An film that's impossible not to admire. Bill Bennett was fired up by a newspaper article which showed a street of Vietnam vets having major health problems due most likely to Agent Orange. He brought his journalist skills, made it in the street, with the involvement of the family.
Chris Haywood is terrific in the role of a life time as the ocker, irreverent Colin Simpson, who runs, smokes 20 cigs a day, develops a rash and eventually terminal cancer. The best scenes are of him visiting doctors (initially dismissive), then finding out he's really sick (his wife is told twice before he finds out, one time the doctor calls the wife from the next room), then dying. Jennifer Cluff is strong as the wife.
The understated presentation is hugely effective. Structurally the film has problems because Haywood dies 66 minutes or so into the film. Then there's 25 minutes of funeral and a hearing. Which is kind of interesting but just lacks emotional power.
I sense the material here really ran for 60 minutes and was better as a TV play - the last bit feels like padding, important as it was to society. The other way to have done it would have been to do a subplot.
The evocation of 70s/80s life is strong - union reps, smoking, street cricket, backyard BBQs. This was my childhood so it was moving.
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