Fred Schepisi's brutal and tragic account of turn-of-the-century racism THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH comes to Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment.

Outback missionary Reverend Neville (Jack Thompson, BREAKER MORANT) despairs of being able to do anything for the "blasted blacks" apart from half-white Jimmie Blacksmith (Tommy Lewis, RED HILL) if he can keep him away from the company of drunken roustabouts with the goal of giving him an education that will allow him to get a job, buy a farm, and marry a decent (i.e. white) girl whose children will be quarter-caste and whose grandchildren will be an eighth caste, or "Hardly black at all," according to the reverend's wife (Julie Dawson, CADDIE). Sent on his way with a recommendation from the reverend upon coming of age, Jimmie finds that there is less chance of an aboriginal getting a job during the depression than the many out of work whites also making their way on foot through the Outback. He eventually finds a job putting up a fence on the far side of the property of farmer Healey (Tim Robertson, THE BIG STEAL), but the bigoted man nickels and dimes him over imperfections in his construction in order to keep from paying him the amount they agreed upon. He then works under Constable Farrell (Ray Barrett, REVENGE) but finds himself more often than not arresting his own people as a police tracker and being forced to cover up a death in custody (in conjunction with a heinous crime). He finds more stable work at for Jack Newby (Don Crosby, NEWSFRONT) and Heather (Ruth Cracknell, THE NIGHT, THE PROWLER) and becomes engaged to white girl Gilda (Angela Punch MacGregor, THE SURVIVOR) even though she is already pregnant with a white man's baby. Jimmie nevertheless endures public gossip and scorn in order to have a happy family, but the scheming of the Newbys and a local schoolteacher, ostensibly with Gilda's best interests at heart, and the pessimism of his uncle Tabidgi (Steve Dodd, GALLIPOLI) and cousin Mort (Freddy Reynolds) push Jimmie towards a desperate act that turns violent and tragic for all involved.

"Based on real events that took place in Australia at the turn of the century" as scripted by director Fred Schipisi from the novel by Thomas Keneally (SCHINDLER'S LIST), THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH does seem to streamline the facts of the Jimmy Governor/Grosevenor case somewhat from a lot of information that may have been malicious speculation and defamation that is firmly in keeping with the prevailing racist attitudes of the time voiced by everyone including the Reverend Neville and either ignored, laughed off, or otherwise borne by aboriginal characters including Jimmie who more often than not just wants to get on with the topic at hand but must whether people ask him questions about himself out of prying curiosity or just slip in jabs about his coloring in the midst of conversation. The prevailing attitudes of the period about what to do with the aboriginals seem equally intolerant, whether it is avoiding them altogether and waiting until they disappear or intermarrying as a way of breeding the black side out with successive generations of half-castes as advocated by the supposedly more compassionate missionaries. The crimes and trial of Jimmy Governor were a media sensation in Australia at the turn of the century – and Schepisi would return to Australia a decade later to show that little had changed in nearly a century as the middle class lapped up the sensationalism around the Baby Azaria case in A CRY IN THE DARK from the book "Evil Angels" by John Bryson – and the film and its perspective on the case came at a time when aboriginals had started writing back academically in response to sociological and ethnographic studies that often provided explanations and justifications for their marginalization. The film was not well-received by the public, however its critical reception of three Australian Film Institute wins and nine other nominations sent Schepisi towards Hollywood with BARBAROSA, ICEMAN, PLENTY, and ROXANNE along with a handful of lesser hits in the nineties (including the task of reshooting the ending of A FISH CALLED WANDA's lesser follow-up FIERCE CREATURES when original director Robert Young was unavailable). The large cast also includes early roles for Bryan Brown (F/X), Lauren Hutton (ONCE BITTEN), and John Jarratt (WOLF CREEK). Composer Bruce Smeaton (PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK) and cinematographer Ian Baker (QUEEN OF THE DAMNED) would continue on with Schepisi through the eighties, and Baker beyond that to Shepisi's last feature to date EYE OF THE STORM.

Released in the United States by New Yorker Films, THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH was not released to videotape and has been long unavailable. Umbrella Entertainment brought out a region free two-disc DVD edition in Australia, and the transfer and some of the extras were ported over here for a briefly available, possibly unauthorized 2008 DVD from Industrial Entertainment. The Panavision photography of Umbrella's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray suggests it was shot like some other Australian films of the period with the older lenses with a crisp-looking center and faint fall-off in sharpness along the extreme edges, with close-ups that convey the sunburnt and rugged skin textures and those of the landscape while wide shots exhibit some depth while still looking flatter. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is without any obvious issues and English HoH subtitles are also provided (although those of us hoping than an Australian ear can transcribe come of the more heavily-accented bits will find a couple "mumbles" in the subtitles).

The film is preceded by an optional introduction by Schepisi (0:25) who returns on an audio commentary track in which he discusses the adaption of the book (including some changes made at the insistence of the producers), the film's casting (Lewis had no dramatic training and was spotted by his wife), the shoot, and the film's reception both by the public and its awards and nominations. "A Conversation with Fred Schepisi & Ian Baker" (64:01) is a newer extra and actually edits together their separately recorded remarks about their creative collaboration starting with Schepisi getting into advertising early on and running the advertising unit of a television station at sixteen, being inspired by Canadian network experimental films to try some of his own with 8mm, and learning storytelling and directing non-actors on industrial films. The discussion is not structured as a survey of their collaborations so much as referring to the films as examples from the general discussion of their working methods, Shepisi's visual storytelling abilities and decisiveness, and the technical rigors of shooting on location. Also new to the Blu-ray is the Melbourne Premiere from "Willesee at Seven" June 1978 (6:00) looking at the red carpet premiere of the film with comments from actor Lewis, local critics, and politicians after the screening (which were generally positive compared to the actual reviews and some reactions from Shepisi's own neighbors).

Ported over from the DVD is "Celluloid Gypsies: Making THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH" (36:21) which should have been more prominently placed in the extras menu since it is the more focused discussion of the film's making with comments from Schepisi, Baker, Lewis, and editor Brian Kavanagh (FROG DREAMING). Schepisi recalls that DON'T LOOK NOW's producer/screenwriter Alan Scott was pursuing the rights to Keneally's novel but Schepisi already had a working relationship with the author who had penned the source for his contribution to the erotic anthology LIBIDO, and describes some of the "gripping images" that drew him to the work. He also discusses the scripting process, and how he tried to convey the cinematic rhythms through language, sentence and paragraph length. Lewis recalls his casting and learning to act before the shoot (covered in more detail in another extra below), the shoot, and how it lead to other opportunities. Kavanagh discusses the challenges of editing on location, working from a can with a flatbed editing table and Moviola while following the shooting crew from location to location, while Baker pops up again to discuss the visual collaboration with Schepisi, with the two separately discussing the shooting of the film's violent set-piece (conceived initially as a single shot sequence only for them to discover that it ran too slow and lost its intensity). Schepisi also discusses the historical context of the film, "white intentions," and the decision to film from a perspective of the time rather than a modern one.