Tim Burstall was a bit cocky in the mid 70s about having his finger on the commercial pulse but like all directors soon discovered it was harder than it looked. The public didn't go to this. Or anything he made after Eliza Fraser, really.
It's a shame because this is a decent movie. Beautifully shot, some tough locations, a strong cast. It feels a little Sunday Too Far Away - men being tough in the outback - even though I think the play came first.
There's memorable scenes - the poker game between Mike Preston and Michael Duffield, some brawls, visiting the prostitutes. It's an interesting world.
But it lacks focus. Sunday had Jack Thompson this one is more all over the shop. It's an ensemble piece which is fine, but it lacks some unifying event. I guess Mike Preston is trying to take over from Gerard Kennedy... but that doesn't unify the other strands. You've got Michael Caton being a newcomer, and a guy who looks like Honey Badger the football player being mysterious, and a subplot about a robbery in the city which feels outlandish, and Duffield being old, and the prostitutes... It feels diffuse. The robbery stuff clangs - an escaped con working there feels natural but the story here feels at odd in its melodrama to the rest... especially Honey Badger being a kung fu expert.
I think more work needed to be done on the adaptation. Maybe really focus it around Preston trying to take over the gang. Use Kennedy more - he's hardly in the film. They can be trying to get allies. Or it takes place over one night. Or something.
I wonder if this is one of the films that David Williamson was referring to when his surrogate in Emerald City goes "I see films and know how they could be made to work but no one gives me a call."
Still, much to admire - an excellent chance for Duffield (who has a far bigger role than Kennedy), people like Steve Bisley are in it and so on.
Tuesday, June 02, 2020
Movie review - "The Club" (1980) ***
Williamson's play is a masterpiece, Bruce Beresford should have been an ideal director, and the cast is perfect - every single one. But the film isn't much. It's fine, but no way near the play.
The problem is easy to spot -in a desperation to "open the material" the play has been restructured so it is presented chronologically. We start with the champion player (a skinny John Howard, which is weird) being offered money and Graham Kennedy signing a personal cheque. Exchanges that all unfolded in real time on stage are spread out on screen - over at least a month, with a coda of the grand final that would be months later.
I didn't mind the grand final coda, it was very satisfying to see John Howard integrated into the team, but the rest it was a mistake. It dissipated the tension. The play piles it on - coach Jack Thompson is about to be fire, so is president Kennedy, so is top player Howard, Harold Hopkins is leading a strike, Alan Cassell and Frank Wilson are trying to organise a coup... it's wonderful. Here it drags on. The dialogue is the same, but time is strung out instead of compressed.
They just should have filmed the play - you could have opened it up by ducking into different rooms and parts of the ground, like Beresford did in Don's Party but stringing out the time line doesn't work. Also some exchanges which felt naturally like intimate talks take place in all these public arenas.
So the film doesn't work as well as it should.
Which is a shame since the casting is perfect - Wilson, Cassell, Howard, Hopkins, Thompson... and most of all Kennedy, who is magnificent.
The problem is easy to spot -in a desperation to "open the material" the play has been restructured so it is presented chronologically. We start with the champion player (a skinny John Howard, which is weird) being offered money and Graham Kennedy signing a personal cheque. Exchanges that all unfolded in real time on stage are spread out on screen - over at least a month, with a coda of the grand final that would be months later.
I didn't mind the grand final coda, it was very satisfying to see John Howard integrated into the team, but the rest it was a mistake. It dissipated the tension. The play piles it on - coach Jack Thompson is about to be fire, so is president Kennedy, so is top player Howard, Harold Hopkins is leading a strike, Alan Cassell and Frank Wilson are trying to organise a coup... it's wonderful. Here it drags on. The dialogue is the same, but time is strung out instead of compressed.
They just should have filmed the play - you could have opened it up by ducking into different rooms and parts of the ground, like Beresford did in Don's Party but stringing out the time line doesn't work. Also some exchanges which felt naturally like intimate talks take place in all these public arenas.
So the film doesn't work as well as it should.
Which is a shame since the casting is perfect - Wilson, Cassell, Howard, Hopkins, Thompson... and most of all Kennedy, who is magnificent.
Movie review - "Manganinnie" (1980) **1/2
A film made with love. It's heart is in the right place. Beautiful locations. The two leads are very good. It is a little dull. A lot of trudging around. There's some sort of pirates in the third act but they're not in it very long.
It has an achingly painful subtext because you know Manganinnie's whole tribe is going to be wiped out. Yet the story on screen lacks drama - it needed another character or something. And it felt like a cheat somehow that Manganinnie could return the girl at any moment.
Full of beautiful moments like singing for the dead girl. But there aren't enough of them.
It has an achingly painful subtext because you know Manganinnie's whole tribe is going to be wiped out. Yet the story on screen lacks drama - it needed another character or something. And it felt like a cheat somehow that Manganinnie could return the girl at any moment.
Full of beautiful moments like singing for the dead girl. But there aren't enough of them.
Monday, June 01, 2020
Movie review - "Cuthroat Island" (1995) **
A film that put back pirate movies another decade and helped kill Carolco and Geena Davis' reign as movie star. She's not super convincing as a pirate but looks great with her long hair and willowy tops.
Big. Noisy. Glossy. Unexciting. I liked the colours. It always moved. Simple story ineptly executed - I got confused with all the map stuff. How hard is it to do a map story?
Weird to see Matthew Modine as a pirate. They never quite get a fix on his character. Weird to see Geena Davis as a pirate. Frank Langella suits this world.
I expected the dodgy script and odd casting. I was surprised how unmemorable the support cast where - the actors who played members of Davis' crew. Random dull black guy. Kid actor. Monkey. Random crusty people.
A mess. Still, it was a big colourful studio pirate picture.
Big. Noisy. Glossy. Unexciting. I liked the colours. It always moved. Simple story ineptly executed - I got confused with all the map stuff. How hard is it to do a map story?
Weird to see Matthew Modine as a pirate. They never quite get a fix on his character. Weird to see Geena Davis as a pirate. Frank Langella suits this world.
I expected the dodgy script and odd casting. I was surprised how unmemorable the support cast where - the actors who played members of Davis' crew. Random dull black guy. Kid actor. Monkey. Random crusty people.
A mess. Still, it was a big colourful studio pirate picture.
TV review - "You Can't See Round Corners" (1967) various episodes ***
Creaky, often on the nose, the sets wobble. But its interesting - quite adult (Carmen Duncan and Ken Shorter have sex). Being a TV series it can explore the nuances of the novel more and I feel updating it to Vietnam from World War Two works.
Duncan is moving as the girl who loves Frankie. Ken Shorter is solid too. It is interesting to have such a down beat lead character. I mean, he's a deserter. So it was gutsy of Channel Seven.
Duncan is moving as the girl who loves Frankie. Ken Shorter is solid too. It is interesting to have such a down beat lead character. I mean, he's a deserter. So it was gutsy of Channel Seven.
Movie review - "Teenage Doll" (1957) **
Roger Corman's second film for the Woolner brothers is similarly female-crim-centric and doesn't have locations but has a better writer, Charles Griffith. It's about a female gang determined to get revenge when one of their member wind up dead.
It could have done with more trashy girl gang action than melodrama - like Thunder Over Hawaii and Beast from the Haunted Cave, come to think of it. There's lots of characters set up - a daughter of a cop, a sister of a woman who seems to be a mistress. a Mexican American who suffers persecution, a woman whose dad is sleeping around... but not really developed. This could have done with another draft or two and thirty more minutes.
I felt gypped there wasn't a big inter girl fight. Some groovy slang- wish they'd be more. This is the sort of film you keep wishing was better. They should remake it,
Handling competent rather than inspired. Barbara Mouris pops up. The lead is Fay Spain who isn't that great. Nicely shot. Richard Devon is a cop.
Corman clearly liked being around women. I think they complained less and were less confrontational. Still, these actors rarely played better parts.
It could have done with more trashy girl gang action than melodrama - like Thunder Over Hawaii and Beast from the Haunted Cave, come to think of it. There's lots of characters set up - a daughter of a cop, a sister of a woman who seems to be a mistress. a Mexican American who suffers persecution, a woman whose dad is sleeping around... but not really developed. This could have done with another draft or two and thirty more minutes.
I felt gypped there wasn't a big inter girl fight. Some groovy slang- wish they'd be more. This is the sort of film you keep wishing was better. They should remake it,
Handling competent rather than inspired. Barbara Mouris pops up. The lead is Fay Spain who isn't that great. Nicely shot. Richard Devon is a cop.
Corman clearly liked being around women. I think they complained less and were less confrontational. Still, these actors rarely played better parts.
Movie review - "Lady Stay Dead" (1981) *
Of all the genres they made in Australian cinema in 1981, this belongs to the genre that remains most common - psychos tormenting women - which says something about society, but also about the resilience of low budget genre.
Terry Bourke strikes me as one of those directors who can clearly produce but aren't very good directors. It's cleverly put together - one psycho, one location. Its pervy - full frontal nude swim from Deborah Coulls, who then has her head shoved in a fish tank the poor thing.
Chard Hayward throws his heart into the role of the psycho. Actually so does the whole cast. Louise Howitt screams a lot. Her character should have taken more control in the third act. Roger Ward kind of takes over, though it is fun to see him.
A lot of the second half choreography makes no sense. It's mean. Cruel. Exploitative. The film will have its fans.
Terry Bourke strikes me as one of those directors who can clearly produce but aren't very good directors. It's cleverly put together - one psycho, one location. Its pervy - full frontal nude swim from Deborah Coulls, who then has her head shoved in a fish tank the poor thing.
Chard Hayward throws his heart into the role of the psycho. Actually so does the whole cast. Louise Howitt screams a lot. Her character should have taken more control in the third act. Roger Ward kind of takes over, though it is fun to see him.
A lot of the second half choreography makes no sense. It's mean. Cruel. Exploitative. The film will have its fans.
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