Samson & Delilah (2009)
Writer/Director Warwick Thornton is from the Katej people of Central Australia and grew up in Alice Springs. His passion is to document his people’s stories and share them on a big screen. He makes movies about his community, for his community. While Thornton’s short-films have received numerous accolades from international film festivals, ‘Samson & Delilah’ is his debut feature-length film.
‘Samson & Delilah’ follows a straight narrative, with a beginning, middle, and end – or three acts. The first shots of the film are centred on an adolescent Aboriginal boy, Samson (played by first-time actor Rowan McNamara), as he wakes up in his makeshift single-mattress bed. The blazing Central Australian sun is streaming into his room, and his radio, tuned to an Indigenous country music station, is bursting with song praising the beautiful new day. Samson adorns himself in a radiant yellow checked shirt, sweeps his sun-bleached matted hair from his face, and reaches for his morning mug. These images are all quite delightful, so when we then see Samson engulf his entire mouth and nose in the mug, and inhale deeply, the depressing reality shatters this illusion. Inside the mug is not freshly brewed coffee, as one may have thought, but greasy, grotty petroleum. This opening montage sets the tone for the film, and informs the audience that there will be no rose-coloured glasses approach.
Despite this grim introduction, Thornton’s film is still best labeled as a (very raw) love story. Samson’s clumsy and juvenile displays of affection are directed towards Delilah (also a first-time acting performance, played by Marrisa Gibson) – a girl around the same age, who lives with and cares for her elderly grandmother (Mitjili Naparangka Gibson). At first, Delilah shrugs off Samson’s persistent advances, although her grandmother cackles at what she sees as an inevitable romance. It is not until Delilah by chance spots Samson dancing in the middle of the night that she sees something in him that sparks an unconditional love. Even as a voyeuristic audience member, there is a real feeling of intimacy in watching the half-naked young man express himself free of all inhibition. Perhaps this outpouring of pure freedom is what ignites Delilah’s senses, and gives her a vision of hope for a brighter future. In any case, it is a really profound moment and one that will be forever etched into the history of memorable scenes from great Australian films.
