person or book cover
Rufus Dawes (George Fisher) learns the truth of his parentage from his mother in the early scenes of For The Term of His Natural Life
form y separately published work icon For the Term of His Natural Life single work   film/TV  
Adaptation of His Natural Life Marcus Clarke , 1870-1872 single work novel
Issue Details: First known date: 1927... 1927 For the Term of His Natural Life
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Based on Marcus Clarke's classic novel, originally published in 1870 as His Natural Life, the story tells of convict Rufus Dawes, who has been wrongfully accused of a crime and sent to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land for the term of his natural life. In his attempts to escape the colony, Dawes falls in love with Sylvia (a warden's daughter) and confronts his sinister lookalike John Rex and the evil convict Gabbett.

American director/screenwriter Norman Dawn's adaptation strays from the original book considerably. For example, the ending sees the fate of Rufus and Sylvia, adrift on a raft in the ocean, left in the balance, whereas Clarke's original story has the pair drown. However, the film retains a strong, visual style, especially in climactic crowd scenes.

Exhibitions

7718668
7992747
7974092
8018691
8014658
VIEW ALL EXHIBITIONS

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1927
    • c
      Australia,
      c
      :       Australasian Films ,       1927 .
      person or book cover
      Title screen for For The Term of His Natural Life (screen cap)
      Link: U13439Web resource Sighted: 17/2/11
      Extent: 10,000 ftp.
      Description: Black and white; silent
      Note/s:
      • A ninety-minute print is also available to watch via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNymvc1K5Ko (Sighted: 11/11/11)
    • c
      Australia,
      c
      :       National Film and Sound Archive ,       1981 .
      Extent: 101 min.p.
      Description: Tinted; sound
      Note/s:
      • This version is a reconstruction achieved by the intercutting of footage of the 1927 Australian release (silent) with the 1929 American release. Both were incomplete copies.
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

Projecting Light Onto a Dark History – How Mid-century Cinema Resurrected Port Arthur’s Convict Past James Findlay , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 13 March 2020;

'Tourism was an early money-spinner in Tasmania, with Port Arthur featuring on travel circuits by the late 1800s.' 
Simulated Scenery : Travel Cinema, Special Effects and For the Term of His Natural Life Leslie DeLassus , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: American–Australian Cinema : Transnational Connections 2018; (p. 41-66) Examines Norman Dawn's For the Term of His Natural Life as an example of 'sojourner cinema': that is, a film preoccupied with travel and location but which is neither set in the film-maker's place of origin nor a film of diaspora or exile.
The Film Exhibitors’ Royal Commission Mike Walsh , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 9 no. 3 2015; (p. 271-282) 'In adopting the perspective of the New Cinema History movement, which endeavours to shift the focus of film history away from questions of texts and their production, this article provides an overview of the Royal Commission that concentrates on the central place of exhibition within the Australian film industry. The two areas of enquiry here concern the relation of exhibitors to distributors and to audiences. This assumes that exhibition operates as a hinge point in national cinema, connecting local audiences with global distribution companies. The first part of the article examines the nature of distribution contracts and the ways in which exhibitors competed against each other, rather than simply seeing them as struggling with Hollywood. The second part foregrounds testimony given to the Commission concerning the constitution and behaviour of audiences. The article concludes with the proposition that Australian audiences have consistently failed to behave in accordance with certain broadly held social principles and that the role of the Commission was not to stimulate the production sector, but rather to find rhetorical ways of addressing the problems represented by exhibition and audience practices.' (Publication abstract)
American Combine : Australasian Films Ltd., and Block Bookings Stephen Gaunson , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 9 no. 3 2015; (p. 241-252) 'The 1927–1928 Commonwealth Royal Commission on the Moving Picture Industry in Australia followed a series of public inquiries into the Australian cinema. One agenda of the Commission was to examine the dominance of American movies in Australian film exhibition. By concentrating on how the Commission explored this issue, as it related to the exhibition and distribution of Hollywood movies in Australia, here I will consider the extent to which Australian exhibition has been guided by and dependent on American movies. With the Commission established, in part, to explore the accusation of an American combine ruling the exhibition industry, and stunting the local production sector, the real question was whether the Commissioners would be persuaded to make recommendations to wrest the powers from America, and consequently redirect the local exhibition industry's dependence on Hollywood movies.' (Publication abstract)
The Long Shadow of 1927 Ray Edmondson , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 9 no. 3 2015; (p. 230-240)
For the Term of His Natural Life : 1927 Film Epic Ian F. McLaren , 1981 single work column
— Appears in: Margin , no. 7 1981; (p. 4-6)
Lovely Eva Novak 1926 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian Woman's Mirror , 28 December vol. 3 no. 5 1926; (p. 29)
Screening Our National Skeleton Gayne Dexter , 1926 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Home , 1 November vol. 7 no. 11 1926; (p. 14-20, 80)
Silent Classic Finds Exotic New Sounds Bruce Elder , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 7 September 2010; (p. 9) Bruce Elder reports that experimental musician Colin Offord has created a musical accompaniment to Norman Dawn's 1927 film For the Term of His Natural Life. Elder also discusses the background to the film's adaptation from Marcus Clarke's novel and the reception of the film at the time of its initial release.
Representing Australian Space in The Overlanders Elizabeth Webby , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia : Making Space Meaningful 2007; (p. 115-123) This paper will examine the influence of Watt's representation of Australian space in The Overlanders on other films made in Australia during the 1950s, including Charles Chauvel's Jedda (1955) and Jack Lee's Robbery Under Arms (1957)...(From author's abstract p. 115)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (17)
Last amended 19 Oct 2021 11:29:25
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Port Arthur, Tasman Peninsula, Forestier Peninsula - Tasman Peninsula area, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,
  • 1800-1899
  • 1827
  • 1833
  • 1838
  • 1846
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X