Yes we all know that Australian film is fairly terrible these days, but I'm gonna take the time to quickly go through a few worthy Australian films. The ones that I've seen I mean. I've heard some good things about the short film Harvey Krumpet and the film Dexter, but I am yet to see them. Anyway, a few good Aussie films.
Mad Max:
Let's start with the obvious. What would be called a 'visually stunning' film. Mad Max is the story of a few cops, with massive V8's, trying to keep control of the roads which are becoming more and more dangerous. Eventually this turns to a revenge story. But not in the same way the Hollywood films do. (i.e. Arnie's family dies in the first 5 minutes and then spends the next 2 hours trying to get revenge.). After a quite family holiday Max's wife pisses off the Toecutter (hard core bikie leader) and eventually gets slaughter. This leads to the original saw like scene in which a man is handcuffed to a car that's about to explode. "It'll take you ten minutes to hack through the chain with this (throws man hack saw) . . . now if your lucky, you'll get through your ankle in five." But between all this happening are some of the best action scenes created and a fucking awesome grandma willing to take on a gang of bikies with a shot gun. Also this was the highest grossing budget to profit ratio (meaning they spent thousands making it and made millions on it) for over 20 years. (It was eventually beaten by the Blair Witch Project crap.)
Let's move on.
Australian Rules:
Based on the book 'Deadly Unna?" Australian rules is escentually (yes I know I can't spell), about young blokes in a country town, dealing with AFL, isolation and Racism. When a talented Aboriginal AFL player is over looked for his less talented white counter part, all things go to shit in this country town. Expecially when the same night a drunken white man (the father of our protaganist) shoots a black man. Suddenly we have this young man stuck in the middle of two worlds having to choose between a culture and his family.
One Perfect Day:
This is about a young Australian man who, after returning home from being expelled in a top notch Europian music school, finds his little sister is dead and his girlfriend fucking other men (or so he believes). This leads him to trying to come to terms with his sisters death, by delving into the world of Trance music his sister was so involved in. Dealing with classic music, techno, drugs and relationships, this is one of those gut wretching movies. It also has what I think is some good mashing of techno and classical style music.
The Proposition:
Written by Nick Cave, this is a fucking amazing movie. Quick explaination on what the actually proposition is. There are three brothers who are Irish outlaws living out west in late 1800's Australia, and the troopers catch the youngest two. The cops go up to the middle brother and pretty much say "I want you to go and kill your older brother, OR I'm gonna hang you're little brother." Oooooh and so the story begins.
I'm sure I've done a fucking shit job explaining these movies and there are alot of spelling mistakes but over all I hope I've made a few people remember that occascionally Oz does make some good movies that aren't fucking stupid 'comedies' (you and your stupid mate, take away, crackerjack) or moody dramas (i'm looking at you little fish.)
