Australia, the Drover

Drover, by Hugh Jackman

What is a drover? In case if you ask. In "Australia", Hugh Jackman's drover is a freelance cowboy who makes his living steering thousands of heads of cattle across hundreds of miles of outback. The Drover is a rough-hewn Australian and cattle herder who lives by his own rules. Stand at a height of six-foot-two, the Drover is considered as a good looking man, has a rugged and tough look. As a skillful drover, he is great in horse riding and cattle chasing.


The Drover has been hired to transport Lady Ashley from the port of Darwin to the cattle station. As they travel in a typical pre-war outback wagon overloaded with luggage and people, we can discover his few main characteristics. First, he is an independent contractor who works directly for no man or woman. He always emphasises that "I am the boss" and does not like any orders from Sarah. This can be seen when Sarah orders him not to let Nullah, an aboriginal kid, takes the midnight shift to take care of the cattle. However, Drover does not listen to her.


Second, the Drover is such a hunky, brawling and independent example of his breed that he is simply called as the Drover. However, it except when he is addressed as Mr.Drover by the milk-pale aristocratic English lady Sarah Ashley, played by Nicole Kidman with a widening of eyes and puffing of lips to express exasperation. Drover also enjoys his freedom as much as he dislikes Sarah's imperious and prissy ways.


Besides, he respects the aboriginal and does not look down on the black fella. Drover was previously married to an aboriginal woman who died and whose brother is now working with him. As for this reason, he is largely shunned by mainstream white society. When Drover and his mates come to the town to meet Sarah, they are seen as "booms" and not allowed to have a drink in the bar. The white fella said Drover is also a black because he works with them, eats with them and sleeps with them. They have soon pissed Drover off and came into a fight. Sarah accidentally witnesses the fight and leaves a bad image for Drover as a violent and rude man.


The Drover is also a responsible person. He does not leave Sarah to run the Faraway Downs all by herself. He is not interested in helping the snooty English woman, but he also does not want to leave her to defend herself against cattle baron King Carney (Bryan Brown) or her own station manager Neil Fletcher (David Wenham), who seems aligned with Carney.


Furthermore, Drover is also a caring and loving person. Sarah and him eventually fall in love and it is obvious that Drover loves Sarah a lot. When the Japanese army bomb the place where Sarah works, the Drover is so worry that he immediately rushes to the scene in order to save Sarah. However, although he gets the news of Sarah is "dead", he does not give up but goes to save Nullah who is trapped in an island. He knows that Sarah treats Nullah as her own child and does not want that he is in danger.

In brief, the Drover is a realist and does things his own way. He stands up for what he believes is right, even if it is to his own demise. However, underneath the character he is full of heart.

Movie Review for Coach Carter

“Coach Carter” is a 2005 American drama film starring Samuel L. Jackson, directed by Thomas Carter, and released by Paramount Pictures. It is based on a true story, in which Richmond High School head basketball coach, Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for locking out his undefeated team due to their poor academic results.

The Richmond High Oilers have not had a good record, winning only four games last season, and it's time for a change in management. Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson), a record-maker when he attended Richmond, is looking into possibly taking the job as their new coach, and after watching them play his son Damien's (Robert Ri'chard) high school St. Francis and witnessing the game almost turn into a brawl, he can see they are in dire need of some leadership. He decides to take the job, under a few conditions. The players will sign a contract agreeing to keep a minimum 2.3 grade point average, go to every class, sit in the front row and wear decent apparel, including a tie, on game day. He will have access to progress reports on all of his players from their teachers to make sure they are honoring the contract. Carter then meets with the team, including Jason “Worm” Willis (Antwon Tanner), Junior Battle (Nana Gbewonyo), Jason Lyle (Channing Tatum), Maddux (Texas Battle), Timo Cruz (Rick Gonzalez), and Kenyan Stone (Rob Brown.) This announcement doesn't go over too well at the first practice. Some players leave the team, including last year's high scorer Timo Cruz, but the rest stay. In Carter's mind, this is only a minor setback, and he starts the team on a regiment of hustling up and down the court and game fundamentals. From that point on, the team goes on an undefeated winning streak, even with the help of Cruz, who finally decides to sign Carter’s contract.

The movie reaches its climax when Carter discovers that members of his team have been skipping class and failing to honor the GPA requirement of their contract. In response, Carter locks up the gym, cancels the games and sends them to the library instead of practices until they get their grades back up. He gives them stats about dropout rates, gang violence and future jail terms, some of which they dismiss. He is soon attacked verbally and physically (a rock is thrown through his shop’s front window), but he stands his ground.

Through hard work and determination, he inspires the boys to make a better life for themselves overall and not just on the basketball court. They soon manage to achieve the GPA requirement and start to play the games. Unfortunately, they lose to the No.1 ranked team, St.Francis in the state tournament. Although they lose the game, Carter understands that the boys have won the pride and he is proud of them. The movie ends with a coda telling us what happened to the boys, which college and scholarship they are managed to go for.

In “Coach Carter”, there are several social issues that we can discuss with. First is the educational issue. Some of the players’ parents, including Worm’s mother (Sonya Eddy), Kenyon’s mother (Gwen McGee) and Maddux’s mother (Ausanta) demand that the school board, headed by President Martinez (Jenny Gago) fire Carter. They see basketball as their kids’ only way out of poverty and a bleak future but Carter disagrees. Carter, on the other hand, sees education as an important factor for the boys to be successful in the future. He does not want anyone of them end up being in the jail. Besides, Timo Cruz deals with drugs with his cousin in the movie. This shows the drug-dealing issue occurs among the teenagers. They take drugs and sell them to earn profits. However, Cruz eventually realised his mistake when he witnessed his cousin being shot by gun. Pregnancy before marriage is also another social issue occurs in the movie. Kenyon’s girlfriend, Kyra is pregnant and they face a dilemma of whether to have the baby. At first, Kenyon does not have the confident to manage both his family and study at the same time. Kyra then takes the decision to abort the baby. Kenyon successfully gets a scholarship, attends Sacramento State University and receives a degree in Communications.

“Coach Carter” also shows some moral values which we can learn from it. From Ken Carter, we learn to be more respectful. Although the players greet their coach with the n-word, he responds by calling them “sir”. We learn to respect others although the others might not do so. This shows that we are highly educated and having a good manner. Furthermore, we should excel in our study in order to get into higher institution. The purpose of Coach Carter to set the GPA requirement in the contract is to ensure that the boys can get a place in the college or university after their high school. Another moral value that can be found from this movie is to stay away from the negative activities like drug-dealing. Cruz’s cousin, who deals with drugs, end up being shot on the street. We should be responsible for our own acts, think before we do everything.

In conclusion, “Coach Carter” is indeed a very motivational movie. Praise for its good story and a flawless set of actors. It can definitely put a factious sequel to further motivate youngsters.

One month in INTI-UC

Time flies. I'd been away from home and live by myself here in INTI-UC for one month. This is the first time I'd been away from my family for so long. I'm not homesick but just din't realize that i can make it. =) My friends and I had celebrated our one month anniversary at the cafeteria just now and we were having fun with the pizza and camwhoring. Let's recall back my life in INTI-UC here for the previous month.

First week, Orientation week.
I'm divided into group 5, Passion Group! At first, all the group members were not close together but after getting together for few days and going out for supper, "couple-hunting", "illegal campus tour" and outing to Mid Valley, we were getting closer. Although there were some unhappy incidents happened, we learnt to be more careful and solved the problems.

Passion!

Second week, Getting back to family.
My mum and my brother went to visit me on the weekend, so i followed them out to KL. It always felt good with family. =) We went shopping at Bukit Bintang area and Mid Valley. My brother also taught me how to take bus to go airport. Hope next time I will know how to back to Kuching by myself.

Bought from Sungei Plaza!

Third week. Fun week with new friends and getting SICK!
Going to pasar malam for the first time with my seniors. Although it is called pasar malam, we din't manage to shop till night. haha we went there by INTI bus at about 5.30pm and went back to INTI using Airport Liner by 7pm. We had bought a lot of fruits there. The next day, Saturday, my friends and I went for ice-skating at Sunway Pyramid. It was the first time I skate and I really enjoyed it! => Looking forward for the next outing! After coming back from skating, the next day, I got sick and there I spread the bacteria. haha It was getting serious and my friends even suspect that I got infected by H1N1. Touch wood!

Girls' Outing!

Forth week. Getting busy.
Assignments and works are getting more but we still manage to throw a fruit party! =) "A fruit a day keeps a doctor away". hehe

QSs and TP~

Today.
1st of August 2009. The time is 3.32am now and I'm still awake, writing this post. =D Good morning everyone!