No one thought much of this film when it came out but today it's a fascinating period piece - an example of a "meat pie Western" par excellance. TV in 1970s Australia loved to explore the bushranging era - there was Rush, Cash and Company, Tandarra, Seven Little Australians, Against the Wind, Ben Hall, Luke's Kingdom.
This movie was from the team that made Cash and Company and Tandarra, neither of which I've seen and from what I gather neither was super popular with viewers but I can imagine the pitch to investors: "It'll be an Australian Western... why can't we do genre... Magnificent Seven". It would have sounded different and commercial.
And why not finance it? I mean okay Australia wasn't like the wild west but it was violent, there were guns. Yes, the film uses Western tropes but it makes some attempt to adapt to Australia - the plot revolves around the sectarianism of the time, which was a much bigger issue here than in the USA. There's references to Guy Fawkes, and cricket.
Gerard Kennedy is a bounty hunter who meets up with gun seller Gus Mecurio. They scare off some Irish standover men/Catholic revolutionaries, which impresses the anti-Catholic local politicians, who hire them to bring down said stand over men.
There's a gang of five - tough hero Kennedy, American Mecurio, dapper gentleman Rod Mullinar, young Chris Pate, and taciturn Hu Pryce. The actors are good - Mullinar shines in his role - although I did find Pate's character a little irritating, with his comic relief antics and subplot where he loses his virginity to a whore.
The handling is TV rather than cinema, although production values are decent. But since I saw this on a computer it didn't bother me. And the TV stars in it - Kenned, Mecurio and Mullinar - are craggy types we don't have any more, and are missed.
The budget does feel lacking for the final shoot out - which really should have ended with them all dead, instead of Mecurio, Kennedy and Pate miraculously surviving. There needed to be a decent female role too I think. And a more energetic music score, especially over the opening titles. But this was fun.
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