Famously released the same year as Burke and Wills this actually has a lot of good stuff in it - a very strong cast headlined by Gary MacDonald and Kym Gyngell, Peter Collingwood hilarious as a governor convinced that everyone loves him, Nicole Kidman making an early appearance as Julia Matthews.
It doesn't quite work though. Actually it just doesn't work. Mainly because I think the basic story isn't that compelling on screen - it consists of bad decision-bad decision-bad decision, as opposed to twists and turns. The best spoofs have a solid story eg Blazing Saddles, Flying High, Young Frankenstein. A colonial era spoof probably needed more of a stronger story basis - like For the Term of His Natural Life might've been funnier. Or even Robbery Under Arms.
I'm not sure there's a way of doing this story properly. Maybe from the point of view of King? Maybe Burke, like Ned Kelly, is a character best left to being a support character. Maybe it would've worked better from the point of view of Edwin Welch, who led the rescue expedition and found King. (I actually think that's the way to tell this story... from the point of view of Welch investigating what happened.)
Maybe the characterisations needed to be broader and more distinct. (Like they could've turned one of the exploring team into a woman in disguise, say, to get some females in there.) Collingwood's governor is very distinct and unique. The others less so - Gyngell's Wills is stiff upper lip, Wyn Roberts is a bushman and... that's about it, Roy Baldwin (Charles Gray) is a bit horny for Matthews and is argumentatitive and... that's it, Mark Little's King never says anything and... that's about it, Roderick Williams (as Landell) wears an Arab headdress and... that's about it, Nicole Kidman's Julia Matthews is bright and sparky but not into Burke.
Maybe if these parts had been broader. Maybe if it had songs and/or been on stage (there's a show biz subplot with Jonathan Hardy wanting to organise a stage show with Kidman).
Maybe if it had just been funnier. A lot of the gags feel like jokes that would sound funny if pitched eg Wills always wears evening dress, King never talks, the Aboriginal plays tunes and the others try to guess it. And the big subplot of Kidman putting on a show to celebrate Burke gets annoying after the while because it doesn't really tie in with the rest ... you could cut it out of the film.
Historically it's not super inaccurate. It follows the basic facts.
There's cameo-ish appearances from Colin Hay, Los Trios Ringbarkus, Chris Haywood.
No comments:
Post a Comment