I never got tribal stuff until I got into Orthodox Judaism.
Living in the frum world, I understand what it means to belong to a counter-culture, to a group with an unpopular way of looking at important matters such as law.
Now I have more empathy when I try to relate to such folks as the Aboriginees, who play a prominent role in this Peter Weir film.
Forty three minutes in, I found a Jewish angle:
Charlie, the Aboriginal medicine man, says through an interpreter (Chris): "We’re nothing but the Law. We learn from our forefathers."
Attorney David Burton (protagonist): "But surely men are more important than laws."
Interpreter (Chris): "No. The Law is more important than just man."
Peter Weir says in a 2001 interview: "Nandjiwarra [Amagula who plays Charlie], a tribal elder, came from Groot Island. You couldn’t get a more remote spot in the north of Australia."
"I said to him, ‘Is there anything in the script that you don’t want or don’t like?’ He said, ‘Just one thing. I want to make the point that the Law is more important than the man. …For us and for our culture.’
"I put that line in… It gave me something so rich and so against our culture. That we should change laws obviously that are not serving us. Here was a collision with another culture where the reverse was true."
