A Town Like Alice

 

 

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This may be one of the finest stories set in WWII that I have ever seen. Based on the wonderful novel by Nevil Shute, it tells the story of Jean Paget and Joe Harmon in Malaya after the invasion by the Japanese. Only 19, Jean is living with her brother on a rubber plantation when their world comes to an end with the "impossible" arrival of the Japanese army. The men are sent to labor camps where her brother ultimately dies building the railway. There is no prison camp for the women or children and the Japanese solve the problem by sending them on forced marches from place to place, eventually covering hundreds of miles and the deaths of more than half the women. Jean looks after a young family whose older children die followed by the mother. She ends up with a baby who remains remarkably healthy.

On the other end of the island they run into two Austrialian POWs who drive trucks for the Japanese. They enjoy risking their lives to find soap, medicine and food for the women. Their world looks up for the first time after so much suffering and many deaths. Eventually Joe Harmon goes too far by stealing the camp commander's prized black chickens. When found out, he is cruely punished (crucified) and a pall comes over all the women including their Japanese guard. When their guard dies of shame they are terrified that they will no longer have food to eat and worry that the villagers they have stayed with will turn them out from fear of the Japanese invaders. Jean finds a way for the women to pay their way by working in the rice fields and carefully negotiates with the village headman.

All of this may seem mundane in description, but the production brings to life this period of war, hard labor, and death. Despite the difficult subject matter, the movie handles all these topics well including the Japanese soldiers (some are cruel, some are kind) and the Malayan villages that they must rely upon. The mores of English colonial life and the loss of that priviledge with the Japanese invasion are also depicted so that we understand how difficult these women's lives are and the horrors of being under the control of so foreign a mindset.

Part II of the story begins after the war when Jean receives an inheritance and returns to Malaya to build a well for the village that sheltered the women until the end of the war. There she learns that Joe Harmon is still alive. The grief that has ruled her life since the war is finally lifted and she appears young again for the first time. What ensues is the "love story" part of the movie; it isn't a mushy romance, but one of two people who saw great horror together and have found something strong and certain. The final part of the movie deals with Jean's attempt to transform the Outback town of Willstown into something that she and other women can live in; a town like Alice Springs that has shops and ice cream and work for girls and women that will keep them in the area. From this transformation comes the title of the movie - beautifully described in the book and barely referrenced here.

At 5 hours, this is a long mini-series, but one well worth watching again and again for the nuances of the relationships and the incredible depiction of life in Malaya, Australia, and England after the war. Helen Morse does a wonderful understated job as Jean Paget and Bryan Brown is likeable as Joe Harmon. There is also a wonderful turn by Gordon Jackson (The Great Escape) as Jean's attorney and love interest in England. The minor parts, played by native Australians, Malayasians, and Japanese bring realism to the movie and each adds to this incredible story.

Only available on VHS, it comes in a 3-pack at LP and a single tape in EP format. Of course, the EP version is much more fragile and doesn't stand up well to repeated viewings.

I highly recommend this mini-series and the Nevil Shute novel if you can find a copy.

What a journey! This riveting movie is the finest in spite of its enormous length. Never once did it get boring. So far, it is tragic that this epic hasn't arrived in DVD format. We have a VHS copy in great condition thank goodness. If you can rent this movie, take the time to be comfortable and relaxed. The many twists and turns to the plot are never the same. This movie makes "Zhivago" look like a warm-up. Too bad quality efforts as in "Alice..." aren't produced more often. Bryan Brown is the best known actor and there is nothing that he has done since that compares to his complex character role in this movie.
DVD please!!!!

Joe Harmon (played by Bryan Brown) rocks! And so does this whole movie, based on Nevil Shute's superb novel of the same name. It starts well, picks up speed, and gets better and better. During WWII, Jean (who is her family's only survivor) is force marched back and forth across Malaysia by the Japanese, who don't know what to do with a bunch of English women and children. As their group dwindles from starvation, fatigue, malaria and dystntery, Jean becomes the leader of the little group, and she negotiates a deal with the headman of a small village whose men have been taken off to fight in the war: if the village will shelter them, the surviving English will work in the rice fields.
But it was during the months of wandering that Jean met Joe Harmon, an Austrailian prisoner of war who steals food for her, is crucified and left for dead by the Japanese.
After the war, when Jean is back in England, she comes into her family's money, and she has a dream: to return to Malaya to build a well for the village women. To her amazement, she learns that Harmon actually survived: when the Japanese could not grant him his last wish, they were honor bound to save his life. Jean goes back to find him at the same time he, having just discovered that she wasn't married when he met her (a deception she fostered for her own protection), flies to England to look for her. The two planes cross.
But, as with most good love stories, they meet - and things are awkward and stilted. When he knew her, her hair was loose and tangled, she was barefoot and wearing a sarong, and she had an orphan child balanced on her hip. Now when he sees her, she's an English lady - and he's still just a bloke from the outback.
Oh, I'm telling too much. Suffice to say that Jean's attempt to resume their former easy and relaxed relationship while in Australia's Great Barrier Reef is spectacularly successful, and she's faced with spending the rest of her life in the desolate and lonely outback. Alice Springs, the nearest thing to 'civilization,' is too far to go, so Jean determines to spend her small fortune turning her little nowhere town into a place from which the young people will no longer flee in frustration. In short, she creates the world in which she wants to live and raise Joe's and her children.
It's so, so, so, so good, one of those videos you'll have to buy. Trust me on that.

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5.0 out of 5 stars too bad that it is not available in DVD
This is the best TV serie ever! I am a french-Canadian and when I listened to it the first time, I did not understand very well the Australian accent, but I got used to it, and... Read more

Published on Aug 10 2008 by Marie-Noël Corriveau

5.0 out of 5 stars re Mr Greenbaum's comments
I have loved this movie for a long long time, ever since it was first shown on TV as a miniseries (in Australia). Read more

Published on Feb 20 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars a town like alice
brilliant in all aspects. Please bring it out on DVD

Published on Feb 7 2004

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