Evil Angels

Is Evil Angels an Australian film? Although produced by Golan and Globus for Warners it has a significant Australian component on the creative side, including director Schepisi, composer Bruce Smeaton and editor Jill Bilcock, is shot in Australia, is an Australian story and bar Meryl Streep in the lead has an Australian cast (counting Sam Neil as an honorary Australian).

It tells the story of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain and the public sensation that was the Azaria Chamberlain case which erupted when the Chamberlain's claimed their baby had been taken by a dingo whilst they were camping at Ayers Rock. Schepisi, who co-wrote the script with Robert Caswell from the book, "Evil Angels" by John Bryson, follows a conventional chronological narrative format in telling the story but is methodical in documenting the tide of circumstances that were to work against the Chamberlain's who were eventually charged with killing their baby. Although Schepisi tends to over-do the cutaways to a kind of vox-pop of condemnatory public opinion he does manage effectively to show how it infused the case and led to a miscarriage of justice.

Streep, with an accent which perhaps due the influence of Neil as a co-star sounds more New Zealand than Australian, does a solid job of portraying Lindy as a strong-willed and obstinate woman with no desire to curry favour with either the press or public.

 

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