Australia

Introduction to the character - Lady Sarah Ashley:

Australia is the story of Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman), a strong willed, even overbearing aristocrat not at all pleased with her husband's involvement and absorption by Far Away Downs, a cattle station in the northern territory of Australia. Determined to solve her financial problems by forcing the sale of the foreign holding, Lady Ashley decides to travel to force the issue when her husband continues qualifying and delaying...

Her arrival in Australia is not what she expected. The trusted agent her husband dispatched to retrieve her is The Drover, (Hugh Jackman). Their first meeting involves the Drover beating an opponent in a barroom brawl with Lady Ashley's precious matching Mediterranean blue luggage, sparking a shower of silken unmentionables in front of the "salt of the earth" types. "Welcome to Australia."

Her arrival at Far Away Downs is watched with great interest by Nullah (Brandon Walters), a half-caste boy. Nullah is the son of Daisy (Ursula Yovich), an aboriginal girl, and Neil Fletcher (David Wenham), the station manager. Nullah is the grandson of King George (David Gulpilil), a powerful Gullah or Medicine Man.

Lady Ashley storms into the house, ready to address every indignity that she has suffered since leaving England, only to find her husband dead, killed by a glass tipped spear, ostensibly by King George. Suddenly her world is turned upside down and she is made aware of the true ways of the world. Fletcher paints her a picture of a camp on the verge of collapse, and the offer by King Carney (Bryan Brown) for a sixth value of the land,godsend.He sees Lady Ashley as a helpless female, and a walking paycheck.

Lady Boss has the money to complete her husband's dream after load the fat cheeky bull first. They have broken King Carney's monopoly. She can reinvest in Far Away Downs. But she needs a manager. And Drover is a drover. He likes the freedom; he works on percentage, and no man is his boss.

An added complication; Nullah is a half-caste, a "creamy". Australia's policy is that such children were to be taken from their aboriginal mothers and raised by the church so that they could be westernized, married to white citizens, and "Breed the black out of them."This barbaric practice, detailed in the excellent and underappreciated film, Rabbit Proof Fence, continued until 1973. The children of this policy are called "The Stolen Generations."Lady Boss has no intention of letting this happen to Nullah, even to selling Far Away Downs in exchange for King Carney's protection of the boy. But when Drover agrees to be her manager, she is liberated, her life is redefined, and so is her relationship with Drover. A strange and wonderful family begins to emerge, Drover, Lady Boss, and Nullah.

Character Description of Lady Sarah Ashley:

Lady Ashley holds the pride of being a British lady. The way she speaks and the way she wears make her looks elegant and pretty. She is a mesmerizing lady with curly brown hair. She totally looks like those types of enchanting girls which require quite a long time to adapt to a new environment. But, things never turn out they way you think they will and Lady Ashley proves that she can adapt to the new surrounding pretty well.

Lady Ashley is a caring and loving woman. This can be seemed when she comforts Nullah by singing “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz. She loves and cares about Nullah. She never discriminate Nullah as a half cast and she hates people who discriminate half cast like Nullah. She chooses to trust Nullah more than the others and that is one of the reasons causing her to stand in the opposite direction with Fletcher. She does try her very best to protect Nullah from the threatening of Fletcher and she even think of giving up Far Away Downs just to protect Nullah from being taken away by the people as for them, half cast boy doesn’t belong to Australia.

She is a tough lady too. Lady Ashley is tough enough to accept the death of her husband. The death of her husband doesn’t become the obstacle for her life. In fact, she even takes up the challenge to continue her husband cattle business. In addition, she is brave enough to smash Fletcher by using the riding crop when he tries to hit Nullah. Furthermore, she even goes droving. Droving is a guy job and Lady Ashley dares to pick up the challenge just to finish the works that her husband hasn’t finish. In the way of droving, she even decides to pass through the Nevernever Land which no one knows what is in the other end. Yet, Lady Ashley still determined enough to go through the whole adventure even they face a lot of difficulties and obstacles. As for her, no one can stop her from finishing the mission- load the fat cheeky bull into the big metal ship.

Besides that, she is a responsible woman who bears the responsibility of taking care all the cattle business left by her husband. Knowing that she has the duty to make her husband’s cattle business afloat, she steps into the business and reinvest in Far Away Downs. She employs the drover as her manager and therefore all her mission accomplished when she drove all the bull into the ship, making what seems impossible become possible.

Other than that, Lady Ashley is a woman who never gives up easily. Although they face a lot of obstacles in the whole droving journey but she insists that she wants to finish the journey until she success to bring all the 1,500 cattle to the town area. For example, before they get to pass through the Nevernever Land, there is a place where they cannot find clean water and everyone is thirsty and tired at that moment. Even the Drover plan to give up but Lady Ashley insists to use Nevernever Land so that they can reach the town faster. Fortunately, King George appears and they succeed to reach Darwin safely.

Last but not least, she loves Nullah a lot. When Nullah said he needs to leave for a walkabout with King George in order to become a man, she is very sad and insists that Nullah cannot leave her as they already become a family. She even quarrels with the Drover just because Nullah is leaving. After Nullah had been sent to Mission Island, she misses Nullah so much and even plans to pay him a visit before the Japanese army attacks Australia. Fortunately, Nullah is saved by the Drover and at last three of them pass through a very happy and peaceful life until Nullah goes off walkabout…

Movie Review: Coach Carter

Plot Summary:

In 1999, Ken Carter, a successful sporting goods store owner, accepts the job of basketball coach for his old high school in a poor area of Richmond, CA, where he was a champion athlete. Carter quickly sees that his work is cut out for him -- the team is having an awful season, and their fights off the court are more decisive than their play on the court. As much dismayed by the poor attitudes of his players as well as their dismal play performance, Carter sets about to change both. He immediately imposes a strict regime typified in written contracts that include stipulations for respectful behaviour, a dress code and good grades as requisites to being allowed to participate.

While Carter wants to make the Richmond plays like a champion team, he also wants a lot more -- to teach the boys to respect themselves and one another, and that they must excel in the classroom as well as in the gymnasium. Carter’s rigorous workout routine not only stretches the boundaries of the human body but also the mind. The initial resistance from the boys is soon dispelled as the team under Carter's tutelage becomes an undefeated competitor in the games. However, when the overconfident team's behaviour begins to stray and Carter learns that too many players are doing poorly in class, he takes immediate action. To the outrage of the team, the school and the community, Carter requests for an academic progress report from all the lecturers, cancels all team activities and locks the court until the team shows acceptable academic improvement. His action receives the attention of whole country, some praise but much more criticism. In the ensuing debate, Carter fights to keep his methods, determined to show the boys that they need to rely on more than sports for their futures and eventually finds he has affected them more profoundly than he ever expected.

At last, Richmond Oilers end up not only be a great basketball team but at the same they do play like a champion. They are not doing boys’ business anymore. In fact, they grow up as men and they finally fulfil what Coach Carter was expecting from them “one struggles, whole team struggle; one triumphs, whole team triumph!” In the ending of this movie, although the team does not win the competition, but they already become the champion in Carter’s heart. And the most fantastic part is that 6 players out of the whole team manage to enter college and they can finally play as college basketball player!

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Characters Analysis:

>Coach Ken Carter - Samuel L. Jackson

At first, Carter hesitates to be the coach of Richmond Oilers when he witnesses the fighting of the Richmond basketball team during the competition. However, sensing diamonds in the rough, he takes the post anyway, and gets down to the business of showing the squad who is the real boss. In this movie, he is a strict yet responsible coach. In order to get participate in the basketball team, each team member must sign a contract to maintain a minimum grade average of 2.3, attend all classes, sit in the front row, and wear a coat and tie on game day.

Other than that, Carter is not a guy who will give up easily, he will insist whatever he did as long as it will benefit the basketball team. His decision to shut down the gym, force the team to study in the school library and enrage the locals is what made the real Carter into a folk hero. Being criticised by all the parents, news media and even the whole society, Carter still insists that his players must have goals beyond college ball or the NBA. Coach Carter has a heart to heart talk with the team about achieving better things in their lives and doesn't ever settle for anything lesser. He doesn’t want any of his players to end up getting into jail or death. The coach has teamed up with some college girls and teachers to help tutor the players to help them reach their required GPA in order for them to be able to play once ago. At last, his dreams come true when 6 of his players including his son get into college.

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>Damien Carter - Robert Ri'chard, Kenyon Stone - Rob Brown, Kyra - Ashanti, Tonya - Debbi Morgan, Timo Cruz - Rick Gonzalez, Worm - Antwon Tanner,Junior Battle - Nana Gbewonyo, Jason Lyle - Channing Tatum, Maddux - Texas Battle. (Richmond Oilers basketball team)

All these are the basketball players of Richmond Oilers. At first they act arrogant and very rude towards their coach and they even call their coach as DOG but Coach Carter manages to change this group of people to good students and polite basketball players who attend every single class and sit in the front row. At the beginning, they disobey the rules set by their coach and being rather harsh, Timo Cruz nearly beat the coach up but as time pass by they finally understand and agree with what the coach have done for them. All of the players work very hard and they really play like a champion team in all the competitions in order to accomplish their golden goal. Unfortunately, we feel disappointed when they lose to St.Francis in the first game of state tournament as they really qualified to be the champion. However, things are not that bad as some of them still manage to get into college. Good Job! Richmond Oilers! No matter how, you all already become the real man and the hero in everyone’s heart. You all win nothing but the honour and respect from everyone due to your behavioural growth and performance in the match!

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Social Issues

If you have watched this movie, the first thing that you will feel irritating is the disrespectful language and attitudes shown by the teenagers in this movie. At the beginning of this movie, when Coach Carter distributes the contract to his players, some of them scold the coach by using the word ‘nigger’ and ‘dog’ and even try 2 beat the coach up. However, Coach Carter manages to change all of them from the uncivilised one to be the polite one by using the word ‘sir’. According to him, the word ‘sir’ is a term of respect and even he himself also address every of his players as ‘sir’. Well, fair enough. Other than this, pregnancy of teenagers also portrayed through this movie and Kenyon’s girlfriend, Kyra (Ashanti) is a very good example of the statement mentioned. Kyra plans to give up her study and also plans not to enrol for college just because of the baby that she is having. While in the other side, Kenyon, the father of the baby doesn’t even know whether he should continue his study and to play college ball or give up everything just to earn money for his child. Besides that, as we all know, drugs can drive anyone to get addicted or even death. But sadly, in this movie itself, we realise that Timo Cruz also get involved in the drug-dealing activity. We can’t deny that it is a kind of income for him but it is just the wrong and illegal one. He can’t really make a stand, whether to choose basketball or drug-dealing as we can see that he leave and back to the basketball team for more than once until he witnesses his cousin being shot beside the street one night. This incident totally changes each and every of his point of view and perception towards his life, making he totally focuses on his study and basketball. And now, he is no longer play for himself anymore, he plays for the coach and for his bright future. Last but not least, we can also see that the whole society in this movie not really emphasize on the education. Even Principal Garrison also not really put much hope on the students, according to her, the academic results of Richmond High School is the last in the whole state and she asks Coach Carter just to focus on coaching basketball but don’t put too high hope on his players that they can go into college. Even the parents of the basketball player also agree that study is a boring activity that will only waste time and can be illustrated as not important at all. For them, basketball is the only hope for their children and they request Coach Carter to let them play basketball without asking them to study anymore. What a shame! Parents should encourage their children to focus more on study but in this movie everything is being inverted by their parents, basketball become the first and only thing in their parents’ eyes and study will be the least important for them..

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Message

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

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H1N1!!

Cough?Flu?Sore throat?Fever?suppose everyone ad noe all these 4 are d symptoms of H1N1 rite?n unfortunately, i got 3 out of 4....sigh............

Friday night ma fren told me that there is ad 1 confirmed case of H1N1 in INTI NILAI..d staff of INTI NILAI library...d first question that came to my mind is that "khor eng keong, did u go to library pass few days?" luckily, i din...and this was d first time i realised the benefit of being lazy...xD

But things are still d same, ma fren kip on suspecting that i am d carrier of H1N1 virus....denying that i am not, i will still worry actually....apart from home, this is d first time i falled sick......

Anyway, from this i can c who really cares about me....n 4 sure, ma mum and dad will be d first n d most....they will make sure i drink lots of water by giving me 4 calls everyday, n they even ask ma uncle 2 bring me medicine from KL......"4 tablets of Vitamin C everyday, 3 L of water everyday, 2 apples everyday, NO KFC, NO MCD, NO PIZZA(although i did order spaghetti last night xD), no outdoor games"...frens,sounds familiar?i bliff each and every of ur parents hv warned u all be4 rite?jz that we are not sure how many times n how often they did........

19 days count down 4 me 2 go bek penang!!!!i miss penang food so much!!!!laksa n char koay teow, wait 4 me !!!i will be bek soonnn....hopefully i will be totally recovered in 3 weeks time, or else no more penang food 4 me n this is even more torturing than death!!