Random Australian movies

reviewed Sat, 23 Sep 2006

DeepDiscountDVD.com had a sale recently, and just for the hell of it, I searched for all the Australian movies they had.  Two looked interesting (and were cheap), and so I bought them knowing nothing but what I read about them on Amazon.com.  Both were made in the late ‘70s.

The first is Long Weekend, a weird, psychological thriller about a young couple, Peter and Marcia, who go on a camping trip on a deserted stretch of coastline in the hopes that it will save their disintegrating relationship.  As the DVD box puts it, “They are a careless couple, littering the countryside with garbage, shooting guns and even driving away after wounding a kangaroo with their automobile.  Their callous disregard for the environment soon becomes apparent when the animals start to seek vengeance.”

Now, I can tell you from extensive research that even non-vengeance-seeking animals in Australia are phenomenonally deadly (and stingrays weren’t even on my list).  God forbid you should piss them off.  Long Weekend is of the suggestive school, hinting at dangers but never showing them.  I won’t give away anything; I think going into it without expecting anything specific is the best way to watch the movie.  But I will say that I got a creeping sense of dread that I felt a little ridiculous about having, considering how little is actually shown.

You don’t get a great sense of Australia from watching it, and both Peter and Marcia are so doggedly unpleasant that it’s a bit of a chore sticking with them for 95 minutes (believe me, you will be rooting for the animals), but if you like that kind of psychological thriller, you may be interested in this movie.

The second movie is Newsfront, a series of vignettes about cameramen working for newsreel companies in 1950s Australia.  It’s notable mostly for being an early Phillip Noyce movie and for featuring a very young Bryan Brown.  I was disappointed; it was rather slight and unengaging.  There are some interesting scenes of the cameramen merrily charging into danger, and the characters are appealing enough, but I sense a better knowledge of Australian history would have made it more enjoyable.  As it is, there’s one episode, then it fades to black and “1956” or some other year comes up on the screen, then it’s in color for some reason, then it goes to another vignette that’s in black and white again… there just doesn’t seem to be much structure or direction.

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