Break Of Day

Slow, lazy beginning focuses on Australia's romantic countryside as Boyd's camera details the historic buildings of a once prosperous gold mining town. There, newspaper editor McFarlane settles with his pregnant wife, Mason. Crippled in the abortive attempt by Australian troops to raid Turkey in the Gallipoli landings in 1915, he finds it difficult to adjust, thereby causing conflict in his home and an inability to communicate with his wife. His restlessness leads him to a river where he retreats each morning before work and reminisces about rabbiting as a child. He meets painter Kestelman, and they become lovers. Her city friends intimidate him, and at a picnic cr...