The Sapphires completely escaped my radar when it was released, and judging by the complete lack of gifs of it on tumblr (it’s all Stephen Universe, which… fair), I’m probably not the only American in this position.
This is a charming, heartwarming, inspired-by-a-true-story movie about a Indigenous Australian soul girl group touring Vietnam during the war to perform in USO shows. Yep, you read that right, despite this being another war-related movie on this list, it was delightfully upbeat despite dealing with some pretty heavy topics. I didn’t even take notes the first time I watched it because it was so enjoyable.
Four Aboriginal girls, Gail, Kay, Cynthia and Julie, formed a singing group as children that they’ve lovingly named after the village they live in Australia, The Cummeragunja Songbirds. Flash forward to 1968, and the remaining members, Gail and Cynthia, are attempting to find success outside of their town and sign up for a talent contest in the city that awards a cash prize for the winner. Julie, the youngest, is discouraged from participating because her mother believes she’s too young, even though she’s already a parent herself. This doesn’t deter her in the slightest, as she covertly ventures off with Gail and Cynthia to sing at the bar. The Songbirds are not received well, however, since the audience is white and the girls are considered black. Alternatively, the MC of this event, Chris O’Dowd’s character Dave Lovelace, immediately recognizes their talent. When the Songbirds lose the contest to a bland white girl, Dave’s protests to the bar’s owner get him fired.
While Gail is initially hesitant to engage with this visibly unstable and irresponsible drunk foreigner after his display of chivalry, Julie decides to leverage his interest by recruiting him as their manager in order to book a gig touring Vietnam in a USO show. Realizing he could make some money, Dave reluctantly agrees, and after receiving permission from the girls parents to move forward with the endeavor, arranges to start rehearsals for the group in Melbourne. He asks Gail to recruit a 3rd member, since Julie is again forbidden to leave Cummeragunja because she’s young and needs to take care of her son.
Gail and Cynthia track down their cousin Kay, who lives in the city and whom they’ve had no contact with for years. Cosplaying as a white woman in front of her other MLM-loving white woman friends, Kay’s initially surprised to see her cousins and tries to shove them off. After Gail lays into Kay for denying her heritage, her and Cynthia leave and are met by Julie. She claims her father and grandmother have agreed to watch her son so she has the opportunity to make something of herself. The shock of Julie’s arrival at Uncle Ed’s is quickly undercut after Kay appears, as she’s changed her tune and decided to join the group again.
With the final lineup settled on, Dave informs the girls country music isn’t going to help them with their audition, as people with their complexion typically sing soul music. Instead of singing about loss, they need to sing like they’re desperate to get what they’ve lost back. He also helps the group determine their new roles, dubbing Julie the lead singer, Kay as the dance captain, Cynthia the sexy one, and Gail as ???, but definitely singing backup. While Gail’s initially disappointed to let go of her lead singer title, she accepts it’ll benefit their sound, and graciously steps down to let Julie shine.
Their audition is a little rocky because Gail isn’t a dancer, Cynthia is newly heartbroken by her ex-finance, and the girls only had 3 days to rehearse. Regardless, they book the gig and immediately fly out to Vietnam. Gail and Dave clash over almost every decision as Gail is hesitant to relinquish any control, even in situations where Dave should be handling things as their manager. However, having made the promise to defend the women’s lives with his own, Dave and Gail can agree their main goal is to keep everyone safe. They make demands to the talent promoter Myron for a security detail and money, and are told as long as they can prove The Sapphires can entertain a crowd, they’ll get both. Their first gig is at a bar in Saigon, and they immediately prove to be a huge hit.
Thus begins their journey across Vietnam, performing at base camps with small and large stages alike. With the background of bombs dropping, bullets flying, and fires raging, what The Sapphires might have naively thought of as a vacation turns out to be much graver in reality. They visit medical tents, drive through literal battlefields, and hear the duress of the soldiers trying to do anything to distract themselves.
The members of the group each cling to their own coping mechanism. Cynthia, still salty her engagement has been broken off, parties with the willing soldiers. Kay finds comfort in one medic, Robby, and Gail scoffs at their relationship because Kay has been profiting off her indigenous heritage while simultaneously hiding it. Gail wonders when Kay’ll ultimately reject Robby for being black himself for not fitting into her privileged lifestyle. Gail and Kay get into a physical altercation, Gail runs off to be alone, and Kay goes out with Robby to confess her history.
Kay’s feelings about her race are complicated, however. In the long history of governments attempting cultural genocide on their indigenous citizens, it’s revealed Kay was stolen from Cummeragunja and given to white parents and raised to be “white”. The only interaction between Kay and her cousins after her abduction and before this trip was at her own mother’s funeral, where she regurgitated the racist stereotypes she was taught. Gail confides in Dave that she believed, as the oldest, she could have protected Kay better and prevented her kidnapping. Dave says he understands now why Gail is so overbearing and assures her that it’s OK to remove some of that burden from her shoulders. Her family have to make their own decisions, and she needs to lighten up and let it happen. He shows off his very bad dance moves in order to make her laugh, and they start to realize that their constant bickering over control has maybe taught them to compromise a bit, and furthermore, that they might feel some sort of way about each other. Their alliance is quickly tarnished, however, when it’s revealed that Dave is married.
Julie, whose main focus on this trip has been to get a record deal, views Cynthia’s increasingly reckless partying behavior as a threat to her goal. Gail agrees with Julie and asks Cynthia to sit out a crucial performance, as there would be music industry connections in the crowd. Dave praises how Gail handled the situation and concedes she’s now ready to manage the group on her own. He also apologizes to Gail for not telling her he was legally married, explains the situation, and vows to fix things. He delivers Gail a letter he’s written and is super adamant that she has to read it when he’s not around, which signifies to the audience he’s minutes away from dying.
Right before Dave and Gail kiss for the first time, the base is attacked. Dave rushes to get the girls on a helicopter and transported away from danger. In the scuffle he is shot, and Gail can only look in horror as his body is left behind while The Sapphires return to Saigon.
Gail reads Dave’s letter once they return to safety, which of course contains a marriage proposal. Even though the girls are still mourning the loss of their friend, Myron asks them to perform anyway because Martin Luther King Jr. had been assasinated. The black members of the army were rightfully questioning the point of fighting in the name a country that upholds systems of oppression against their own people and murders those who speak out against it. The Sapphires return to the stage, and Gail takes the lead on a song in tribute.
Afterward, Robby informs them Dave is injured, but alive. Gail visits him in the hospital so she can make out with his face, and accepts his marriage proposal. The girls return triumphantly to Cummeragunja, Kay is received back into her family, Chris and Gail get permission to marry, and everyone sings a happy song cause this movie about perseverance in the face of overwhelming hardship is sincerely a joy.
The Sapphires is more of a tribute to the real-life Sapphires as opposed to a faithful adaptation of their story, and it’s one clearly made with love, as one of the member’s son, Tony Briggs, co-wrote the screenplay. Not all four of the members went to Vietnam – one group of sisters refused out of protest against the war – but they were famous locally in Melbourne. Also, there is no real-life equivalent to Dave’s character, and the girls were taught about soul music from the Maori band they toured with.
Tony felt it was important to use his mother’s story to showcase the history of Australia’s “Stolen Generations”, as it not only affected his family, but it is estimated that anywhere between 20,000 – 100,000 children were kidnapped by the government between 1910 and 1970, with over 17,000 of these victims still alive today. While the Australian government has later apologized for this policy and is now attempting to monetarily compensate some those families, this dark period of abuse has and will continue to cause generational trauma.
The Sapphires brilliantly balances the serious subject matter it covers with moments of levity, allowing the focus to remain on the four brave women who are determined to pursue their dreams no matter what adversities they’re faced with, and succeed.