Fields of Fire Online

One of the best series I've ever seen. The evolution of the characters are felt and one actually misses them once the series is over. The plot is made to create situations of great drama in which the charaters fully demonstrate their human nature. Great aussi porduction.

The " Fields of Fire" of the title are the sugar can fields in the tropical north east of Australia, but since the story starts in 1939 when the war broke out , the eponym extends to the battlefields of North Africa and New Guinea where many of the main characters are sent. These are for the most part tough , hard working and harder-drinking cane cutters and the women who understandingly- if not always uncomplainingly - stand by them.

Anyone who has seen Ray Lawler's play " Summer Of the Seventeenth Doll" or the film made from it, has had an introductory course, but " Fields" takes off in another direction. An inexperienced young Englishman ( Todd Boyce) arrives having seen a newspaper ad for cane cutters. Almost immediately he gets involved in a fight ( here known as a "blue") and gets the nickname "Bluey".

Because of the fierce competition between cutting crews no one wants him , but that only provides the dramatic springboard. From that point the story is how he gets on the team, proves himself , wins the girls, goes to war and returns a hero.

Providing a domestic counterpoint to the arduous cane cutting , on the distaff side is the local pub run by Elsie( Kris McQuade) and her two daughters Dusty ( Melissa Docker) and Kate ( Anna Hruby) already married but deserted, and in the convention of this sort of drama , highly concupiscent. Dusty is attracted to Bluey but it is Kate who has her wicked way with him.

The action and plot move right along and the characters are compelling enough to maintain interest. At the end of episode one , war is declared and the boys go off to join the army, but also signals that they Yanks are coming, and they do in a convoy of trucks and the person of Nicholas Hammond playing an army captain who has an affair with the hitherto unattached Elsie. Dusty goes off to become a nurse and Kate forms a liaison with Franco ( Terry Serio), one of the Italian can cutters who has avoided internment and is now on the run.

The tightness of the scripting varies, but in the main the impetus carries the audience over any lacunae, and inaccuracy in some of the details would only be noticeable to American military history buffs. There are a number of unresolved areas that nag , but there is talk of a sequel, which might clear some things up. Certainly the fade out leaves room for Dusty to come back home from the war with the wounded Bluey.

Technically "Fileds' is superb even by Australian standards, and the quality of the acting is equally high with McQuade and Harold Hopkins as the cook turning in knowing performances. Hammond ever stalwart, makes the initially crass Yank appealing, and Boyce does a nice job with the neophyte who emerges into maturity.

As for Melissa Docker , her appealing pretty face almost gets in the way of her acting ability, but she shines. And Anna Hruby, who gives a finely graded performance never looked better.

Kudos to cinematographer Ross Berryman for getting every lumen out of the extraordinary light that Queensland is famous for. Also due a favorable nod are editors Sarah Bennet and Emma Hay whose work, especially evocative in the cane cutting sequences , is exemplary.

In all solid TV entertainment , that is involving without being unnecessarily demanding. miha

I saw it on Canadian TV years ago. I rented it again on DVD. It shows a community full of heroes and weak people. They are all generally real. It shows life over time in a community in Australia dependent on the sugar harvest. One can see how the area evolves over time before, during, and after World War II. Life is hard but mutual support makes life possible. Prejudice is just as much of a problem there as it is here. There is real growth in the main characters. When Bluie arrives in town no one takes him seriously. After all, you have to be strong and have stamina to survive in the cane fields. One family takes him in and he earns their respect. He also wins the heart of the beautiful daughter. Integrity is valued by the lead characters. I'm not going to say much more except, if you can get a copy, see it!