Tourism promoters say the real star of the movie "Australia" is the country itself.

SYDNEY, Australia -- The film camera sweeps across the landscape, taking in flat plains, gushing waterfalls and a dusty country town. The color is brilliant, the emptiness palpable, and the soundtrack soars dramatically as warplanes bomb a city.

SYDNEY, Australia — The camera sweeps across the landscape, taking in flat plains, gushing waterfalls and a dusty country town. The color is brilliant, the emptiness palpable, and the soundtrack soars dramatically as warplanes bomb a city. This is “Australia,” the new movie by award-winning director Baz Luhrmann. The World War II-era romantic epic, which opened this past week, has already been ...