Watch The Sundowners For Free

Strong and Moving!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Paddy Carmody (Robert Mitchum), his wife Ida (Deborah Kerr) and son Sean (Michael Anderson Jr.) are drovers in Australia. They are Sundowners, pitching their tents anywhere when the sun goes down. Ida would rather settle down and Sean wants to strike out on his own. They start a job driving sheep to the town of Cawndilla and are joined by Englishman Rupert Venneker (Peter Ustinov). They survive a wild fire. Arriving in Cawndilla, Paddy intends to drive on to Queensland but the rest tries to find jobs to stay. They settle on a sheep station.There are solid actors, Australia, and lots of sheep. Mitchum provides a powerful presence. Kerr adds the heart. The journey does meander from place to place. The outback adventure is compelling. Once they stop moving, the story stays compelling due to the well-drawn characters by the top acting talents. It's a well-made old fashion film.

I would love to sit and watch this film with an Aussie. That's because as an American, I don't know enough to know how accurate this movie is--and if the accents of all the non-Australians in the leads are even close to being correct.This film is about a family of migrant workers--not a lazy 'sundowner' (see the IMDb trivia for more on this). They travel across Australia driving and shearing sheep to make a few quid--always on the move and no permanent home of their own. As for the husband (Robert Mitchum), he loves this sort of life with few responsibilities. But the wife (Deborah Kerr) is getting tired and sees a need to settle down and finally have a house of their own--especially since their son is getting older and wants some permanence in his life. The vast majority of the film, though, is almost like a documentary--showing what the life is like--like you get a little window into their migrant ways.This is a well made film. The acting, direction and music are all quite nice. My only serious qualm is that the film is slow and I know many folks simply wouldn't sit still for such a seemingly mundane plot. But, if you are patient, it's well worth your time.

We don't really talk like that in Australia so the over the top accents are actually amusing! A good movie despite this however!The Sundowners is a 1960 film that tells the story of an Australian outback family torn between the father's desires to continue his nomadic sheep-herding ways and the wife's and son's desire to settle down in one place. It stars Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns, Dina Merrill, Michael Anderson, Jr. and Chips Rafferty.The movie was adapted by Isobel Lennart from the novel by Jon Cleary. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann.It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Deborah Kerr), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Glynis Johns), Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.The movie was filmed mainly on location in New South Wales, including towns like Nimmitabel.

Director Fred Zinnemann helmed this wonderful screen-version of Jon Cleary's book about an Australian sheepherder who is at odds with his headstrong wife: he wants to keep moving, traveling from place to place without putting down roots, while she would prefer settling down and giving their teenage son a chance to make friends. Richly-textured comedy-drama comes together splendidly after an awkward beginning, with well-matched Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum (reunited from 1957's "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison") doing terrific work in the leads, Peter Ustinov equally fine as a bachelor they meet along the way. A lengthy film, but never a boring one, with beautiful photography and memorable characters and set-pieces. ***1/2 from ****