Mystery Road Analysis

The western style 2013 Australian feature film Mystery Road centres around indigenous detective Jay Swan as he investigates the murder of indigenous teenager Julie Mason. Swan’s continued struggles to convince the rest of the local police – who all happen to be white males – to help him to solve the case lead him to find a drug ring. Sen represents the idea that indigenous people do not receive justice through the construction of Jay Swan and the unjust way the rest of the Indigenous community are treated by the white community and predominately white police force, encouraging my empathetic response. Sen also explores the police as corrupt and apathetic. In recent years, all over the world, but particularly in Australia in the 1980’s onwards,

Not only are they represented as disadvantaged, they are also treated differently to white Australians by members of the white community, particularly the police. In the scene where Swan goes to Ashley Mason’s house to tell her about her daughter’s death, a wide shot of the house the Mason family live in is shown. The house and those around it are in a state of disrepair – overgrown, dry grass, a fence that is falling down, and plain whitewashed houses are in view. This illustrates the unfortunate circumstances the Mason family are living in. The inside of the house is represented as just as underprivileged. As Swan walks into the house a medium shot of a child sleeping on the floor is shown, in addition to an otherwise cluttered living room. The child sleeping on the floor, rather than in a bed, suggests that the house is overcrowded. The disadvantaged indigenous Australian the media portrays is outlined again by the construction of Ashley Mason. When she is shown talking to Swan the camera is angled downwards, positioning the viewer to see her as fragile and small. She is also shaking as Swan lights her cigarette. This and her line of dialogue “I need a drink” after Swan tells her Julie has been murdered continues to position the viewer to see the Mason family as underprivileged, as well as representing Ashley Mason in the way the mainstream

The idea that indigenous Australian communities are underprivileged and do not receive the same justice that the white community accrues is represented through Jay Swan and his interactions with the corrupt white police officers and the indigenous locals of the town. My empathetic response to the text as a whole was influenced directly by way the text constructs these ideas as well as my knowledge of the way indigenous Australians are represented in the mainstream media and the behaviour of the police force as an institution. These contextual factors and the way Sen has constructed ideas influenced me to empathise with the indigenous