Hammers Over The Anvil is a typically gritty Australian film set in 1910. It follows the story of Alan Marshall (Alexander Outhred), a motherless 14 year-old boy stricken with polio, as he tries to make sense of the adult world he is thrown into. The film's tagline is "Sometimes strength and courage take unexpected forms", and the main thrust of the story is how he observes strength and courage in different forms and different people. Firstly he sees it in its most obviously masculine form in East Driscoll (Russell Crowe), whose skill in training horses in unequalled in the area, to feminine strength of will in Grace McAllister (Charlotte Rampling), until finally he sees it in the least expected place of all – in himself.

The character development is interesting and the atmosphere of rustic life is quite believably portrayed, while the performances from all the cast are top notch. Crowe is excellent as always, Rampling plays her role with considerable grace and beauty, and Outhred (who hasn't appeared in any other films) is absolutely superb. The real problem with the film is its pacing – while the character study is interesting, it just isn't compelling enough to last the whole length of the film. Also the typical Australian grittiness I mentioned earlier is used rather excessively in places, leading to some very unsavoury scenes and making this film entirely unsuitable for younger children, which is a shame as not many films starring a 14 year-old boy are as intelligently made as this.

If the unsavoury content doesn't put you off (there are three short sex scenes of differing types... you don't see anything particularly graphic but you can see exactly what they're doing...) then it's an interesting and very different film. With better pacing it could have been a 4 or even 5 star film. The scenes mentioned above where there for a specific purpose but you don't necessarily have to see something to know it's happening, and I feel they detracted from rather than added to the film overall. Other than that it's well produced and the musical score is up to scratch (if not exceptional).

Recommended, but with reservations. Mainly it has novelty value going for it as it's a quite different sort of film and it was interesting to see Russell Crowe in an early role.

Other Details

Directed by Ann Turner
Runtime: 97 minutes
Rating: 15 (UK) M (Australia) 13 (Argentia) - USA: Not Rated
Awards: Won: Australian Film Institute Young Actor's Award (Alexander Outhred), Seattle Internationl Film Festival, Golden Space Needle Best Actor Award (Russell Crowe - for this and Romper Stomper).
Nominated: Australian Film Institute Best Achievement in Cinematography (James Bartle)

Other Russell Crowe Films

A Beautiful Mind
Master and Commander
Proof of Life

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age