Where the Green Ants DreamWe live in an age of progress, of achievement, and of advancement, born from innovations like wireless internet, cell phones, and so forth. But our growth has also fostered developments like sophisticated weaponry, nuclear armament, and other creations which our capacity to handle responsibly remains in question. Our civilization may not be prepared for the output of our attempt to pry open the proverbial Pandora's box of our Earth. Generations and civilizations before may have an understanding about the fundamental nature of our world, which could save us all a lot of grief...if we could but listen.
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Where the Green Ants Dream deals with the quintessential modern conflict, that of economy versus ecology, of business and tradition at odds. Young geologist Lance Hackett (Bruce Spence) is on the verge of what he believes will be a major find as he--and the company he represents, Ayers Mining--prepare to blast in the outback of Australia to discover uranium. Before they can get the show on the road, members of an Aboriginal Australian tribe block the blast zone with their body, preventing the blasting from taking place, which incenses the bullish foreman, who attempts to remove them by force with a bulldozer. The more level-headed Hackett attempts to reach a compromise with them, soliciting the aide of the company vice president, a corporate crony who talks to the natives like he were giving a boardroom presentation. The disconnect between these two societies creates a challenge for them to see eye-to-eye about what one another is truly looking for; the VP believes that they can bribe them when one of the natives asks for a plane, the Aborigines claim that blasting will disturb the dreaming of the "green ants", something tied intrinsically to the welfare of the very world--and neither is truly successful at getting their points across to the right parties. Hackett becomes sympathetic to the concerns of the Aborigines, but is ultimately powerless to make any changes on their behalf, despite his best efforts. He initially attempts to present them with the deals he has been empowered to offer, but they turn him down flat, claiming he doesn't "understand"; this is true, and Hackett knows this, and that is what gets him to investigate the native culture and basis for their kind of understanding. Hackett is drawn to this challenge as a scientist himself, contrary to the assertions by the VP that he is an employee first. He shares his dream of what he describes as "curved space" to a member of the tribe, trying to relate to them, and also doing a bit of soul-searching, beginning his own spiritual walkabout to find what it is that he truly believes in by pursuing science.
The naming of the company Hackett works for is no coincidence; Ayers Rock (or Uluru) is a rock formation closely linked to the Aboriginal concept of "dreamtime", the kind of higher plane of existence in their mythos. It is also unsurprising that Hackett describes his theory of "curved space" as a dream he has, as well as his later recollection to an elderly woman in search of her lost dog about his dream that he is missing something, represented in his dream as a lunchbox. Furthermore, when Hackett and the VP take two representatives from the Aborigines into the city--an attempt to show them the wonders of their civilization, they get stuck in the lift; after a sudden cutaway, they are eating dinner in a Greek restaurant. After an awkward exchange of song, Hackett observes that the whole meal is really a dream, that they are still stuck in that lift, and that they just wished to be out so badly that they found themselves there at the restaurant, a joke which only he seems to laugh at, but underscores that Hackett is starting to really understand some of the core tenets of the concept of dreamtime; his amusement is at his understanding of this revelation. The film gets its title not only from the assertion by the Aborigines that the land is where the sacred ants "dream", but also about the mystery of the titular "green ants". In an almost one-off moment where Hackett meets with an excitable specialist, he learns several things about the ecological oddity that the green ants actually are. The specialist claims that they are the only creature with an organ attuned to magnetic waves--like a compass--and that the area they are in is special in that it possesses a magnetic field which is abnormally distorted. He goes on to describe the ants--which he claims have more in common with cockroaches--mating habits, how they take flight and one queen produces many eggs, and how a newer generation may come in and seize control of the colony, "licking" the queen to death. Interestingly enough, when the Aboriginee representatives see the green plane at the airport--and it is subsequently delivered to them as a gift in good faith--the tribe treats the plane as something sacred. In light of the specialist's story about how the green ants take flight, there is a parallel to this myth; if you squint, the plane almost looks like a flying ant. Where the Green Ants Dream is a fairly unusual film--even for filmmaker Werner Herzog--because it is stylized to look like a documentary, but is in fact a scripted story loosely adapted from a court case from Australia in 1971, "Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd", making it something both self-referential and ironic, since Herzog had made a collection of both unusual documentaries and unusual dramas prior to this film. Although names have been changed to prevent prosecution, the case the film dramatizes in a way would later prove to be instrumental in the creation of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1976, which afforded Aboriginal people land rights in the Northern Territory. It is interesting that in the courtroom, as a witness makes a case for the Aboriginal people, one member of the tribe gets up and takes the stand to give a speech in a language no one speaks. When the judge asks if anyone can translate, the defense attorney indicates that this man is the last in his tribe; he speaks a language no one on Earth speaks any longer. Like the film, the message here is that often times, that balance of the previous generation and the new one--and of progress at the cost of our environment--can sometimes be a lesson which can only truly be understood through the perils of experience...if only that experience could be understood by younger generations without the harsh lessons to follow.
Recommended for: Fans of movies which blur the lines between documentary and drama, for people who enjoy witnessing the immense vistas of the Australian outback from the comforts of home, and seeing the conflict--if only dramatized--between the greed of big business and the welfare of the planet, and the scientist stuck in-between.
The naming of the company Hackett works for is no coincidence; Ayers Rock (or Uluru) is a rock formation closely linked to the Aboriginal concept of "dreamtime", the kind of higher plane of existence in their mythos. It is also unsurprising that Hackett describes his theory of "curved space" as a dream he has, as well as his later recollection to an elderly woman in search of her lost dog about his dream that he is missing something, represented in his dream as a lunchbox. Furthermore, when Hackett and the VP take two representatives from the Aborigines into the city--an attempt to show them the wonders of their civilization, they get stuck in the lift; after a sudden cutaway, they are eating dinner in a Greek restaurant. After an awkward exchange of song, Hackett observes that the whole meal is really a dream, that they are still stuck in that lift, and that they just wished to be out so badly that they found themselves there at the restaurant, a joke which only he seems to laugh at, but underscores that Hackett is starting to really understand some of the core tenets of the concept of dreamtime; his amusement is at his understanding of this revelation. The film gets its title not only from the assertion by the Aborigines that the land is where the sacred ants "dream", but also about the mystery of the titular "green ants". In an almost one-off moment where Hackett meets with an excitable specialist, he learns several things about the ecological oddity that the green ants actually are. The specialist claims that they are the only creature with an organ attuned to magnetic waves--like a compass--and that the area they are in is special in that it possesses a magnetic field which is abnormally distorted. He goes on to describe the ants--which he claims have more in common with cockroaches--mating habits, how they take flight and one queen produces many eggs, and how a newer generation may come in and seize control of the colony, "licking" the queen to death. Interestingly enough, when the Aboriginee representatives see the green plane at the airport--and it is subsequently delivered to them as a gift in good faith--the tribe treats the plane as something sacred. In light of the specialist's story about how the green ants take flight, there is a parallel to this myth; if you squint, the plane almost looks like a flying ant. Where the Green Ants Dream is a fairly unusual film--even for filmmaker Werner Herzog--because it is stylized to look like a documentary, but is in fact a scripted story loosely adapted from a court case from Australia in 1971, "Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd", making it something both self-referential and ironic, since Herzog had made a collection of both unusual documentaries and unusual dramas prior to this film. Although names have been changed to prevent prosecution, the case the film dramatizes in a way would later prove to be instrumental in the creation of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1976, which afforded Aboriginal people land rights in the Northern Territory. It is interesting that in the courtroom, as a witness makes a case for the Aboriginal people, one member of the tribe gets up and takes the stand to give a speech in a language no one speaks. When the judge asks if anyone can translate, the defense attorney indicates that this man is the last in his tribe; he speaks a language no one on Earth speaks any longer. Like the film, the message here is that often times, that balance of the previous generation and the new one--and of progress at the cost of our environment--can sometimes be a lesson which can only truly be understood through the perils of experience...if only that experience could be understood by younger generations without the harsh lessons to follow.
Recommended for: Fans of movies which blur the lines between documentary and drama, for people who enjoy witnessing the immense vistas of the Australian outback from the comforts of home, and seeing the conflict--if only dramatized--between the greed of big business and the welfare of the planet, and the scientist stuck in-between.