Friday, November 12, 2021

Movie review - "Break of Day" (1976) **1/2

 Pat Lovell and Cliff Green, coming off Picnic at Hanging Rock, teamed with Ken Hannam, coming off Sunday Too Far Away resulting in a movie that didn't do as well as either, though it has its pleasures, such as a loving depiction of small town.

It's about the impact on that town of a visiting bohemian, Sarah Kestelman, in particular on a young former Anzac (Andrew McFarlane). Both actors are fine... I think Kestelman needed to be better looking or sexier or something. Like he should have seen her bathing nude to start off with. That is blunt but the film needs an electric charge like that.

Beautifully shot and all that. Very much an "AFC film" like The Irishman and so on. I enjoyed so much time being dedicated to a cricket sequence at the end.

Nice performances in the support cast from people like Tony Barry, Maurie Fields,  John bell, Geraldine Turner. The film might've been more interesting told from the bohemians point of view - with bisexual Kestelman, war veteran Bell, etc. Downer of an ending with the reveal McFarlane shot himself in the foot to avoid more fighting at Gallipoli, and then seeing Kestelman has slept with Turner.

But not a bad film.

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