The ending was a LOT like The Piano by another director from down under...(though originally from NZ)...Jane Campion. Strong female protagonist. Finds redemption after suffering. The monologue, the music, the underwater cleansing aesthetic.
I didn't dislike the movie, btw, I liked the actress a lot and the scenery was beautiful and the monologue was well done for the most part. But I thought the influence of The Piano was really quite obvious.
Well, the film is based on the memoir, "Tracks". In the book she is a very strong female protagonist and she does, indeed, cross the vast desert with her final goal being the ocean, and she does take her camels in as a celebration. As far as the film having a poetic-australian feel, it definitely does, one could also link other influences that may be more applicable than "The Piano", like Peter Weir and Nichalos Roeg ("Picnic at Hanging Rock", "Walkabout", etc). The director John Curran lived and worked in australia for years and was influenced by the australian new wave films of the 70's (the time period of "Tracks"), and if you look at some of his earlier films, most specifically, "The Painted Veil", you also see a very poetic approach with creative editing that has landscape reflect character.
shareAgreed on all points, even in those I don't know about...I haven't read the novel. And yes it's all one family in the end. Curran and Campion are acquainted, she was in the Thanks To credits in We Don't Live Here Anymore by Curran.
But still, the ending, I thinks it takes a number of pretty direct stylistic pointers right from the ending of the Piano. And yes I know in all things artistic that writers/directors/musicians have their influences and shouldn't be shy about them...but I thought Curran actually pushed it a bit with the ending of Tracks...almost like playing a cover song of The Piano to try to leave the audience with the same effect.
I love both films, but I see no significant similarity beyond the presence of water. And the use of water to signify a type of spiritual cleansing is unique to neither The Piano nor Tracks.
Certainly nothing strong enough to use a word as sensational as "plagiarism."
You're really reaching there, phrasing things as vaguely as possible in order for the parallel to match.
~.~
There were three of us in this marriage
http://www.imdb.com/list/ze4EduNaQ-s/
The Piano was fiction, period. Although some early woman may have had a piano in New Zealand and someone wrote about it . Ergo, the Piano isn't original.
I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else
It was a true story, stupid.
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