The only film you will ever need
to own is this one: They're
a weird mob, which was -briefly - released
on DVD.
It is the greatest Australian film
known to man, fuck that, the greatest film known to man, Australian
or
otherwise. Why?
It has the following creative content: Mid-sixties babes; 1950s
and 60s cars; Drinking; mid-sixties Scenery; mid-sixties style;
1950s attitudes; Views of Sydney
during the mid-sixties; The beach during the mid-sixties; mid-sixties
babes on the beach, in hot mid-sixties clobber.
The novel was
released in the early 60s, and written by John O'Grady (under
the alias, Nino Culotta). It is
fucking hysterical.
It is based upon the endeavours of a young Italian immigrant,
forced (by honour) to pay back his cousins business debts.
To do so he must endure working on a building site, with a
bunch of legends, Including Ed Deveraux and John Mellion. Everyone
always talks about the 'bar scene', which yes, is a complete
corker, in which a local tries to explain what a 'shout' is,
Have a look:
Buy it.
Dirty Deeds (2002)
This film is a scorcher.
It is set in the last year anything
resembling style was present in Australia, 1969.
Darcy, played by Sam Worthington, returns from Vietnam,
and goes to work for his Uncle, played by Bryan Brown.
What evolves
is fantastic, but irrelevant to the main issue, that issue
being the attention to detail -- as this film is one of the
best-produced Australian films around.
It really puts you in the time
and place, and well worth a look at if you want to see how
Hep Australia was, right
up
until the hippies fucked it up, and Billy Thorpe grew long
hair.
The Year My Voice
Broke (1986)
OK, it's really hard to comment on
this film without sounding a bit soppy, as it is a 'coming-of-age'
teen-flick, and deals with the all the typical awkwardness/bullying/first
crush stuff really well. HOWEVER, the great thing about this
film is the quality of the production.
It is set in early 1960s rural Australia
(and filmed in Braidwood, NSW) and it is ALMOST a perfect reproduction
of the times.
There are a few 1980s fashion moments sneaking in. But in
general the film offers a great insight into the times,
and well worth
a look at.
The main characters are perfect, Noah
Taylor is brilliant, as are Leone Carmen and Ben Mendelson.
Noah Taylor's character,
Danny, narrates the film with a lot of patronising humour,
and Leone Carmen's character, Freya, is really kind and
sweet to our protagonist, Danny.
You cannot find this film on DVD for
love nor money, and even the VHS will set you back about $75.
We all might
have to wait
this one out until it rocks up on DVD eventually.
There was also a sequel, Flirting, with Nicole Kidman,
and it's pretty cool too.
Newsfront (1978)
I absolutely love this film, but
even almost thirty years after seeing it for the first (and
last) time, still really saddens me. This was possibly the
first film I ever really saw that pictured this amazing period
of Australian history.
It is set in 1948, and covers the
election in which Robert Menzies sweeps to power over Ben Chifley.
It stars a very young Bryan Brown,
Bill Hunter, Chris Haywood and a whole swag of others who went
on to better things
(it even has Bruce Spence in it, as does The Year My Voice
Broke).
To be honest I have not seen this
film since I was a kid, but I’ll track it down and write
a better review of it when I get the chance.
Also,
it's hard to go past the absolute genius which is the ABC
Series Long Way to the Top. This covers the history
of Australian Rock'n'Roll from the fifties to the present.
Many of the acts appear on the Jukebox Bop CD (on our hep-music page) and is a fascinating in sight into fifties culture.
Sure the
seventies stuff is crap, I mean the only good stuff is when
rockers were rockers.
