Australia – Historical Inspiration

January 25th, 2011

Pre-empting the free to air screening of Australia on local television, bazmark.com have published these words direct from Baz Luhrmann about the historical inspiration for the film.

“The plot of ‘Australia’ is a work of fiction…a romantic epic. While not a documentary, the historical canvas on which we paint the love story is drawn from fact. In constructing the story, we had a set of rules which were strictly adhered to: as long as it does not fundamentally change the truth, if it’s better storytelling achieved through a conjunction of time or a changed circumstance, then we would do this this if it was better storytelling and clearer to the audience. We were aware at all times that the audience is there to have an emotional experience. Although the events in the story are imagined, each one of them has a factual reference that we unearthed during an extensive two year period of research.”

- Baz Luhrmann, January 23, 2011

In addition they’ve added a very extensive section on their website detailing how factual events in history have influenced certain parts of their movie magic.

Entry Filed under: Baz Luhrmann,Press