Fields Of Fire (Australian TV Mini-Series)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D     Episodes: B-

 

 

In an interesting twist on pre-World War II storytelling, Fields Of Fire (1987 - 1989) has Bluey (Todd Boyce) leaving England in the late 1930s to Australia, where he does whatever he can to find a job, until he lands one in a crew cutting down sugar cane.  Everything is good and the crop becomes popular enough to make many people rich, then the war arrives.  We’ve heard this story before, but hardly ever from Australia, and that is what is so interesting about this show.

 

As usual, we have not heard of most of this cast, but obviously, Australia is known as a place where many good actors spend whole careers without notice outside of the media down under and the quality of the programs are often worthy of the talent.  Former Spider-Man Nicholas Hammond shows up as a U.S. soldier.  One side twist is discrimination by the Australian workers towards the Italians, which becomes more twisted as Mussolini becomes part of the original “Axis of Evil” that makes the prejudice more twisted as events kick in.  Internment against the Italians included.

 

It is that kind of storytelling that prevents this from becoming a tired Melodrama, we get the kind of story we do not hear enough.  Miranda Downes’ teleplay is adapted from the novel Cane by Robert Donaldson and Michael Joseph, never pandering to the audience.  I appreciated its passing humor and situations that takes us places we have not been to before.  By the third set of shows, the tale takes us into the early 1950s.  Though it has aspirations of being an epic, it will have to settle for solid storytelling, with some twists worth sitting for.

 

The full frame image originated on what looks like film, but the video source has more noise than expected from grain, the analog video source and even conversion from one video format (PAL or an NTSC variant perhaps) to another.  Hope the film elements survive.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also on the small side, showing the age of the production.  There are no extras.

 

When I talked about the title with friends, one wondered if it was the latest Riverdance title, but that was not the case.  Fields Of Fire is good television that may have been too bold for PBS and deserves a new audience.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo