Customer Reviews

Alone Across Australia

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This film was part of the Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour and it stole the show. John Muir's odyssey has you on the edge of your seat waiting to see how it ends. He is a true character and a remarkable human being. I am ecstatic that this film is now available so I can add it to my collection. My wife and I have referred to this movie a dozen times over the past year in conversations. This movie left that strong an impression on us both.

Wow. The guy walked from the coast of South Australia to the north coast of Queensland. 128 days, 2500 kilometers. He carried minimal food and water, assuming he'd find it in the desert, and his only company was his Jack Russell Terrier, Seraphine. It's an amazing journey and a moving film in more ways than I care to document. I'll watch it many more times over the years, and it'll never leave my collection. I see that it won a whole pile of awards. Well, let me add the most minor of awards to its pedigree. It's the "Mikey Likes It" award. So just watch the damn thing, and don't call me Mikey.

The Incredible Journey meets The Crocodile Hunter meets Quest For Fire. Just saw this at the Banff Mountain Film Festival that came to my town of Santa Cruz, California. It blew away every other film that night. This is simply one of the most amazing adventures in the history of mankind, and this incredible man captured it all on a small video camera. Walking alone and unassisted across the Australia continent from South to North, with just a pull cart and his Jack Russell Terrier, crossing four of the driest deserts on Earth, finding water and hunting food as he went. Wow. By turns suspenseful, hilarious, thoughtful and downright frightening, this is a riveting documentary that you will quickly be screening for everyone you know. Expertly edited with additional scenes recreated by Jon and a cameraman a year later. Also a fun intro that recounts some of the amazing accomplishments of this nutjob. Discreet captions appear at certain points, there is no narrator, but mostly it is Jon himself who relates what he is doing, and these are some of the funniest moments. Also some excellent dynamic maps that dramatically illustrate where he was on the continent when, say, he and his dog were attacked by a pack of dingoes in the middle of the night. $30.00 for a 51 minute film on videotape with no bonus features may seem like a stretch, but trust me, this beats the pants off of anything Hollywood has puked out this year. P.S. I have never submitted a review to Amazon before. But this one was special.

Jon Muir shares his painstaking venture through the Australian Outback. This film / video diary cut through my heart as I joined Jon's trek across the most arid continent on Earth. Amazing footage places viewers upon the scorching desert floor or beneath a tarpaulin during a torrential downpour. Wilderness exploration and experience, survival and challenge shape a man and his dog, testing their various physical and emotional strengths. I walked away from this story a slightly different person. There truly is more to life than making a buck or the so-called "conveniences" of modern society. Jon demonstrates another reality, as he becomes the first man to complete this solo journey between the Southern and Northern Coasts of Australia.

I saw this the other night at MountainFilm in Boulder, CO and the previous review could not have made it any clearer. If you enjoy reading and watching about the endeavors of great explorers, this is a MUST HAVE for your collection. Truly amazing what one man with resolve can accomplish.

Godspeed.

For some reason, this video really struck a chord with me. It is an amazing story about a dream turned into reality. The experiences that John Muir encountered during this trip were amazing. The highs and lows of the movie were really quite interesting, even more interesting is the fact he was able to document so much. Get the movie.

I saw this at the Banff festival when it came out, and it really struck a chord with me. I loved how he was able to share his journey and his experience, thoughts and emotions in such an honest way. Unlike most outdoor film festival stuff, I got the feeling that I was seeing what he actually experienced and felt, instead of an image that he wanted to present.

It also inspired me to take an epic (though small in comparison) solo traverse of my own and has helped shaped my thinking about what is meaningful and why in our adventures.

You get a very good overview of what Australia is like from one coast to the other, looks mostly really barren, horrendous flies, but more creeks, lakes and water than I expected. 2001 was a very wet year there, which caused lots of problems. This walk was incredibly difficult, and Jon carries it off with honesty, dignity, in a marevelous way. The film is very low key, terrifically sad at one point. The end is very anticlimactic, as Jon says. It's not a nature film, though you do see a few animals. The cinematography is not what it's about either. You happen to go along on a very difficult journey. I am not sure why anyone would want to do this, rather than taking their time, exploring the land as you went along. But he did, and it's possible to salvage some beautiful country and glimpses of the plants along the way. The journey seems foolish, really. Like rushing through a museum just to say you did. But it was pretty interesting, nevertheless.