Burned Bridge (TV mini-series)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D     Episodes: C+

 

 

From the early 1990s comes a mini-series form Australia called Burned Bridge, which has a whole new reason to be noticed since its original broadcast: Cate Blanchett.  The 11-hour, 13-part work involves the conflicts between the police, the Aborigines, white Australians, and other aspects of culture clash.  This gets headier when a young Aboriginal girl is brutally murdered and dumped in the backwoods.

 

Meantime, we see the racial tensions, Beth Ashton’s (Blanchett) going from a white boyfriend/radio talk show host, to Aboriginal police officer.  The series also takes time to try to get us into the Aboriginal world, which is likely still rare in dramatic Australian TV.  We see trouble within the police, trouble within the Aboriginal community, trouble in people’s daily lives, and trouble tracking down the killer.

 

There is even more, but the mini-series has pacing problems, runs too much into melodrama, is not as well organized as it should be, and has four directors with varying styles.  This drags the storyline out far too much, while the teleplays seem disjoined in total.  Blanchett is good, while the rest of the cast is not too bad.  Prison moments pale to, say, HBO’s series Oz (which has nothing to do with Australia, of course).  It was smart to have Blanchett as the female lead, but there is only so much she can do.  By default, this is interesting for those who do not see much Australian TV at all, but wears thin quickly.  It gets interesting here and there, but does not have the impact the box promises.

 

The full screen, color image is taped on analog Pal videotape, but the transfer is not the best example of that.  The colors bleed slightly throughout.  There is not any tape damage, but I was still surprised how hazy it looked.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono was adequate to capture dialogue and the mixed music.  The extras include some biographies, production notes, and an abstract hour-long program from Australian TV about the racial divide in real life down under.

 

I should add that the mystery is not as much of a focus as it should have been.  The series comes dangerously close to trivializing the young murdered girl in the process of so many storylines.  Somewhat scattered is the best way to describe this series ultimately, but Blanchett is compelling and Burned Bridge is not a disaster or the overblown commercial mini-series like the kind that killed the form in the U.S., so you might want to catch it if you are really curious.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo