#australian western

[sinclair-enterprises]

The scene from The Proposition (2005) that stayed with me the most.

[ulkaralakbarova]

American Matt Quigley answers Australian land baron Elliott Marston’s ad for a sharpshooter to kill the dingoes on his property. But when Quigley finds out that Marston’s real target is the aborigines, Quigley hits the road. Now, even American expatriate Crazy Cora can’t keep Quigley safe in his cat-and-mouse game with the homicidal Marston. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Matthew Quigley: Tom Selleck Crazy Cora: Laura San Giacomo Elliott Marston: Alan Rickman Major Ashley-Pitt: Chris Haywood Grimmelman: Ron Haddrick Dobkin: Tony Bonner Coogan: Jerome Ehlers Hobb: Conor McDermottroe Brophy: Roger Ward O’Flynn: Ben Mendelsohn Kunkurra: Steve Dodd Slattern: Karen Davitt Slattern: Kylie Foster Reilly: William Zappa Sergeant Thomas: Jonathan Sweet Deserter: Michael Carman Tout: Jon Ewing Miller: Tim Hughes Mullion: David Slingsby Mitchell: Danny Adcock Cavanagh: Maeliosa Stafford Carver: Ollie Hall Mrs. Grimmelman: Evelyn Krape Bugler: Mark Pennell Ticket Seller: Don Bridges Kajubi: Gnarnayarrahe Waitairie Aborigine: Bruce Burrngu Burrngu Startled Man: Fred Welsh Startled Man: Ian Lind Bushman: James Wright Bushman: Bruce Knappett Elderly Woman: Joanie Thomas Elderly Man: Vic Gordon French Canadian: David Le Page Little Bit: Cory Tjapaltjarri Bullocky: Allan Bradford Bullocky: Graham Young Klaus Grimmelman: Eamonn Kelly Deserter: Greg Stuart Tribal Elder: Billy Stockman Oliver: Brian Ellison Paddy: Mark Minchinton Cliff: Guy Norris Whitey: Gerald Egan Hayden: Spike Cherrie Scotty: Jim Willoughby Smythe: Danny Baldwin Film Crew: Original Music Composer: Basil Poledouris Producer: Stanley O’Toole Screenplay: John Hill Director: Simon Wincer Producer: Alexandra Rose Director of Photography: David Eggby Editor: Peter Burgess Set Decoration: Brian Edmonds Production Design: Ross Major Art Direction: Ian Gracie Set Decoration: Brian Dusting Stunts: Spike Cherrie Stunt Coordinator: Guy Norris Second Unit Director of Photography: Ross Berryman Focus Puller: Derry Field Steadicam Operator: Harry Panagiotidis Clapper Loader: Adrien Seffrin Still Photographer: Barry Peake Stunts: Linda Megier Stunts: Rocky McDonald Stunts: Johnny Raaen Continuity: Judy Whitehead Stunts: Lloyd Ventry Movie Reviews: John Chard: Matthew Quigley: Sharps Shooter. Quigley Down Under is directed by Simon Wincer and written by John Hill. It stars Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo and Alan Rickman. Music is by Basil Poledouris and cinematography by David Eggby. Plot sees Selleck as Matthew Quigley, a Wyoming cowboy and sharp shooting rifleman who answers an advertisement to go to Western Australia as a hired sharp shooter. If proving his worth, he’s to work for Elliot Marston (Rickman), but when Marston outlines his sick reasons for hiring Quigley, the pair quickly become on a collision course that can only see one of them survive. It was written in the 1970s by John Hill, where it was hoped that Steve McQueen would take on the lead role, but with McQueen falling ill and Clint Eastwood allegedly passed over, the project sat on ice until 1990. In came Selleck and the film finally got made. Just about making back its money at the box office, Wincer’s movie deserved far better than that. It’s competition in the Western stakes in 1990 were Costner’s beautiful and elegiac Dances With Wolves and the Brat Pack bravado of Young Guns II, both vastly different films from each other, and both considerably different from Quigley Down Under. If those two films contributed to the average response to the Selleck picture? I’m not completely sure, but viewing it now one tends to think that the 1990 audience just wasn’t ready for such a delightfully old fashioned Oater, one that features a straight and simple narrative to tell its tale. It’s safe to say that anyone after deep psychological aspects will not get that here. There’s some serious themes in the story, such as the horrid genocide towards Aborigines, while the deft kicks at the British are fair enough even to a British guy such as myself. But in the main this is old time Western fare, ...

[branchflowerphoto]

Wild freesias

[jp-hunsecker]

High Ground demonstrates an appreciation and respect for Aboriginal Australians not seen since Nicholas Roeg's 1971's Walkabout.

[travelmanposts]

Karijini National Park, Western Australia: Karijini is famous for its spectacular gorges and slot canyons, towering sheer sided chasms up to 100 metres deep, dramatic waterfalls, rocky creeks, refreshing waterholes and colours ranging from pindan red-orange to deep blue-purple rocks and jade green water. This is an ancient part of the planet... Karijini National Park is an Australian national park centred in the Hamersley Ranges of the Pilbara region in the northwestern section of Western Australia. Wikipedia

[wenbochenphoto]

One of my favourite Australian Solanaceae plants: Anthotroche walcottii. It's a hardy shrub in the Northern Sandplains of southwestern Western Australia. There are three species in this genus, all endemic to WA.

[beyondtheadobe]

[mudwerks]

The Outlaw (RKO, R-1952)

Australian Daybill. Western.

[jadeseadragon]

Repost @robinssci

Wolf spiders are the best.

*Minor edit to note that this is technically a wolf spider with a trapdoor burrow, not actually a trapdoor spider as that term refers to specific taxa.

Filmed on @australianwildlifeconservancy's Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary.

[psychoticwomnn]

I stood on the bridge and looked down at the water, polluted and brown and shallow enough for me to see the ground, even through the murk. I noticed the sheen of oil in the water, white muck along the shore. I crossed to the end of the bridge and walked down to the land underneath it. I saw its sprawling wooden beams, its rust, and the dirt and the half-dead grass. I saw fallen trees, and a small blue wren flitting from branch to branch. It was silent down there. As one does in a place like this, I began to think about God and myself, and our places here. Is God in the bridge, supporting those decades-old wooden beams? Is He in the water, wishing for cleanliness and replenishment? Or perhaps He is the oil and the dirt polluting the river, maybe He is the fallen trees creating dams and keeping the water stagnant. I wondered about my role on earth as a human, and I thought about what defines me. Am I a woman? Am I a writer? Perhaps I am a Watcher, looking at and observing the world until I rejoin the dirt. I thought about the strings of my guitar, the hair trimmings left in my room, the words I have put to paper, the scars on my knees, and I wondered. I walked down to the shore and began throwing sticks into the water. I threw them up high, and watched as they splashed into the water. One went in completely vertically, and didn't have even the tiniest splash. It was then that I Understood. It was then that I Saw. I left shortly afterwards, but I have not been able to stop thinking about this bridge and its place in nature since.

[privatedarius]

The unrestrained vastness of an outback landscape of NW Australia out from Derby. sourced: Australian Outback Photography

[3liza]

I'm glad western streamers have been gettinto indie games from Russia and Asia, especially horror games since horror is such a communicative genre and says so much about cultural mores, but I wish these cavalier white dudes would have a little more curiosity about the foundations of the imagery and neuroses the games are communicating with. whenever I see or play games from outside my home culture I'm always desperately curious about what I'm MISSING as a white American and it's always so satisfying and educational when I am able to have it explained to me or if I can look it up, even though I know I can only perceive it as an outsider. just stuff I'm ignorant about, like for some recent examples I can remember, stuff like Buddhist funeral objects or symbolism, Japanese vowel order, Russian Orthodox convent history, apartment layouts and community organization in Soviet housing blocs, uhhh let's see what else. candle and food symbolism around death and traditional forms of ghosts in the Philippines. customs and uses of, and gender issues around, communal bath houses in rural Japan. that kind of thing. i really really miss the few years where you really could type any of those topics into the Google search bar and usually get some kind of factual information written by humans. it's not impossible to look stuff up anymore but I can't express how easy it used to be.

[yuckdotcom]

wasteland in the west

[branchflowerphoto]

Floofy little paperbark tree blossoms

[miamaimania]

Echoes of the Dreamtime 🌀: Tingari's mystical topography in black and white