Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Journey among Women (1977)

play Nudity; Violence – low
clip The penalty for rape

Original classification rating: R. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

When a guard (Ralph Cotterill) tries to rape her maid Meg (Nell Campbell), Miss Harrington (Jeune Pritchard) picks up a gun and fires. The convict women escape into the bush.

Curator’s notes

Miss Harrington kills the guard after seeing that her fiancé is at that moment in the cells, raping one of the women. The question is thus implied: rape or murder, which is worse? These women defend themselves with mortal force, which puts the film in an odd position, alongside right-wing revenge fantasies of the 1970s from the US, such as the Death Wish films. In a way, this is a leftist revenge fantasy, or begins as such.