Jason KingAustralian Films
March 25th 2008 00:15
Category: No Category
OK, so yesterday I had a bitch about Australian films getting worse. So I thought it should be only fair that I write about some of the greats that are better than most US films I have seen. This has taken a few hours of deliberation but these are my top 10 OZ films.
1) This is actually my all time favorite film - my house has a mini shrine to it: Baz's Romeo and Juliet. I was obsessed from the moment I watched it. I ran the Australian Premiere as senior film projectionist and Baz told me he had never seen his film presented better in the world. Of course this helped my love and attitude for the film. It also helps that Leonardo DiCaprio is probably (in my opinion) the most talented actor of this generation and exact;y what Hollywood is about. Beautiful and amazingly talented
2) Dead Calm - one of Nicole Kidman's earlier films (1989) along with Sam Neill and US actor Billy Zane as a psycho nut job. Directed by Phillip Noyce and all set at sea. I still watch this film nearly every year and love it to bits.
3) Lantana - blew me away when I watched this. How can I describe it? Probably the best Australian drama that is acted, directed, edited - everythinged superbly. If we concentrated on making better films like this instead of the regular crap we churn out making Ozzies look stupid and just silly then our film industry might just flourish!!!!!
4) Mad Max - everyone knows this film - it's Mel driving sober - lol. And VERY angry!! Ozzie brilliance that set Mel up to be one of our best exports, recent shenanigans aside.
5) The Man from Snowy River - the quintessential Australian film - this is all country Oz and has NEVER been matched for its beauty and depiction of our amazing country. Let's hope Baz can do it with "Australia". Starring Tom Burlinson who can now be seen on stage singing Sinatra. He was brilliant in this role and when I was in yr 8 at school he came to our school's end of year dance and did some amazing whip tricks - I still have his autograph. LOL. This also stars Sigrid Thornton who is such a beautiful actress. Must SEE
6) Two Hands - Starring the amazing and terribly missed actor Heath Ledger, Two Hands could be categorized as a love story, a black comedy, an action thriller, a super-natural, an anti-crime flick or art house thinking movie. It is all of these but none of these. The movie is based in Sydney's Kings Cross and begins with a deceased climbing from the depths of hell to save his little brother from following in his footsteps. He stops to explain the principle of ying-yang: that inside every good person, there is a little bit of bad, and inside every bad person, there is a little bit of good; thus setting the tone for a movie in which there are no bad guys or good guys, rather there are only people whose little slip-ups have dire consequences. Every action has a reaction and each peripheral story ricochets against another to culminate in the climax of a central story.
I borrowed some of this description from someone else's website - thanks to them!!!!
7) Romper Stomper - it was a tough choice number 7 - I tossed up as to which I preferred, Romper or Chopper?? Chopper comes in at number 8 but this was first and it launched a massive career for our Russ (or does NZ own him?). If it wasn't for this film Gladiator would have been shit or non existent. This was a brilliant skin head film set in Melbourne and it was bloody violent and a risk taking film that paid off in spades. In fact I think I am off to the dvd store after this to hire and watch it again. Russ is chilling as Hando!!
8) Chopper - another violent film that didn't hold back and turned a mediocre tv comic into an acting genius that we are proud to call our own. Eric Bana tore the screen up playing chopper and I still find him scarier than Chopper himself. Not a massive fan of glorifying our crims but Chopper seems to do enough of that himself and god Eric was good!!!
9) Happy Feet - while not as massively Australian as The Man from Snowy River this film proves we can do what the rest of the world does with film but better. This is by far the best animation EVER made and makes me want to dance every time I see it!! In fact my feet have started tapping right now!!
10) It's way too hard fitting 10 Australian films into my top 10 - so number 10 is a list of those films I love to bits but didn't make the top 9. It's a joint tie.
December Boys
Priscilla
Romulus, My Father
Candy
Kenny
Rabbit Proof Fence
Babe
Shine
Proof
Strictly Ballroom
Muriel's Wedding
This could go on forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know I have had a bitch about the Australian film industry, hell everyone does nowadays but after placing my list above and doing some research we still have amazing films regularly coming out and for example we have 10films a year of which 8 are pure crap, would this not equate to the US where say they make 1000films a year of which 800 are pure crap. Me thinks so!!
Comment on Australian cinema
"The usual answer to this question has been along the lines that our film-makers and script-writers are tunnel-visioned in that they are only interested in black armband stuff that denounces our (always meaning "your") almost innate racism or our acquiescence in an "incontrovertible" genocide, yet another sad dirge about drug addiction or another dissing everything "mainstream" Australians respect - hence the dreary queue of pictures that 80% of us have little connexion with. In other words, producers, directors, et al., need to get out more, to see how people who don't dress all in black and can't carry on a 20-minute discussion about coffee genres, or who reckon that their outer suburban lives are fulfilling and that the fortunes of their local football team are interesting, live their lives. Interesting to know how accurate that assessment is these days. " (Leonard Colquhoun - message board poster)
"Unfortunately the damage done by the self important, government funded w=nkers who took control of Australia's film industry back at the beginning of the latest culture cringe will take time to fix. I hope and pray that we have ended the period of economic rationalism and are heading into a new and exciting time when all things truly Australian are things to be proud of. Our rejection of American Tv is just the beginning, now if we can just find out once again who we are.... " Unknown
"...holding breath for the newly empowered lefties to start blaming Howard for not funding the arts...., it's simple, if you want people to watch your films, make films people want to watch and stop telling them they are idiots\selfish for not watching a load of miserable, self-indulgent, amateur-hour tripe." Unknown
"I go to the movies to be entertained and have a laugh. Where have all the entertaining movies gone???
Croc Dundee, The Castle, Kenny, The Dish. What have all these movies got in common?? They were entertaining and made us laugh.
I was at the AFI Awards this year and there was not one film that I would go and see. There was not one film that was writen for us to sit back, enjoy and laugh.
Every movie made in this country now has to have a moral, is this part of the funding crieteria???
Just my 2 cents" Unknown
"As good as these movies are/may have been, as one earlier poster pointed out, its escapism that brings in the audiences. Thanks to our high-minded government film financing bodies, the only projects that usually get funded are serious/intimate dramas or arthouse fare. If it is comedy it has to be "uniquely Australian", read: mocking bogans or bushies." Unknown
1) This is actually my all time favorite film - my house has a mini shrine to it: Baz's Romeo and Juliet. I was obsessed from the moment I watched it. I ran the Australian Premiere as senior film projectionist and Baz told me he had never seen his film presented better in the world. Of course this helped my love and attitude for the film. It also helps that Leonardo DiCaprio is probably (in my opinion) the most talented actor of this generation and exact;y what Hollywood is about. Beautiful and amazingly talented
2) Dead Calm - one of Nicole Kidman's earlier films (1989) along with Sam Neill and US actor Billy Zane as a psycho nut job. Directed by Phillip Noyce and all set at sea. I still watch this film nearly every year and love it to bits.
3) Lantana - blew me away when I watched this. How can I describe it? Probably the best Australian drama that is acted, directed, edited - everythinged superbly. If we concentrated on making better films like this instead of the regular crap we churn out making Ozzies look stupid and just silly then our film industry might just flourish!!!!!
4) Mad Max - everyone knows this film - it's Mel driving sober - lol. And VERY angry!! Ozzie brilliance that set Mel up to be one of our best exports, recent shenanigans aside.
5) The Man from Snowy River - the quintessential Australian film - this is all country Oz and has NEVER been matched for its beauty and depiction of our amazing country. Let's hope Baz can do it with "Australia". Starring Tom Burlinson who can now be seen on stage singing Sinatra. He was brilliant in this role and when I was in yr 8 at school he came to our school's end of year dance and did some amazing whip tricks - I still have his autograph. LOL. This also stars Sigrid Thornton who is such a beautiful actress. Must SEE
6) Two Hands - Starring the amazing and terribly missed actor Heath Ledger, Two Hands could be categorized as a love story, a black comedy, an action thriller, a super-natural, an anti-crime flick or art house thinking movie. It is all of these but none of these. The movie is based in Sydney's Kings Cross and begins with a deceased climbing from the depths of hell to save his little brother from following in his footsteps. He stops to explain the principle of ying-yang: that inside every good person, there is a little bit of bad, and inside every bad person, there is a little bit of good; thus setting the tone for a movie in which there are no bad guys or good guys, rather there are only people whose little slip-ups have dire consequences. Every action has a reaction and each peripheral story ricochets against another to culminate in the climax of a central story.
I borrowed some of this description from someone else's website - thanks to them!!!!
7) Romper Stomper - it was a tough choice number 7 - I tossed up as to which I preferred, Romper or Chopper?? Chopper comes in at number 8 but this was first and it launched a massive career for our Russ (or does NZ own him?). If it wasn't for this film Gladiator would have been shit or non existent. This was a brilliant skin head film set in Melbourne and it was bloody violent and a risk taking film that paid off in spades. In fact I think I am off to the dvd store after this to hire and watch it again. Russ is chilling as Hando!!
8) Chopper - another violent film that didn't hold back and turned a mediocre tv comic into an acting genius that we are proud to call our own. Eric Bana tore the screen up playing chopper and I still find him scarier than Chopper himself. Not a massive fan of glorifying our crims but Chopper seems to do enough of that himself and god Eric was good!!!
9) Happy Feet - while not as massively Australian as The Man from Snowy River this film proves we can do what the rest of the world does with film but better. This is by far the best animation EVER made and makes me want to dance every time I see it!! In fact my feet have started tapping right now!!
10) It's way too hard fitting 10 Australian films into my top 10 - so number 10 is a list of those films I love to bits but didn't make the top 9. It's a joint tie.
December Boys
Priscilla
Romulus, My Father
Candy
Kenny
Rabbit Proof Fence
Babe
Shine
Proof
Strictly Ballroom
Muriel's Wedding
This could go on forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know I have had a bitch about the Australian film industry, hell everyone does nowadays but after placing my list above and doing some research we still have amazing films regularly coming out and for example we have 10films a year of which 8 are pure crap, would this not equate to the US where say they make 1000films a year of which 800 are pure crap. Me thinks so!!
Comment on Australian cinema
"The usual answer to this question has been along the lines that our film-makers and script-writers are tunnel-visioned in that they are only interested in black armband stuff that denounces our (always meaning "your") almost innate racism or our acquiescence in an "incontrovertible" genocide, yet another sad dirge about drug addiction or another dissing everything "mainstream" Australians respect - hence the dreary queue of pictures that 80% of us have little connexion with. In other words, producers, directors, et al., need to get out more, to see how people who don't dress all in black and can't carry on a 20-minute discussion about coffee genres, or who reckon that their outer suburban lives are fulfilling and that the fortunes of their local football team are interesting, live their lives. Interesting to know how accurate that assessment is these days. " (Leonard Colquhoun - message board poster)
"Unfortunately the damage done by the self important, government funded w=nkers who took control of Australia's film industry back at the beginning of the latest culture cringe will take time to fix. I hope and pray that we have ended the period of economic rationalism and are heading into a new and exciting time when all things truly Australian are things to be proud of. Our rejection of American Tv is just the beginning, now if we can just find out once again who we are.... " Unknown
"...holding breath for the newly empowered lefties to start blaming Howard for not funding the arts...., it's simple, if you want people to watch your films, make films people want to watch and stop telling them they are idiots\selfish for not watching a load of miserable, self-indulgent, amateur-hour tripe." Unknown
"I go to the movies to be entertained and have a laugh. Where have all the entertaining movies gone???
Croc Dundee, The Castle, Kenny, The Dish. What have all these movies got in common?? They were entertaining and made us laugh.
I was at the AFI Awards this year and there was not one film that I would go and see. There was not one film that was writen for us to sit back, enjoy and laugh.
Every movie made in this country now has to have a moral, is this part of the funding crieteria???
Just my 2 cents" Unknown
"As good as these movies are/may have been, as one earlier poster pointed out, its escapism that brings in the audiences. Thanks to our high-minded government film financing bodies, the only projects that usually get funded are serious/intimate dramas or arthouse fare. If it is comedy it has to be "uniquely Australian", read: mocking bogans or bushies." Unknown
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Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Chopper, though, is one of my favourites... Bana is fantastic, the script is darkly comic and the entire production was thrilling...
How about The Castle? That's another one of my favourites, and it was filmed for so little money!
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
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I also really loved that Mick Malloy film about bowling and I cannot think of it's name!
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Are you thinking of Crackerjack?
Tracy
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
I just love Mick Malloy's sense of humor.
Comment by Holly Go Lightly
Movie Mage
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
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Movie Train
Artist Quirk
i like your list
i was having this argument with someone the other day who claimed australian film was too arty and obscure and theres only been 2 good films ever made (one of them being mad max haha)
i think theres been plenty of great australian film, personal favourites include:
muriels wedding, priscilla, lantana, little fish
wolf creek, cosi, the boys . . . the list goes on
i recently wrote a blog post about how the type of tax offset incentives australia offers impacts on the production and quality of australian film
to view "George Miller to film in Australia again, yeah pigs might fly" CLICKHERE
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Some good ones in there like Chopper, Lantana, Mad Max and Shine....also several I hate like anything by Baz Lurmann (fairy floss with no substance or impact) and Two Hands (A try hard American film that fails because of it adherence to genre predictability) .
I did a best Australian Films post a while back you may enjoy reading, if your interested you can see it HERE
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Will check out your best Oz ones now.
Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
Come check out MY favourite Aust films
Great post!
Michaelie
Comment by Jarrah
Back to the Eighties
But I certainly wouldn't clasify Romeo and JUliet or Happy Feet Australian.
There were both made by U.S film companies with compete U.S cast and crew (save one), made completely out of Australia.
However, nice list.
- Jarrah
Back to the Eighties
www.backtotheeighties.net
Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
Great post...
Haven't seen Lantana and Two Hands : didn't realise that Happy Feet and Romeo and Juliet (that version) were Australian? Kudos.
Was a little dissapointed that The Interview didn't make your front page... I thought it was brilliant too!
Lilla ...
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
This is from Wikipedia.
"Happy Feet is an Academy Award-winning Australian-produced 2006 computer-animated comedy-drama musical film, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was released in North America on November 17, 2006 and produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures. It is the first animated feature film produced by Kennedy Miller in association with Animal Logic. Though primarily an animated film, it does incorporate live action humans in certain scenes. The film was simultaneously released in both conventional theatres and in IMAX 2D format.[1] The studio has hinted that a future IMAX 3D release was still a possibility.[2] Happy Feet won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature after failing to win the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature."
"William Shakespeare's Romeo Juliet is an Academy Award nominated 1996 American film adaptation of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. It was directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the eponymous roles.
The film is a very drastic modernization of Shakespeare's play designed to appeal to a younger modern audience. The warring families (the Montagues and the Capulets) are represented as warring business empires and swords are replaced by guns. Despite the adaptation, the film retains Shakespeare's original dialogue, albeit edited down for modern cinema audiences."
So - R&J made by the US and Happy Feet is definitely an Oz film. But I am keeping R&J in my list because I just love it. LOL
And Lilla - am way soz but have not even seen The Interview - will def hire it out though as a few people had it in their list.
Thanks for the comments guys......
Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
I think Happy Feet is what they call a 'group project' - and we had a fair hand in it so can definitely claim it!
Comment by Anonymous
Romullus played at the Phuket Film Festival this past October to a mixed crowd.
And of ocurse, Mad Max rules!
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
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"Lorrpu, Botj and Milika are three Yolngu (Aboriginal) teenagers who once shared a childhood dream of becoming great hunters together. But as teenagers they changed: Botj did bad things which landed him in jail one time, and Milika is more interested in being a good football player and in chicks! Only Lorrpu is still closer to Aboriginal traditions and to their common dream. One night Botj goes too far and he's about to return to jail. Lorrpu must weigh up his own future against saving the future of his friend. Therefore the three boys start to trek to Darwin to argue Botj's case with tribal leader Dawu. To survive during their hard journey in the bush and the forest, they must use the ancient Aboriginal knowledge, Botj's street instinct, and the bonds of their friendship."
Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
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Comment by Anonymous
Love the blogs,
Xxx D