when I was 13 the owner of the local book store recommended that I read ‘Tomorrow When the War began’, the first in a seven part series of books by Australian author John Marsden. The books follow the lives of 16 year old Ellie and her six friends who decide to go camping for the weekend instead of going to the show with the rest of the town. when the kids get back to town after their weekend away things in town have changed and the lives of these seven teenagers are, in that moment, changed for ever.
When I started reading the series the first three books had been released, I was so engaged in the story that I read those three books in the space of five days. What was going to happen next, where would they go, how would they survive. On another level I also felt some kind of excitement and engagement in the story in that I too was a teenager growing up in a country town, I understood the idea of having friends who lived in very remote locations, I got the idea of knowing the back roads, paddocks and river beds better than anyone because you lived and breathed it day in day out.
After the five day marathon I hit a major hitch in my adventure… The next book wasn’t due out til December, ahh, that’s 11 months away. So I waited, and waited. Between 13 and 18 I bought the next book, read it in two or three days and then waited again and slowly but surely worked my way through the series. I remember the day the last book came out, my family were on Holiday in Canberra, I spotted the book in a shop the first day we were there and then didn’t leave my room for three days.
I lived and breathed these books for those few days and then waited and waited til the next installment in the series would arrive and then do it all again.
The most amazing thing about these books is that they are written by an older man who manages, in the most amazing way, to create the lives and personalities of these young people. More than that, the story is told from the perspective of a 16 year old girl and done so very well.
When I finished the seventh book I remember feeling a sense of dread at the thought that at some point it would, more than likely, become a film. What would they do to the images of my teenage imagination, what if I had not pronounced the name of the town properly or thought of the show ground and ‘hell’ in completely different locations to what Marsden was thinking. Would these changes ruine the story for me. More importantly, how would the actors manage to capture the personalities and relationships of these seven young friends as created by the author, I dreaded this idea.
I heard rumor of the film going into pre-production while I was at uni in 2006 and the fear set in, what would they do to this amazing story. Earlier this year I spotted the preview on youtube and I freaked, not only was there a good chance that they might destroy this story but now I could see that two of the main characters were being played by cast members from ‘Home and Away’ and ‘Neighbours’….Noooo!!!!
I went to see the film on the first day it was showing, I had to see it as the story had been such a big part of my life. If there was a good chance of it being terrible then I’d better just get it over with sooner rather than later. I talked to my mum minutes before I went in and told her that I was feeling sick because there was every chance that the imagination of my childhood may well be about to be destroyed.
So to the film, in all honesty my jaw dropped and I was engaged and amazed from the very first scene, the personalities of the characters have been captured pretty much perfectly. The film sticks really strongly to the narrative of the first book, the pieces of dialogue that are into the narrative of the book are often spoken by Ellie in the film and in fact some lines by other characters are across into the film very well too. The landscape and layout of the region is pretty much identical to what I had pictured and most importantly the relationships between the characters are portrayed in near flawless style. The actors have clearly done their research very well, the director has worked brilliantly to adapt the story to film and most importantly, I believe, the film shows you just how skilled John Marsden actually is and setting a scene portraying an image and developing a story and its characters.
Quite honestly, having seen it twice now, I would go again and I have every intention of buying the DVD. 4 and a half stars from me. As for floors in the film, personally the only issues that I have with it is that I wanted it to take me back to the time when I was reading the books so I was a little disappointed to see the kids with mobile phones and fancy new laptops. Other than that some of my friends were a bit saddened by the fact that this story that they had such pride in because it was a group of young victorian teenagers in the books, has been made into a film set in NSW.
