We are indebted to our colleague on the inversecondemnation.com blog for reminding us about a wonderful Australian movie, “The Castle.” It’s a comedy about a colorful family’s fight to keep their home from being taken for the expansion of a nearby airport. It’s good entertainment as well as good social commentary, that is well worth the time to view it. So next time you set out to rent a movie, get “The Castle.” It’s fair dinkum, mate.
And by the way, speaking of things Australian, we might mention that the Aussie term for eminent domain is “resumption.” It is derived from the fact that the original Crown land grants in Australia had a provision reserving to the the Crown the right to resume title upon payment of compensation.
And speaking of entertaining stuff that’s related to eminent domain — and Lord knows there is precious little of that — there is also a wonderful old British vaudeville song entitled “They’re movin’ father’s grave to build a sewer.” It was recorded by the Clancy Brothers and should be available on one of their CDs. It too is great fun.