DVD Review

Australia was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 3 March 2009 in the US, and on 1 April 2009 in Australia. The film is definitely worth buying so that you can experience this wonderful movie over and over again in the comfort of your own living room.

Unfortunately, the DVD has very limited special features and the only extras are two deleted scenes. The first deleted scene, 'Dinner', is a very short and, in my opinion, rather pointless scene where Lady Ashley can't bring herself to eat kangaroo for dinner and Sing Song sends her to bed. The second deleted scene, 'Not Staying', is more substantial. It features a different take on Fletcher trying to get Lady Ashley to leave as soon as possible after her husband's death and the Drover intervenes.

The Blu-Ray has some additional special features - A featurette called 'Australia: The people, the history, the location', and Behind-the-Scenes featurettes entitled Photography, Production Design, Costume Design, Locations, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, Music and Visual Effects. Although they are very insightful, these Behind-the-Scenes featurettes were not new to fans, as they were freely available to download as podcasts from itunes throughout the movie shoot.

Baz Luhrmann stated in an interview in late 2008 that Fox wanted to release the DVD as soon as possible, and it is clear that the DVD was rushed out by the studio. Luhrmann was aware this would happen, and he also indicated that he wanted to release a special edition of Australia near the end of 2009. However, this special edition DVD did not happen. The reason remains unclear, but it seems the studio was influenced by some critic reviews and also what they thought to be a poor box office return.

Australia actually performed well in the worldwide box office, it just had disappointing sales in the US. Australia set the record in Australia for the highest grossing opening weekend for an Australian film, and also opened at number 1 in Spain, France and Germany, as well as number 3 in Britain. The DVD also sold double what the studio expected in Australia.

The lack of special edition DVD is very disappointing, as there is a lot of extra material that deserves to be seen. Luhrmann shot three endings, and there must be many more "making of" snippets and deleted scenes. A commentary would have also been very beneficial. However, because of the 'rushed' DVD release, the journey of the film still feels incomplete.