| Reviewed by David Stratton In Prospect Flat, a small South Australian town by the sea, they take their footy seriously. Gary Black, called Blackie of course, and played by Nathan Phillips, is on the team, and so is his aboriginal mate, Dumby Red, Luke Carroll, the star player. Dumby and his family live outside town, in the Mission Settlement, and the locals don't encourage them to mix. Blackie's father, Bob, Simon Westaway, is unashamedly racist, but Blackie is drawn to Clarence, Lisa Flanagan, Dumby's sister. Blackie's got problems at home too. He's caught in a squeeze everywhere he turns. Australian Rules is based on the novel, Deadly, Unna?, by Phillip Gwynne, who wrote the screenplay in collaboration with director Paul Goldman. It's a story you feel is told from the heart, an insider's view of the racism and intolerance that, to our shame, lingers on in some communities, pitting Australian against Australian. The film starts a bit awkwardly, and despite a good performance from Kevin Harrington as the coach, the football scenes are dull; there's also a tentativeness in capturing the small-town atmosphere. But, once the plot kicks in, the film impresses, and a funeral sequence towards the end is tremendously moving. Some of the performances are a bit over-pitched, while others, including the three young leads, are spot on. In the end, this is a strong plea for tolerance and reconciliation.
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Reviewed by Jonathan Dawson After a huge amount of fuss about the ‘ownership’ of this movie’s narrative (it’s adapted from Phillip Gwynne’s novel based on real events), finally this movie is with us - and well worth the wait. Set in a seaside community in South Australia, “Australian Rules” is a classic story of race, friendship and generational change. Gary Black (Nathan Phillips) and Dumby Red (Luke Caroll) are best mates on the local footy team. Dumby is a star, heading for great things. Blacky’s dad Bob is stone racist and a bully and the drama plays out framed by the story of the local team heading for the finals, glory and tragedy. Great cameo performances from Lisa Flanagan as Mrs Black and Tom Budge as Pickles the tearaway loony (and team’s rover!) on the team round out a touching and effective movie well and simply directed by Paul Goldman. The footy scenes are convincing and often very funny but the details of this little dysfunctional community (not exactly Pearl Bay) idyllically and ironically set by the sea make this movie one to see more than once. It’s sure to find its way onto the syllabus of decent media courses at schools and universities. And the story? We all own this one and it owns us!
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AUSTRALIAN RULES tells the story of sixteen-year-old Gary Black: average football player, budding wordsmith and reluctant hero. Gary helps his local Australian rules football team win the championship by accident, falls in love with a beautiful Aboriginal girl from the Mission, and becomes tangled in a terrible conflict with the people of his small, coastal town. AUSTRALIAN RULES is a story of unexpected love and the bravery of one young man in a town ready to explode. "... enormously
moving, immensely satisfying... sensitive and unflinching..." "A moving, insightful
coming-of-age drama..." |
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Reviewed
by Steve Baker Tuesday, 3 September 2002 Yet Another Fantastic Aussie Film! Australian Rules is pretty tough movie making, a sober effort designed to get you thinking as well as entertain. It’s well worth seeing. Many issues are addressed, dominated I think by the difficulties presented to a 16 year old boy by his abusive father. But we’re also asked to consider racial prejudice, young love and whether or not a footy team should play up the middle or around the flanks. Blacky (Nathan Phillips) is the white half of a pair of very good friends. The black half of the pair Dumby is played by Luke Carrol. Dumby is a champion footballer in the local team, Blacky makes up the numbers but it’s the grand final and Blacky has to step up and play in the ruck against a champion footballer. There’s a defining football moment involving Dumby passing the ball off to a mate which I won’t bore you with here except to say that I’ve umpired dozens of football games involving indigenous players and the incident rang very truly. This film works on lots and lots of levels! Australian Rules hasn’t been unaccompanied by controversy. The film has been said to have been partly based on the real life death of a 15-year-old boy in country South Australia in 1977. His relatives have demonstrated against this film being released. The author of the screenplay and the book Deadly, Unna?, Phillip Gwynne grew up in a small cross cultural town similar to the one depicted in the film. He’s not divorced from knowing what these towns are like. There’s yet another pivotal moment when a female friend of Blacky’s, played by Lisa Flanagan, in the face of severe vilification, maintains a beautiful dignity. And then there’s the final confrontation between Blacky and his Dad (Simon Westaway.) That’s unforgettable. Australian Rules has a sometimes uncomfortable first 20 minutes but then settles to become first intriguing and then riveting. Don’t miss it.
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Reviewed
by Wendy Rawady, Closing night of the 2002 Melbourne International Film Festival featured Paul Goldman's film "Australian Rules". This is an impressive and brave film with a story well told. I couldn't fault it on any grounds other than some nit-picking about continuity that really didn't affect my enjoyment of the craft and story. $3 million dollars well spent.... If you've been able to stay apart from all the debate and fast-flying accusations surrounding "Australian Rules", you'll be sure to enjoy it as a rivetting and emotionally captivating story of a boy's place in his dysfunctional family. The core drama revolves around (white boy) Blackie's relationship with his abusive and violent family. But somehow, the story has been hijacked by players in the events upon which the book ("Deadly Unna?" from which the screenplay was adapted) and now people are talking about protocols for indigenous/cultural considerations. As Phillip Gwynne, the author and co-writer of the film says, life's too short [for this kind of process]. Damn shame, I say, that people have reacted like this. Tell me that Emile Zola (whose stories were all based on reality) would have submitted his manuscripts to a board for cultural checking. It's a great film, not just a good film and had the same effect on me that "The Devil's Playground" had when it was first released, or Gary Oldman's film "Nil By Mouth" or the grittiest ken Loach films. ... As for the debate, it's 25 years since the boy upon whom the shooting incident was very loosely based was shot and the events and his character are so altered that the argument seems to be a beat-up. While parental grief never lessens and all knowing the story would have sympathy for the bereaved families, the ultimate character of Dumby is a fiction, a composite. I hope that they can perhaps take some comfort from the fact that anyone seeing the shooting scene would feel nothing but an aching heart on their behalf. If there had been more cultural debate prior to the shoot, we would have been watching a wimpish, watered down version of the film (or perhaps not even that as its appropriateness for MIFF surely came from its intensity and brutal honesty.) It's a film that makes the viewers gasp at the racism inherent in all but one child and present in every house in the fictional town. The word "boong" is continually bandied around and police harassment of youth shows no mercy even when the Grand Final is imminent. So the "locals" in an S.A. town upon which the book's "the Point" is loosely based are annoyed at their depiction. It's NOT a racist town, they say. But come on. "Australian Rules" is a FILM. And what this film does achieve is entertainment, inspiration and a new pivot for debate plus a recognition that no matter how much people say that they are not racist, humans in this century are commonly prone to broad-brush statements. In this one, the white trash families are as offensive and eccentric as those in "Gummo" but nicely balanced by tiny moments of tenderness between battered mother and son, Aboriginal girl and Blackie, and Blackie and Dumby. Was it Simon Westaway (who played Blackie's brutal dad) who pleaded "I'm not really that bad!" as he left the Capitol at the premiere? Probably! As a film, "Australian Rules" is one not to miss. As a social document, it clearly depicts not just racism but the fact that racism and exclusion are yet another form of bullying. And as we all know, bullying is a problem that no-one has ever managed adequately. ... |
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