Touch the Sun – Top Enders

Clip 3: ‘You’re a little ripper, Alice!’

3 min 12 sec

Taken from the TV program Touch the Sun – Top Enders (1988)

Original title classification G – this clip chosen to be G

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Please be aware that this clip may contain the names, images and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may now be deceased.

Curator’s clip description

The kids are stuck in the bush. Mick’s (Donald Dale) dog saves him from a snake but is bitten and dies. Mick is devastated. Alice (Bennendine Woods) is looking after her injured father Jack (John Jarratt). She apologises for causing so much trouble and asks him about why he left them.

Curator’s notes

This is an interesting juxtaposition of deeply emotional scenes between Mick and his dog, and Alice and her father. As lonely Mick grieves for his dog, Alice mourns what might have been, and the parallel scenes encapsulate some key themes of the film – family relationships, friendship and the emotional and physical struggles for survival faced in different ways by both children.

Annemaree O'Brien, curator

australian screen