For better or worse, Baz Luhrmann’s career has been almost entirely defined by excess. Sometimes it works, in the case of Moulin Rogue! and Elvis, but at the other end of the spectrum live self-indulgent slogs like Netflix bust The Get Down and 2008 epic Australia.
In the buildup to its release, there was genuine awards season buzz gathering around the sweeping romance set against the backdrop of World War II, but in the end all the lavish tale had to show for it was a solitary Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design, which was nowhere near enough to offset the critical and commercial apathy.
A 55 percent Rotten Tomatoes score is ever so slightly above average, as is a box office haul of $211 million on a $130 million budget, but Australia was found sorely lacking in almost every key area. Of course, more is always more with Luhrmann, so it was announced earlier this year that he’d be turning the movie into a six-part limited series titled Faraway Downs, stretching out the exorbitant 165-minute running time to new and even more butt-numbing lengths by adding in unused footage and deleted scenes.
Until we discover whether or not there’s actually an audience for such a thing, it’s the OG Australia that’s been occupying far too much time for iTunes customers. As per FlixPatrol, the elegiac and undercooked disappointment has been drifting across the dusty plains of streaming to much success. It’s undeniably beautiful to look at, with the production designs and visuals as impeccable as you’d expect, but Luhrmann’s style over substance trappings struck once again.
