| SAMSON & DELILAH |
| Written by Luke Oram |
| Monday, 12 October 2009 16:35 |
 As political as director Warwick Thornton’s motives were when he shot 'SAMSON & DELILAH', it’s the movie’s broke-down love story that packs a real punch; a story as harsh, bleak and ultimately beautiful as the Australian outback in which it unfolds. Based on Thornton’s experiences of the Aboriginal desert communities, 'Samson & Delilah' focuses on two village kids - Samson and Delilah, played by newcomers Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson. Samson, is a mischievous and mostly mute delinquent, orphaned by the prison-system he's become a petrol-sniffing village outcast. His offset Delilah, is aged beyond her years by the daily grind of being caretaker to her ailing Nana. Sparse in dialogue and stark in setting, the two kids lives intertwine as a part of daily life; Samson scrambling for a handout from Delilah outside the local food store as she buys daily supplies for her grandmother, Delilah suffering Samson’s antics on the town’s only abandoned wheelchair.  When Delilah’s Nana dies, her relatives beat her as a part of the Aboriginal ‘sorry business' ritual, whereby the caretaker is held to blame for their dependant’s death. As a result, Samson and Delilah’s worlds are thrown together in a midnight collision; he steals away with the villages communal truck and whisks Delilah’s broken body away beside him. As far as typically romantic cliché’s go, the fairytale ends here. As is the case with the current Aboriginal youth culture, there are no clear-cut happy endings. Samson and Delilah’s developing relationship is one of survival in the streets, huddled together under a busy over-bridge (accompanied by the brilliant Scott Thornton as their homeless host Gonzo). Samson’s drug of choice; petrol, which he sniffs from a cut-off bottle soon becomes anaesthesia for Delilah, rendering the pair hollowed-out and skeletal versions of the children they once were.  As much as 'Samson & Delilah' plumbs the depths of despair and neglect (Thornton’s definitely after a spotlight revolution regarding these issues in Australia), the story is ultimately one of love’s triumph, the strength of community and essentially, the resilience and grit of the human spirit. Like the film’s tagline says; the story of 'Samson & Delilah' is one of “true love” – one which must suffer the blows of a hard-luck life. Thornton writes a great tragedy with effectively little to no dialogue (you get no more than a couple of lines out of Samson throughout the whole film) and wraps the story up with a poignant nod to redemption – the kind that is still a little flawed, but powerful nonetheless.  |
