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Thank you for this Lou. I have yet to see either film, but I will make an effort to catch *Samson and Delilah*. I am though familiar with the political debate around the films. Since Aboriginal Australians got some land rights in the 70s there has been a drive to assimilate them. this has been led by the Right Wing Think Tanks The Bennelong Society <http://www.bennelong.com.au/> and The Centre for Independent Studies<http://www.cis.org.au/component/search/Aborigines/%252F?ordering=&searchphrase=all>. The real issue here is that Indigenous control of Indigenous land is awkward for mining companies. they have to negotiate with people who traditional viewed the land not as a commodity to be plundered but as habitat. Something of the importance in political terms of Samson and Delilah can be gathered from this hostile review<http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/myth-of-outback-escape-is-unrealistic/story-e6frg6q6-1225720665266> by Gary Johns the CEO of the Bennelong Society. Johns is a nasty piece of works. A former minister in the Labor Government of Paul Keating, Johns has spent his post parliamentary career bashing Aboriginal culture for rich whites. The mining companies probably love him. That he hated Samson and Delilah is sufficient recommendation for taking the time to see it. The film's message that redemption for Indigenous Australia is possible outside the parameters of assimilation to white society is what Johns hates. Like the right wing rabid Christians who continually preach that to be gay is to be miserable and then proceed to make every gay as unhappy as they can, Johns preaches that Aboriginal culture is inferior and that only when Aboriginal Australia vanishes into whiter society will all be well. comradely Gary comradely Gary ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
