History Film / TheNightingale2019

* AmbiguousEnding: A lot is left up in the air when the film ends. [[spoiler:Billy is presumably dying of his wounds, but we last see him sitting on the beach looking at the sunrise. It's anyone guess as to what happens to Clare next. She has no papers, no job prospects and no cash, though she does have a horse. She might be wanted for accessory to murder]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Clare gets her revenge but her family is still dead and Billy is now mortally wounded.]]

* DontGoInTheWoods: At least not without a NativeGuide. And [[spoiler: when Clare is separated from Billy]] it shows that she wouldn't have lasted long without him.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Private Jago, despite being idiotic and cruel, didn't mean to kill Clare's baby, didn't rape her or poor Lowanna and is clearly haunted by his actions. [[spoiler: Still did quite deserve his death.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Mortally wounded at the end, Billy can only celebrate joyously as the LastOfHisKind at having struck a blow against the English.]]

* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Horrific example. A native woman named Lowanna is snatched from the woods by Ruse simply because he's never slept with "one of them" before. Hawkins goes along with it when Ruse offers to allow him to go first.

* KickTheDog: Hawkins is already a rapist and scumbag, but when little Eddie can't shoot a man, Hawkins abandons him, after having seemingly treated him with kindness, threatening to add five years to Eddie's prison sentence just out of callous spite.

* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler: Billy/Mangana later learns from Portmairremener people in chain that he is the last of Linetemairrener people.]]

* PanUpToTheSkyEnding: The ending pans up to a dawning sun [[spoiler: meaning a new beginning for the protagonist.]]

** Of the three soldiers, [[spoiler: Jago]] is probably the most moral and the least guilty for what happened to Aidan (although he is the one who [[spoiler: kills the baby, although he is remorseful]]). Of the three, his death is by far the most brutal and drawn out (because Clare's gun fails her and she has to resort to beating him with the butt, then stabbing him with his own knife). Doing this also causes Clare to have nightmares where [[spoiler: Jago]] chases her around the woods with a bloody mutilated face.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: Australia in the 19th century might as well be Antarctica. Clare and her husband are former criminals who are sent there for forced labor. It's an undesirable post for the English soldiers stationed there as well. Hawkins is enraged that he's been stuck there for three years.

* RegencyEngland: Although it's set in Australia 1825 (at that time a British colony), the fashions and military uniforms match this era.

* SceneryPorn: Both played straight and {{averted}}. The movie was filmed in the Tazmanian wilderness, so there's a lot of striking plant life around, but it was also shot in the unusual 4:3 aspect ratio, which tends to focus the eye on the characters and their (frequently very brutal) actions rather than the world around them.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Hawkins fancies himself a war hero worthy for command. In truth, he's a jumped up thug who's achieved nothing save to terrorize those weaker than him.

* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Hawkins is caught by Billy in a brothel and impaled on the spot. Ruse fares little better.]]
* ViolenceIsDisturbing: We are not spared from the goriest sights. The plainest example is when [[spoiler: Clare]] kills [[spoiler: Jago]] the viewer would expect it to be a cathartic moment, but it becomes a messy, gruesome sight more similar to RasputinianDeath.

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:Hawkins eventually shoots little Eddie for begging him for a second chance, simply snarling he "can't stand the fucking noise of it."]]

* DontGoInTheWoods: At least not without a NativeGuide. And [[spoiler: when Clare is separated from Billy]] it shows that she wouldn't have last long without him.

* WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency: A couple who assist Clare and Billy expect Billy to be much more grateful than is warranted just for letting him eat at their table, prompting him to tearfully exclaim that they're in his country.

Clare (Aisling Franciosi) is an Irish indentured servant at a British military outpost in 1825 Tasmania. She is forced to endure the murders of her husband and baby, as well as her own brutal rape, by an officer named Hawkins (Creator/SamClaflin) and his henchmen. Unable to find justice, Clare enlists the help of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) to guide her through the harsh Australian wilderness as she seeks revenge against Hawkins's band. [[FromBadToWorse Things do not get better from here.]]

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. Clare is bruised from where she gets hit by Hawkins and Jago.

* AdultFear:
** Hawkins' sex slave Lowanna's infant son is left in the middle of the woods alone.
** The first 30 minutes are Clare's personal nightmare, her husband and child are killed and she is gang-raped by Hawkins' henchmen.
** Lowanna's husband tries to rescue his wife only [[spoiler: for her to be killed before his eyes.]]

** The first 20 minutes are Clare's personal nightmare, her husband and child are killed and she is gang-raped by Hawkins' henchmen.

* CharacterDevelopment: Clare's racism towards the Aborigines softens as a result of bonding with Billy.
* CrapsackWorld: Van Diemen's Land-era Tasmania is a penal colony where racism and genocide against Aborigines happens regularly.

* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:Clare is raped ''three'' separate times in the first half hour of the film, providing a lot of her motivation for the rest of the film. This actually caused some backlash from critics who found the sheer amount of rape to be excessive]].

* NotSoDifferent: Clare starts off treating Billy like he's barely above an animal, while he (quite accurately at that point) thinks she's no different than any other white person. After their first FriendshipMoment when Billy calls Clare "English", they realise they have far more in common than they thought, including the fact that English is neither's first language.

!!Tropes inclide:

* KnifeNut: [[spoiler: Clare]] repeatedly stabs [[spoiler: Jago]] to death with his own knife.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The visiting officer who should recommend Hawkins for his promotion can plainly see how [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores petty and corrupt]] his unit is and said promotion should never land on him. Too bad he doesn't see even more of him, perhaps ridding the army of this scumbag.
* RealityEnsues: You'd expect for Clare to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge and mercilessly kill her abusers. Instead the journey is perilous and takes his toll on her, and she finds out that she hasn't the killer instinct like Hawkins, and kill someone is a bloody, messy affair.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Or the thing closest to Antarctica. Clare (formerly a petty thief) and her husband are Irish convicts sent for forced labour in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania), or as Clare sees it "this arse-end of the world".

* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: Lieutenant Hawkins' unit are petty, racist, morally loose and perpetually intoxicated with alcohol. You'd think it's just by chance that most of them aren't convicts themselves. Hawkins calls them "the sorriest unit ever" but doesn't do anything to discipline them, and it bites him in the arse when the visiting officer who should promote him isn't remotely impressed with them.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Billy saw English soldiers killing his family members and get separated from his mother.

* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: [[spoiler: Jago is already injured when]] gets first shot by [[spoiler: Clare]], but when the rifle fails to function (a RunningGag), he gets repeatedly stabbed with his own knife and then his face beaten to a pulp with said rifle. [[NightmareFuel It's not a pretty sight]].

* NativeGuide: Billy, actual name Mangana, the “blackbird” guides Clare through the woods, as there is no way she can make it by herself.
** Uncle Charlie serves as an unwilling one to Hawkins. [[spoiler: As he got fed up with their murdering and raping, he get them lost in the wilderness, but his scheme is found out and he's killed for it.]]

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: The film contains dialogue in both unsubtitled Irish and Palawa kani.

* CrusadingWidow: It's not just RapeAndRevenge, but poor Clare ha also a family to avenge by tracking down her assaulters.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: Or the thing closest to Antarctica. Clare (formerly a petty thief) and her husband are Irish convicts sent for forced labor in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania), or as Clare sees it "this arse-end of the world".

* RoadTripPlot: The actions develops are the villains are traveling north of the island through the woods and the protagonists follow them to get their vengeance.

* YouKilledMyFather: Most of Billy's friends, family members, [[spoiler: and fellow tribesmembers]] are killed by English soldiers [[spoiler: and he is now the last of his kind.]] This is what made to help Clare to enact on her revenge.

* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler: Billy/Mangala later learns from Portmairremener people in chain that he is the last of Linetemairrener people.]]

* NotSoDifferent: As much as Clare having racism towards the Aborigines like Billy, they both find a commonality in hating English people for what they have done to their homeland.