factor and their relationship, although at times struggles for believability, is of tender romance.

Review by Gavin Burke