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Home > English > Area of Study - The Journey > Focus: Physical Journeys > Rabbit-Proof Fence

Rabbit-Proof Fence
directed by Phillip Noyce

This unit prepared by Peter Yorke, St Marys Senior High School.

Introduction
The prescribedtext
The stimulus booklet
Related material
Additional resources and material
Writing tasks

Introduction

Refer to Journeys on Land and Sea in the stimulus booklet Journeys .

Consider or discuss answers to the following questions:

Brainstorm all the words you can think of that are related to journeys and travel.
For what different reasons are journeys undertaken?
What makes some journeys more physically hazardous than others?
What are some other problems you are likely to encounter?
List the differences between a journey across land and one across the sea.
Using a map or atlas, choose one large area of the world where you might like to travel. Describe the preparations you would need to make before setting out.
What can be learnt from such a journey?

The prescribed text

Film

Noyce, Phillip, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Magnum Pacific, 2002

A study of this film should involve you in understanding the nature of the story and characters in the film and their links to different aspects of the physical journey.

Some understanding of the techniques or methods used by the director, Phillip Noyce, to portray the journey, is also essential in answering any writing task about this focus area. An explanation of how Noyce uses his camera and images is essential in any essay or discussion of the film. You should link your explanation and discussion of techniques closely to the focus area of physical journeys.

Some of the following film terminology may be useful in explaining details of the film:

long shot
close up
high angle shot
low angle shot
montage.

See The Internet Movie Database web site for explanation of some of these terms.

In particular, Noyce in his DVD commentary on the film, mentions that the following elements are important in several parts of the film:

music
desaturated photography
subjective camera angles.

You might like to observe at what points in the film these elements are used.

The story

The film is based on the book by Doris Pilkington. It tells the true story of three young runaways from Moore River settlement and their hazardous return home to their community at Jigalong along the rabbit-proof fence across the desert of Western Australia. Answers to the following questions will highlight many of the significant narrative features of the film.

What events compel the three girls to undertake their journey?
Which person most wants the runaways to be recaptured? Why?
What makes it difficult for him to recapture them?
At one point, their journey along the fence almost gets them captured? How?
Under what circumstances is one of the girls captured?
Who is their strongest adversary in the chase? Why?
What happened to each of the girls, Molly, Daisy and Gracey in real life?

The filmmaker

Phillip Noyce was a graduate of the Australian Film and Television School in the early 1970s. After several Australian films, including Newsfront, he made his reputation internationally with the thriller, Dead Calm. After making action/adventure films in the USA, such as Patriot Games, The Saint and The Bone Collector, Noyce returned to Australia to make Rabbit-Proof Fence.

The film and the physical journey

There are two journeys in the film: Journey to Moore River (capture by the authorities): the Journey back to Jigalong (escape) that makes up the remainder of the film.

What aspects of both these journeys make them different examples of physical journeys?

Journey to Moore River

View the sequence of the girls’ capture by the police. This is a powerfully dramatic beginning to the girls’ journey. Describe briefly what happens in this scene. Describe what is the last image in the audience’s mind at the end of the sequence.
What is the effect of the music in this scene?
What is the role played by close ups and the moving camera in this scene?
The rest of the girls’ trip to Moore River is shown as a montage, a series of brief snapshots of the girls’ journey over time. What different images are shown in this montage? How are the girls’ feeling of confinement and discomfort in this part of the journey emphasised in this part of the film?
This journey ends with the arrival at Moore River. At arrival, the camera is put in the place of the girls and the audience sees what they see. What do the girls see and what is the effect on the audience of this use of a subjective camera angle?

Journey to Jigalong

This is the second physical journey made in the film, and is not a straightforward journey home in any sense. It has elements of an escape, a pursuit and a hunt.

Explain what each of the above three highlighted words mean and discuss how each connects to the notion of a physical journey.
This journey is shown to the audience from two different perspectives. Which characters are involved in each of the two perspectives and what challenges do each face on the journey?
An important element in this entire section of the film is the rabbit- proof fence. It proves to be both an aid and an obstacle to both sides involved in the journey. In what ways is this idea dramatised in the film?
Desaturated colour photography (bleached out colour) and extreme long shots are both used extensively throughout this part of the film. What aspects of the journey do they highlight or emphasise for the audience?
As the girls visit the first of a series of farm houses on the long way home, they take on the role of hunted animals. What images and actions convey this idea?
What influences, both positive and negative, do the people the girls meet have on their journey? Describe the role played by one of them in relation to the girls’ journey.
Moodoo, the black tracker is a mysterious and enigmatic character because he does not speak for most of the film. What do we learn about him from other characters in the film, and what role does he portray in the hunt?
Listen carefully to the music that occupies Moodoo in several scenes on the journey. What does the combination of natural sounds and distorted musical notes suggest about what is going on inside him?
In the scene at the river bed near the end of the film, Moodoo almost catches the girls. How do the visuals suggest he deliberately lets them escape? How does he make his actual admiration for the girls’ escape clear?
At what point is it clear that at least two of the girls have been successful? How do the images convey this in the film?
The white characters learn nothing from their pursuit of the girls. How is this established in the final scene in Neville’s office?

The stimulus booklet

In addition to the set text, the writing task on the Area of Study will ask you to refer to material from the prescribed stimulus booklet, Journeys, provided by the Board of Studies, as part of your response.

“This booklet is a prescribed text. In the HSC examination students may be asked to refer to at least one text that they have selected from the stimulus booklet.”
(Journeys, Introduction, p.2)

Here are some ideas for using material from this booklet.

Read through all the material in the booklet. Describe which pieces most strongly link to the focus area of Physical Journeys.
To what different text categories do each of your chosen pieces belong, and can you highlight one technique used by the composer of each text to convey his ideas about journeys?

Some of the material in the booklet, may relate to all three focus areas, such as The Road Not Taken, by American poet Robert Frost.

In this poem, the Frost persona, leads the reader on a journey through a yellow wood.

What important decision has to be made on this journey, and what example of imagery is used to convey this in the poem?
What is the end of the journey for the character in the poem?
What images or symbols does Frost use to emphasise the importance of the journey for the character, as well as the reader?

Related material

What is related material?

As well as your prescribed text and material from the stimulus book, the Area of Study will require you to study a selection of different types of related material. Related material is any additional text from any genre, whether it is fiction, poetry, drama, film or multimedia that can be used in conjunction with your set text to discuss your focus area of Physical Journeys. There is no prescribed amount of related material in the syllabus.

“In addition, students will explore texts of their own choosing relevant to the Area of Study. Students draw their chosen texts from a variety of sources, in a range of genres and media.”
(English Stage 6 Syllabus, p.32)

Some suggested related material from different text categories include:

Walkabout by James Vance Marshall

This short novel, turned into a film in late 1960s, describes a journey across Central Australia, by two stranded children and how they are guided to safety by an aboriginal boy. The film version could also be useful as related material, and stars the young David Gulpilil, the black tracker from Rabbit-Proof Fence in his first film role.

How and why in the novel do the children undertake their journey?
What obstacles do they face and how are they overcome?
Choose one scene from the novel, where any aspect of Physical Journeys so far discussed is shown. What techniques are used by the writer to convey this aspect of the journey?

The African Queen directed by John Huston (1952)

This old film about a worn out old river boat and its journey down an African river in an attempt to sink a German battleship is considered a classic piece of film making. Its strong emphasis on the physical dangers and the obstacles of its river journey makes it a useful piece of related material for this unit.

How do the two main characters, the drunken river boat captain and the missionary woman, relate to each other at the beginning of the film? How does the journey change their relationship?
How are the physical difficulties of the journey portrayed?
How are both main characters extended physically by the journey?

The Explorers. by Tim Flannery (1998)

A nonfiction text, this is a series of first hand accounts and journal entries of real life experiences of a large range of explorers of the Australian continent.

Example: My pulse is at forty eight, 1861 by William Wills.

What was the purpose of this journey? Was it achieved?
The end of this expedition was a disaster. In what way is this conveyed in the narrative?
What technique is used by the writer to describe the obstacles in the way of getting home?

As a final note on using related material, it would appear to be desirable for examiners that you use a variety of different text categories or types of related material in your answer. If you are only using two pieces of related material in an exam answer, avoid writing about Rabbit-Proof Fence, and just two other films. It is recommended that you choose at least one of the related texts from another genre, apart from film. Variety of related material also implies discussion of technique in different genres of material.

Additional resources and material

Narratives about journeys are universal in literature as they seem to be in all other media. To compile a comprehensive list would be impossible. The following is a small random selection from different genres and time periods, of a variety of texts followed by suggestions where students might find related material of their own.

In compiling this list I have concentrated on types of texts that I consider have the strongest link to the focus area of Physical Journeys. Many narratives of journeys, such as that in The Lord of the Rings saga, go beyond the physical into the imaginative, or the psychological. However, it should be clear to students that one sort of journey does not necessarily exclude other sort of journeys.

Resources on the film Rabbit-Proof Fence

Check The Internet Movie Database web site for details on film.
The DVD Collectors edition of Rabbit-Proof Fence has detailed commentary on entire film on disc 1 and explains the techniques referred to above in more detail. Disc 2 has a study guide on the film, but can only be accessed by a combined DVD/CD-ROM player.
Book on which film is based. Doris Pilkington, Along the Rabbit-Proof Fence

The stimulus book

Blood on the Tracks, an item in the stimulus book, makes reference to a variety of texts, some of which may be useful as related material.

Related materials

Films:

The Bounty directed by Roger Donaldson (1985)
1492 directed by Ridley Scott (1992)
The Searchers directed by John Ford (1956)
Thelma and Louise directed by Ridley Scott (1991)
Treasure of Sierra Madre directed by John Huston (1948)
The Tracker directed by Rolf der Heer (2002)

Television series:

Captain James Cook
Shackleton

Extracts from both these long series might be useful for discussion.

Television documentaries:

Pole to Pole with Michael Palin
Sahara with Michael Palin

Classic fiction and literature:

Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
Conrad: Heart of Darkness
Verne: Around the World in Eighty Days

Nonfiction:

Bill Bryson: travel books

Newspapers and magazines:

Check for articles on travel and journeys in any current daily newspaper or weekly magazine. A TV guide may give information about currently screening documentaries related to journeys.

Libraries:

Most public libraries in city or country will have a section devoted to travel. Some material in this section will relate to journeys.

Web sites:

If journeys/travel is typed into search engines a wide range of material of varying quality will be displayed. You will need a great deal of time, to check this for usefulness and relevance. However, the ABC Online is worth viewing for interview material or transcripts of documentary material related to journeys and travel.

Writing tasks

Essay questions

Much can be learnt from the experiences of the people involved in a journey.
What have you learnt from your study of journeys?
In your answer refer to your set text, stimulus book and a variety of related material.
Physical journeys extend and challenge the traveller.
In what way have the travellers in the prescribed text been challenged by the nature of their journey?
In your answer refer to your prescribed text, stimulus booklet and a variety of related material

Travel article

You are a journalist writing for a travel magazine called Lost Horizons.

Write about the film for this magazine highlighting the physical features and difficulties of the journey

Feature article

A newspaper is publishing a feature article about the Area of Study.

Write a study guide for your prescribed text related to journeys as part of this article.

Refer to examples from your prescribed text, your stimulus booklet, as well as a variety of related materials.

Speech

You are a Year 12 student addressing Year 11 about the Area of Study that they will be commencing next year.

Explain what the Area of Study is about.

Refer to your focus area, prescribed text, stimulus booklet and a variety of related materials of your own choice.

Back to Physical Journeys