I always wondered if the film title was in homage of the 50's movie classic, since Shame's story line of the outsider showing up, fighting wrongs, and ultimately, helping a community get back their self-respect seems to have the same themes. This movie was re-made as a 1992 made for TV movie with Amanda Donahoe as the lead character and the locale changed to be the Pacific Northwest of the US rather than the outback of Australia. The theatrical film is the more powerful of the two. If you like this film, you might also enjoy the 1996 movie "Foxfire," where a teenage Angelina Jolie is cast as the trouble-making outsider showing up to help right wrongs.

WARNING:SPOILERS THROUGHOUT!!!!

There are few movies as horrifyingly moving and tragic as "Shame", a story about a female lawyer road traveling who stops in a small town in Australia when she has bike problems. She forms a friendship with a young girl from the town who has been gang raped and nobody in town seems to care or believe her.The lawyer becomes intent on getting justice done and also begins to notice how the boys in town seem to have free reighn to do pretty much anything they want to anyone without any objections from the townspeople. To the contrary, the townspeople seem to blatantly favor the boys and when the 2 females unite together their lives become at risk.

I saw this a long time ago and have never forgotten it. This movie is perhaps the most difficult to watch of anything I've ever viewed. I don't think anyone can argue that this movie, tragic as it is, is a little known masterpiece. I myself had never heard of it originally.

The ending to this movie is perhaps the darkest and most tragic I've ever seen-and I've seen a lot of movies. I can guarantee if you haven't seen this movie and you decide to, it will affect you for a long time to come and you may even regret having seen it because of how much it WILL upset you. Still, I think anyone who really appreciates a brilliant, well done film and who can appreciate a film that maybe tragic from start to middle to finish would probably benefit from seeing this though there is probably not 1 minute of true cheerfulness in the film. It is still brilliant though and I'm sure will leave you absolutely stunned-and horrified. I wish this film was better known but I'm not surprised that the people who HAVE seen it reviewed it so positively because this movie conforms to no stereotypes.

...this is director Jodrell's best work. Also known for some HALIFAX instalments, Jodrell has created a near-brilliant masterpiece from what is essentially an unoriginal story which could have easily been made into a non-consequential telemovie (notably, similar themes are dealt with in NATURAL JUSTICE: HEAT, a 1996 telemovie starring Claudia Karvan as the motorbike-riding lawyer based on the series of the same name). Furness, while not perhaps the best choice to play the lead role, ends up fitting nicely, with her tough-looking exterior (and shocking 1980's hair!!). She's a barrister, roaming the outback on her motorbike, when she comes across a small town which is hiding a shocking secret: seems the town's "lads" have been having more than a little "fun" with some teenage girls. Thing is, the local constabulary would much rather sweep it under the carpet than have to lock his mates up, and the girls have enough trouble convincing their own families of the truth, let alone the parents of the "nice, good boys" who have "never been in any trouble." Stereotypes abound here, but that's okay, it actually adds a dimension to the story and really lets us get angry at the characters. And just when you think you're hooked, Jodrell manages to pull in a bit of THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS and even MAD MAX to spice things up a bit... SHAME is an unconventional, highly emotive and stunning piece of work from a little-known director who, by these standards, deserves to be up there alongside Peter Weir and Scott Hicks as the most successful Australian filmmakers. Rating: 8/10.