Possibly the best Australian film ever made and it took a Canadian to do it! The horror and quiet menace of this film is more frightening than the Exorcist and Psycho combined.
shareFinally saw it again after all these years ... still a great film ...another good Oz thriller that is quietly menacing is the excellent "Noise" by Matthew Saville
But you ARE Blanche ... and I AM.
Well, another great Australian film from the same year, Walkabout, took an Englishman to do it...
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Yeah, it is strange that two of the country's greatest cinematic masterpieces were made by foreigners. Hardly an ideal cultural legacy. Lucky we have Peter Weir, or we might have cause to develop a bit of an inferiority complex...
But no, perhaps a certain cultural and emotional detachment is required to expose the true horror of the Australian outback. Aussies are taught from very early on to romanticise the harshness of the land. A certain quasi-patriotic, geographical kind of jingoism is drummed into them from childhood. As a result, most local filmmakers simply don't have it in them to paint such a relentlessly unflattering portrait of the country's ultra-hostile desert environment, along with its dismal mining settlements at the back end of nowhere and their inevitably extreme masculinity.
The scariest thing about this film is that it's actually a fairly accurate depiction of life in the outback towns. If I got stuck in Broken Hill with no money, I'd probably want to kill myself too...
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'71 truly was a landmark year for Oz cinema though. It kickstarted a period of unprecedented government investment and local interest in the film industry, and ushered in the golden age, somewhat awkwardly dubbed the 'Australian New Wave'. By all accounts, it was a great time. It was practically free to make movies here throughout the 70s and most of the 80s. Sadly, the 80s killed the industry. It became obvious that 99% of filmmakers were taking advantage of the ridiculously generous grants to make utter garbage, so the government assistance gradually dried up.
Now, the industry is in such a sorry state that it's a wonder we still manage to make any movies at all. It's a small miracle that some of these actually turn out to be pretty great (Snowtown and Animal Kingdom being the most recent examples).
Well, in addition to Peter Weir, this fella named Bruce Beresford was/is rather high profile as well - personally, I´d put his Breaker Morant at least in the top 20 of the 1980´s (not sure if it´s an Australian film though, strictly speaking... for one thing, the cast seems to be half Aussie/half English... with Edward Woodward giving a performance that´s arguably even better than De Niro´s Jake La Motta). It does heavily romanticize the Australian lower rank soldiers pitted against the arrogant, callous British upper class leadership though - not unlike Gallipoli in these regards. And it appears that in reality, the actual Morant guy was quite the bloodthirsty, racist thug instead of the noble warrior poet Beresford´s film has to offer. And similarly to Weir, Beresford also left for Hollywood quite soon... not sure how well he did there as I´ve seen nothing of his later work besides Tender Mercies which, while good, isn´t anything that special. From Weir´s American output, Witness probably remains the best... and most of his work is at least interesting in some ways (although he also has this embarrassingly dumb tearjerker Dead Poet´s Society on his resume).
I´ll try to see Snowtown & Animal Kingdom... as my experience with Aussie film is indeed very much limited to Weir/Beresford/Walkabout/WIF. Haven´t even seen those Mad Max movies.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
as my experience with Aussie film is indeed very much limited to Weir/Beresford/Walkabout/WIF.
Few years late but just wanted to say:
This exchange. Exactly what I'll be missing from the IMDb boards. That was an interesting read. Thanks.
Too bad for the trolls, low-lifes, the entitled idiots, and the rest who destroyed these boards, rendering them painful to navigate and find such informative gems.
Cheers.
Ignorance is bliss... 'til it posts on the Internet, then, it's annoying.
as my experience with Aussie film is indeed very much limited to Weir/Beresford/Walkabout/WIF. Haven´t even seen those Mad Max movies.
the Proposition is a great movie
shareMAD MAX (1979) is the greatest film to ever come out of Australia. BREAKER MORANT is exceptional, too. But MAX stands head and shoulders over Weir's work for me. I honestly don't know what to make of WAKE IN FRIGHT. I thought I was going to be watching a thriller. It's closer to an AA documentary, if you ask me.
sharePossibly the best Australian film ever made and it took a Canadian to do it!
I just saw it tonight, and I agree. I can't believe I had never heard of it until just a few days ago.
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