in Rabbit Proof Fence, Molly’s journey home to Jigalong is a journey from childhood to adulthood, which challenges her physically, emotionally and intellectually. Through the many obstacles Molly encounters and overcomes, she begins to understand her personal strength, allowing her the ability to mature and become independent. The geographical distance alone created a physical and emotional exhaustion and frustration which Molly tolerates with maturity and strength.
The cinematic technique using a long shot of a view of the rabbit proof fence fading into the distance both represents the long distance of the journey ahead and emphasizes the harsh environment of Australian desert. Noyce captures the pain of the journey through his choices of strong images, the heat haze across the desert, digging desperately for water, Molly carrying Daisy, their arms around each other, and Molly’s facial expressions showing her reactions to the harshness of this journey.
This is also achieved through other camera techniques, such as the tracking shotof the women and the children running away from the car and aerial shots of them asleep on the ground, collapsed from exhaustion. This shows how tiny Molly is within this vast and harsh environment, which builds empathy and support between the responders and the characters. The Aboriginal music is used to build up suspense and add depth and authenticity into the story and reflect the girls’ culture and indigenous background.
The music and sound effect used in the opening scene include the wind whistling, buildings creaking and dogs barking, which creates an expectation that something is going to happen. Molly’s journey home to Jigalong has impacted on Molly’s development, both emotionally and intellectually, and has enriched her through her harsh experiences, allowing her to mature and gain in confidence, but it has also robbed her of her childhood and her innocence Composers of texts use a number of individual (and combinations of several) techniques to reprensent the concept of the physical journey and specifically that it is the journey, not the destination that matters. Noyce has used a number of filimic and literary techniques thoughout “ Rabbit Proof Fence” to ddo this. The use of symbolism, lighting, characterisation and camera angles all enable Noyce to express the physical journey being explored. The use of symbolism in Rabbit Proof Fence is used to explore the concept that the journey not the distination matters.
Symbolism is the use of one object to represent a notion or other object. The inclusion of the spirit bird in the story explores the importance of religion to the girls and the importance of the journey. As mentiioined in an aearlier scene, the spirit bird appears (over the exhausted Molly and Gracie) and awakens them from their sleep. This is used to refer to hope and provides in indication that they will make it home, and will have spiritually benefited from their journey. The use of symbolism lends to the notion that it is indeed the journey, not the destination that matters.
