DbcultAccessing Vault...
5.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Heritage remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a soft spot for dusty, old-school historical epics that try way too hard, Heritage (1935) might be worth your afternoon. But if you hate loud acting and colonial flag-waving, you will probably want to turn this off after ten minutes. 🤠
It is basically two movies stitched together with some very thick thread. The first half follows the Morrison and Parry families trying to survive early Sydney.
They build huts, stare dramatically into the distance, and deal with "tribulations" that mostly involve looking very stressed while wearing tight collars. Then, boom.
The movie jumps a hundred years into the future to a 1930s cattle station. I literally had to rewind because I thought I missed a scene.
One minute they are cutting down trees with hand axes, and the next, there is a high-flying young heroine who looks like she just stepped out of a shampoo commercial. ✈️
The acting is... loud. Everyone is shouting their lines as if the microphone is in another zip code.
It reminds me a lot of the over-the-top melodrama in Second Hand Love, where every facial expression is a life-or-death event. Margot Rhys does her best, but she spends half her screen time looking like she just heard a loud noise behind her.
Director Charles Chauvel clearly wanted to make the definitive Australian national myth. He did not quite get there, but you have to admire the sheer scale of what he was trying to do with almost no budget.
The scenery is the real star here anyway. The dusty, empty outback shots have this beautiful, lonely feeling that the actors just can not compete with.
It is not a masterpiece, and the colonial politics are definitely... yikes, to modern eyes. But as a weird piece of film history? I am glad I sat through it.