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WHERE ARE OUR BRAVE EDITORS?
Melbourne Age contributor Traceeeeeee Hutchison—you may have encountered her previously—asks: Where are our brave filmmakers?
Probably in hiding, Tracee, in sympathy with our brave cartoonists. Let’s hear Tracee out:
It’s easy to love George Clooney at the moment. Not that it was ever terribly hard, but there’s a lot to be excited about a charismatic, intelligent man with a creative brain who isn’t afraid to use it.
Imagine fearing the use of a creative brain. Not a circumstance ever likely to trouble Tracee, but still.
As the ethical and moral stocks of the US continue to languish, Clooney’s less-than flattering celluloid assessment of the American Way is a comforting reminder that a significant part of the population didn’t want George Bush re-elected to the White House.
That significant part of the US population voted for John Kerry, and many subsequently sought psychiatric treatment. Next time, get treatment before voting.
Simultaneously, in Britain, the seemingly fearless Michael Winterbottom is continuing the heat with his latest offering, The Road to Guantanamo, which tells the story of three men from the English Midlands who end up on the wrong side of the tracks in Afghanistan and spend two years in US military detention in Cuba for their troubles.
“Seemingly fearless”? What’s Winterarse got to be frightened of? A bad review from Tracee? Not likely.
That the four actors who play al-Qaeda suspects in Winterbottom’s film were detained by police at a British airport this week on their way home from the festival and questioned under anti-terror laws says a lot about the level of hysterical paranoia that’s been whipped up around the globe ...
They were briefly questioned. It’s the sort of thing you might reasonably expect following suicide bombings on buses and trains.
Perhaps that’s the reason Australian feature filmmakers aren’t making films like Good Night and Good Luck or Road to Guantanamo.
Because they don’t want to be asked questions at airports?
It’s a convincing enough argument ...
If you say so.
... but I’m not sure it’s the right one because this is precisely the time we need our filmmakers to be telling rigorous and fearless stories about the Australian condition. It can’t all be the fault of the newly enshrined sedition laws that we’re not seeing them.
Please click over to Opinion Dominion for a smackdown on this particular point. Tracee, her synapses crackling and fizzing like damp fireworks, next outlines the Australian films she’d like to see:
The revelations of the Cole inquiry, the show trial of terror suspect Joseph Thomas, the detention of West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island. Cronulla. Scott Parkin’s deportation. Great feature film scripts, all of them.
So go ahead and write ‘em, Tracee. Cole inquiry? I’m thinking Wheat! The Musical! Show trial of terror suspect Joseph Thomas? That’s got to be Jihad Jacking to the Maxxx, plus a contempt of court sentence for Tracee and her editor. The detention of West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island? Already subject to a Hollywood bidding war, no doubt. Cronulla? Er, sure. A feature on Scott Parkin’s deportation? You’d need 89 minutes of backstory to pad that sucker out to an even hour-and-a-half.
At least Phillip Noyce had the conviction to tell a chapter of the “stolen generation” story in Rabbit-Proof Fence in 2000. His was a tiny budget, no-name cast, self-produced triumph.
The budget for Rabbit-Proof Fence was $A10.2 million, which may or may not have included a marketing budget “to befit its status as an international production with a leading Hollywood director.” That’s about double the cost of an average Australian feature. No-name cast? The film starred Kenneth Branagh plus three well-known local actors. Self-produced? Not exactly; the film had three producers, including screenwriter Christine Olsen.
So why are our filmmakers not rising to the same political challenges? We are definitely not bereft of the intellectual rigour or creative talent to make it happen.
Tracee talking about “intellectual rigour” is like Stephen Hawking talking about white-water rafting.
Or perhaps we just don’t care enough or have the courage to embrace our stories, warts and all. Perhaps it’s easier for us to watch the way we fall in love or scare ourselves to death on dark, lonely highways than look ourselves squarely in the eye and see what kind of country we have created.
At last, she makes a good point; we’ve created the kind of country where Tracee Hutchison is paid to write factless gibberish. Look away. Look away!
Traceeeee is well on her way to a future high-profile gig writing for the Byron Bay Echo, if you ask me.
Shame that so many other people always take Fairfax up on their severance package offers. There really ought to be one with her name on it, but then I guess Jaspan’s goal has never really been to retain actually competent journalists.
this is precisely the time we need our filmmakers to be telling rigorous and fearless stories about the Australian condition.
This is precisely the time we need our filmmakers to be telling rigorous and fearless stories about the Muslim condition, especially the daily suppression and abuse of all women they get under their control, the exploitation of children in horrible working conditions, the cult of child-(suicide bombing)sacrifice, etc., etc. etc.Why oh why is it only brave to trash the West? Why oh why do the arts community always favour any culture other than our own? Why oh why do they continue living in a culture and sponging grants of the taxpayer that they totally despise? Why oh why don’t they move to Gaza or Riyahd or Tehran or Auburn or Lakemba for cultural acclimatisation. You don’t need a passport to cross the Cooks river on the way back to Balmain, but you need a sense of perspective to understand the journey.
Posted by platey mates on 2006 02 27 at 08:49 AM • permalinkTracee would have to quit 3RRR to go to Byron, and the sad thing is that they could replace her with someone sharing the exact same infantile leftism in a phemtosecond.
Try listening to Tony Wilson’s idiotic rants every morning on 3RRR if you don’t believe me. Still, it’s fun to tune in the morning after yet another election loss for the revolution.
The revelations of the Cole inquiry, the show trial of terror suspect Joseph Thomas, the detention of West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island. Cronulla. Scott Parkin’s deportation. Great feature film scripts, all of them.
Actually, I was thinking they could put all these stories in the one movie: “Not Without My Arts Grant”.
Googling for Tracee stuff, I’ve come across this review of a stand-up gig of hers last year, also published in The Age. Quote:
This slight, blonde, delectably nasty charmer takes a quarter century of professional frustration and turns it into a cathartic blast of bittersweet laughter.
(Emphasis mine.) Well, that certainly explains a few things.
The picture that accompanies the article is also a revelation in itself. A 40 or so year old woman in pigtails, yeesh.
What is it with these f$cking people? Can anyone really be that stupid, that brain-dead, that f$cking naive!? Clooney is a fruit-loop; he’s a semi-literate (heard him in interviews?) actor whose job is saying words written by other people in make-believe situations. Kids call it “play-acting”. He’s a fake; a fraud; a copy. With his opinions and $3.20 you can buy a cup of coffee. FFS, consign him to the sh!thouse where he belongs!
Tracee talking about “intellectual rigour” is like Stephen Hawking talking about white-water rafting
She is spinning for a cause of course, albeit a tired and discredited one. Spinning, spinning, faster, faster - she might even cross her Swarzchild radius and disappear into her own gravitating black hole
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 02 27 at 09:28 AM • permalinkSince Traceeeeee frankly isn’t worth the cost of the electrons to construct a post, perhaps Frau Andrea will allow me this weeks comment on ABC’s Media Watch.
(...crickets chirping….)
Anyway. One of those good shows MW manages to cobble together when it can cast aside its natural ABC tendencies. Exec Producer Peter McEvoy I gather was on a sickie?
1. A bit of very well deserved stick for “Australian Story” and its stupid concealing of the drug-involved past of its tear-jerker “Bible toting, innocent abroad” story on Australian convicted drug trafficker Scott Rush. (Although the arch neocon in me reckons that the criticism by the ABC of the ABC was a bit soft.)
2. A lot of stick for newspapers publishing details of current trials, thus possibly prejudicing them. Hope we’ll see follow-up on this.
Presumably normal programming will resume next week.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 02 27 at 09:29 AM • permalinkOT, did anyone read this in the SMH?
The former Melbourne taxi driver convicted this week of receiving cash from al-Qaeda has told of his meetings with Osama bin Laden, and how the world’s most-wanted man had a softer side.
“You know, he didn’t mind being hugged, but kisses he didn’t like,”
Only the Fairfax press would print guff like that. Oh my god.
“You know, he didn’t mind being hugged, but kisses he didn’t like,”
Yeah, but unlike a certain artist/statesman, he doesn’t like dogs.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 02 27 at 10:09 AM • permalink“As the ethical and moral stocks of the US continue to languish . . .”
Dang! And my pension fund is probably loaded with that stuff.
“The revelations of the Cole inquiry, the show trial of terror suspect Joseph Thomas, the detention of West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island. Cronulla. Scott Parkin’s deportation. Great feature film scripts, all of them.” Hmmm. M’yes. Thanks, but I think I’ll just spring for the “Night Stalker” on DVD.
That significant part of the US population voted for John Kerry, and many subsequently sought psychiatric treatment.
And many others, promising to flee the country, were actually unable to find a border and simply reduced to running in circles shrieking…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 27 at 11:08 AM • permalinkMs. Tracee might ask herself why Hollywood, with all its “liberal” output, isn’t making any money these days. Then she’d have an idea where all her “brave” filmmakers are.
But we already know the answer she would give: The reason they’re not making any money is clearly because they’re not liberal enough.
What pathetic, self-indulgent twaddle.
Is the Left capable of anything other than factually-challenged whining, sniveling and complaining?
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 02 27 at 12:45 PM • permalinkThis is why the West will lose, and my granddaughters will be wearing burkas. Because our elites just stopped caring.
Why did Rome fall? Rome was sacked in 410 yet the Western Empire continued for another 66 years before giving up. And it was not another invading army that did it, but the fact the Roman elites quit caring.
Their sucessors the Byzantines kept it up for another 1000 years. The event usually ascribed to marking the begining of the end was the Battle of Mazikert in 1071. Yet it was not much of a battle. For most of the day it was a glorified skirmish and even after the Byzantines were defeated, it was not that big a deal. Yes, the Emperor was captured, but he quickly made peace with the Turks, transfered a few remote villages and forts, and that was it. Many of the units that fought in the battle show up the next year, at full strength, on other parts of the frontier.
Yet Manzikert was considered by later generations of Greeks as “The Terrible Day.” Because the Byzantine elites just stopped caring and one day they woke up and found the Turks had taken over most of Anatolia. There were a few battles to be sure, but not the massive invasion of the Hollywood epic.
That is why we are done. And it will not be from a massive invasion but through ennui.
Michael Duffy- another Fairfax journo- complained about the Aussie film industry last year. He had a rather different take on it.
Tracee, you’re part of the problem, not the solution.Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 27 at 01:34 PM • permalinkPaco—of course, it’s the original “NS” and not the abomination that other moonbat, Chris Carter, shlocked together last year. Yes?
Clooney as a brave man. Only in a world where actual brave men and women are derided as countrified flyover losers…I’d actually faint if Clooney ever decided to entertain even one troop.
straight from Tracee’s article about Clooney. She’s happy that Clooney is questioning the “American Way” (as far as I know, he’s not). But get this. Then she says:
Either that or it’s a sophisticated con to prove that America is such a grown-up democracy that it can withstand some friendly fire
WTF? It’s a conspiracy! These movies, they’re just a ploy to make America look like a democracy. I guess you can never be too sure. After all, Clooney’s an American. Tracee knows you can’t trust an American, even when they appear to have correct opinions on world affairs. Those sneaky Americans, pretending to have freedom of speech!
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 27 at 02:39 PM • permalinkIn the tradition of courageous British cartoonists, equally courageous American filmmakers are casting aside all concern for their personal safety by tackling highly charged, controversial subject matter like (everyone’s favorite boogey-man—yawn) Big Oil and America in the 1950’s. Why, such reckless disregard can lead to—gasp—criticism. There are even those out there who might question the filmmaker’s patriotism. The horror.
Of course we’re not stupid. We know that both Syriana and Good Luck and Good Night are metaphors for George Bush’s America where thousands must sacrifice their lives to satisfy the ChimpHitler’s oil lust while he systematically strips us of our civil rights as he recreates 1930’s Nazi Germany right here on our shores. And everyone knows where criticism of George Bush gets you—clang, clang, Gitmo. Or worse. Are you fond of that pretty little head of yours, George??
George says that given the current political climate, the public is clamouring for serious films that deliver a “message” (yeah, George, that’s why your movies are raking in so much dough. As Jack Warner put it so succinctly: If you want to send a message, call Western Union). Perhaps when we finally wise up and follow Hollywood’s lead—elect Democrats so we can stop worrying about crap like international Islamofascist terrorism and safely return to the important things in life like up-loading nose candy in trendy restaurant bathrooms and down-bedding the spouses of friends and colleagues—they can relax and go back to making Bambi. Until then, George, I have a suggestion for your next project: a film version of The Satanic Verses. How about it? (Oh, and I’m still pitching my 2-character play Interview with the Prophet and his Magic Pipe.)
Can’t you just imagine the commentary and acceptance speeches at tonight’s Academy Awards. The entertainment value of that alone is almost enough to make me tune in. Nah.
I liked Rabbit Proof Fence very much. Was it an accurate depiction of the times?
(Full disclosure: I actually like George Clooney as a actor. I thought his performance in O Brother, Where Art Thou was delightfully eccentric. And I haven’t seen either of the movies discussed. For all I know, they’re fine films.)
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 02 27 at 03:59 PM • permalinkOnly thing I ever liked Clooney in was O Brother, Where Art Thou. In every other film/show I’ve seen him, I keep wondering, “Ok, when does the magic start? When do I see the legendary charm? When? When???”
Paco, I tried to watch one of the new Nightstalkers. Ghost Whisperer is way more scary, is all I can say.
LOL, ushie. I’ve always wondered the exact same thing about Bill Clinton.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 02 27 at 04:17 PM • permalink#35 refers to #33, not #34. In case there’s any confusion.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 02 27 at 04:21 PM • permalinkThere’s a great movie in there, paco. Crocodile Sorohan. Wow, I never thought of camping Down Under as an extreme sport.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 02 27 at 04:31 PM • permalinkI think there is a film crying out to be made about Australia’s Public Interlectuals and their struggles against a background of unprecedented shrillness.
It would be a bit like Schindler’s List except probably more harrowing - demonstrating how Australia’s public intellectuals like David Williamson, Bob Ellis and Traceee Hutchison are sometimes disagreed with in public.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 27 at 04:52 PM • permalinkSo why are our filmmakers not rising to the same political challenges? We are definitely not bereft of the intellectual rigour or creative talent to make it happen.
Because it’s more fun making horror/action/comedy flicks, plus there is not much in the way of a market for earnest Australian films. People want to be entertained, not harangued.
And the hoops you have to jump through for funding?
If it’s quirky and you’ve got Bill Hunter or Bud Tingwell, you might score a few bucks towards production, but otherwise it’s not worth it.
And George Clooney? I don’t know who ever decided that he was ‘sexy’, but I don’t see it, and I don’t know any girls who do. Another Hollywank product, I guess.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 02 27 at 05:37 PM • permalinkTracee talking about “intellectual rigour” is like Stephen Hawking talking about white-water rafting.
Oh Timmy! you can be sooo cruel.
Australia’s public intellectuals are already well portrayed in Gulliver’s Travels.
Jo’ had their cards marked 50 years before Captain Cook even berthed here!‘Providence never intended to make the Management of publick Affairs a Mystery, to be comprehended only by a few Persons of sublime Genius, of which there seldom are three born in the “Age”
And for the progressive liberals:
‘Men are never so Serious, Thoughtful, and Intent, as when they are at Stool ‘
And the progressive journos:
‘There was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black and black is white, according as they are paid’#39 brilliant. I can see a film about Australian films. You’ve got drama, you’ve got comedy, you’ve got tragedy.
THE BEGINNING. Drama as a group of young, chic filmmakers learn to do a Westie drawl. They go to Paramatta and Penrith to observe the locals, taking notes on dress codes, and repeating phrases like “Piss off wanker” over and over, long after the bruises have faded.
Then there is the tension as they find out how much money will be allocated for the project. They rejoice to find out that it will cover wages, expenses, and a marijuana slush fund.
CONFLICT BUILDS. Tempers flair on set as the idealistic artists disagree over the script. The producer feels that the gay truck driver from Nowra should get more screen time. The director disagrees. She says that the ignorant-farmer-turned-political-activist should give an earnest speech to the inner-city hippy-chick about how evil the Federal Government is, before they make out.
The scripting issues are resolved, and the movie is released.
TRAGEDY! Empty seats at the cinema. A scene with our heros drinking at an inner city bar and moaning about the ignorance of the public. They curse the latest American blockbuster with queues half-way down George street.
One of them goes on a soul-searching walk in the night. “Damn you John Howard!” he cries, shaking his fist at the moon.
A GLIMMER OF HOPE. Our heroes come up with a new idea for a film, about a rough-and-tumble-yet-sensitive construction worker who falls in love with a member of Greenpeace.
FINAL SCENE: a twenty minute single-take shot of our heroes walking down King Street, talking and laughing.
Closing credits.Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 27 at 05:53 PM • permalinkOutstanding Daddy - but just one small criticism.
A group of young chic film-makers going to the western suburbs of Sydney stretches the bounds of credibility.
But if this helps with the funding, they could always build a Parramatta set at Fox studios.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 27 at 06:10 PM • permalink#16, Even given that the only alternative in the Afghan caves are the local goats, Osama must have felt that Jihad Jack was not exactly the prettiest thing around to kiss.
No doubt there will be more on Osama’s gentle, loving, Father Christmas character, in Thomas’s movie, Jacking Off, being produced by Phillip Noyce for Tropfest, starring Russell Crowe as the troubled young man who rejects the sordid materialism and meanness of Howard’s Australia, to find his true vocation on a mountain in Afghanistan, amongst the simple patriots of Al Quaeda. Proudly supported by the Australian Film Commission, the NSW Film Commission, the Australia Council,etc, etc.
Osama should be given the benefit of the doubt.
Who hasn’t stumbled naked and disoriented out of their cave on a hot summer’s night and bumped into a goat repeatedly?
It could happen to anyone.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 27 at 06:28 PM • permalink#3 #46
a pack of lies
Denied by the author… as being her storyCould you give sources please? This is the first I’ve heard about this.
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 27 at 06:57 PM • permalinkI’ve actually spent quite a bit of time on that section of remote Bathurst Bay where the croc attacked. They were camped quite far up the beach and the mongrel thing snuck right up at night because it heard the baby crying.
We were always well armed when fishing or crabbing there but what a beautiful though dangerous spot.
The blacks have it now and it resembles an open air rubbish dump unfortunately.BTW what she did was way beyond stupid as she now admits herself. Jumping on the back of a big croc is no way to subdue it…as she found out to her ever-lasting detriment.
A well swung shovel to the beak would have worked a treat but her lad blowing out its brains worked even better.
Apparently the croc had been stalking them for a couple of days but they were too dumb to move their camp from the beach.
We camped oh about 5 clicks back where there was fresh water and no crocs.
Silly us.#47
quick google of Doris Pilkington, the author, and “not my story” yielded the following links:
Andrew Bolt’s piece,“Rabbit Proof Myths”, that the movie was a fabrication.
Which Rabbit-Proof Fence? Empathy, Assimilation, Hollywood. by Tony Hughes D’aeth Compares Rabbit Proof Fence and Schinder’s List.
The “stolen generations” is the name given to the children of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders separated from their families.
I believe that the removal of children from their parent (singular), particularly those children not full-blood aboriginal, was an attempt to protect these children from abuse and neglect. It may have been misguided; in some cases it was a forced removal and in others it was requested by a parent of the child removed. I could go on (and on), but I’ll stop now.
Inquiry Report here. The commissioner has since stated that calling the lost children “The Stolen Generation/s” was an error. No time to google for this.
Bloody fact checkers like Windschuttle are the enemy of creativity.
Next thing he’ll be telling us that whole holocaust in Tasmania thing never happened.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 27 at 07:54 PM • permalinkFor God’s sake Traceeeee, if you want people to see Australia films it will help if you make them entertaining.
Think of Mad Max, Strictly Ballroom, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Gallipole, Breaker Morant, and Crocodile Dundee. All of these films were made for next to nothing compared to Hollywood budgets but they all made heaps of money because the public wanted to see them.
While all of the topics she suggested might be of interest to the latte sippers, none of them will get a single westie in to see it.
Here are some story ideas that might actually get some bums on seats - Damien Parer and the story behind Kokoda Front Line; Rev. Dr John Flynn and the establishment of the RFDS; Milperra Bikie Massacre (there’s always interest in Bikie films),
J Paul
A quick scan of the Australian Film Commission website reveals the following projects that you and I are funding:
The four documentary projects were selected from a total of 116 applications from around Australia. They were specifically produced for web-streaming and are hosted on ABC Online.Homeless
(w: Rose Hesp, Trevor Graham, d: Trevor Graham, Rose Hesp, Rob Wellington, p: Trevor Graham)
An experimental website telling the stories of six individuals trapped in a state of homelessness in their booming, global cities.Long Journey, Young Lives
(d: David Goldie, p: Sohail Dahdal, David Goldie)
Long Journey Young Lives provides an intimate insight into the experiences of child refugees. From the violence and danger of their homeland, to their perilous journey and detention in Australia, young refugees present an uninhibited account of their experiences.A Year on the Wing
(w: Meme McDonald, Nell White, d: Kate Clere, p: Nell White)
A Year on the Wing takes us on an astounding journey with over two million wading birds as they attempt their annual migration from Siberia to Australasia and back.The Wrong Crowd
(w/d/p: Debra Beattie)
Queensland is a state so relaxed, so comfortable and so easy going it would rather just roll over in the sun than deal with the dark truth of injustices and corruption. A personal history as told by Debra Beattie.Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 27 at 08:21 PM • permalink#51 #52 thanks very much. I actually saw the movie some time ago and took its claim to be a ‘true story’ at face value. It was an entertaining story. But making false claims to historical accuracy, well that changes things. Again, thanks for the links.
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 27 at 08:28 PM • permalink#60 Margos Maid
The year on the wing sounds interesting to me, but I was weaned on David Attenborough documentaries as a kid.
The other three would require wild horses to get me to watch them, even if I was being paid to do so. I went to the site and I’d say about 1/2 the Australian films are about people getting corrupted by greed or ambition. It’s almost an Animal Farm situation “Socialism Good, Capitalism Bad” yet they still can’t work out why they can’t make money.
Jpaul
Agreed that nature docos are often great and have an audience. But otherwise the conclusion would be that tax funding actually encourages film producers to ignore their audience. I wonder why many of our film producers then struggle in the marketplace?
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 27 at 09:13 PM • permalinkCronulla? How on earth would you make a film about that? Yes it was violent, but it’s not like anybody died. Nobody even received life-threatening injuries. An angry mob just milled about for a while, going for the occasional bit of biffo. It’d be about as entralling as a two hour film about me falling off the monkey bars when I was six.
And the deportation of Scott Parkin! THRILL as the wheels of government bureacracy slowly turn! GASP as the media half-heartedly cover the uninteresting story! CHEER as an annoying troublemaker is firmly but peacefully returned to his country, all within the bounds of law!
I suggest that Tracee doesn’t want good Australian films to be made. She just wants to see her own prejudices affirmed on the big screen… assuming that any of these dreadful movies could manage a cinematic release.
Posted by blandwagon on 2006 02 27 at 09:39 PM • permalinkjpaulg—
Think of Mad Max, Strictly Ballroom, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Gallipole, Breaker Morant, and Crocodile Dundee. All of these films were made for next to nothing compared to Hollywood budgets but they all made heaps of money because the public wanted to see them.
The Piano, Shine, A Town Like Alice (mini-series), Muriel’s Wedding, Man From Snowy River, The Castle, Year of Living Dangerously
All wonderful films. More, more.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 02 27 at 10:21 PM • permalinkCronulla! It’s a great script, just waiting to be filmed! Its got everything - drama, excitement and romance. Two rival gangs - the Skips and the Lebs - battle it out for control of the beach. Plenty of fight scenes, with knives and broken bottles. And the music: who will ever forget: I just met a boy called Mohammed.
Whatta ya mean it’s been done before; so, you gonna tell the Australian Film Commission that?
#60 Margos Maid, thanks for drawing our attention to this must-see:
Queensland is a state so relaxed, so comfortable and so easy going it would rather just roll over in the sun than deal with the dark truth of injustices and corruption. A personal history as told by Debra Beattie.
I don’t want to pre-judge a film I haven’t seen, but is this leftist propaganda, or a Queensland promotional flick?
“A place so fun, so relaxed, so easygoing, you won’t want to think about any of your angst-ridden socialist crap ever again.”
The horror.Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 27 at 11:35 PM • permalinkHow accurate is Good NIght And Good Luck? After I saw it I dug up an old issue of Vanity Fair about Ed Murrow. I got the impression from it that the speech he gives at the beginning of the film has been, as they say, taken out of context.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 02 27 at 11:55 PM • permalinkSwinishCapitalist,
Good Night and Good Luck was all about rearranging historical events and personages to fit a 2005 political agenda.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 02 28 at 12:31 AM • permalinkA film of The Satanic Verses? Now making that would be courageous. Good suggestion.
How about it Georgie? Of course you’d be risking, not criticism or a mild complaint from George Bush, but real terrorists trying to kill you and all your actors and staff. Theaters showing the film would risk being blown up. The Iranians would probably issue a fatwa on you, promising anyone who killed you millions as a reward. Making that movie would take real courage.
I don’t expect to see it done, because it would take real, not fake, courage to do it.
Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 02 28 at 01:53 AM • permalinkThanks, Spiny. I just had that feeling - you know.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 02 28 at 04:42 AM • permalinkSince this tracee-otomy has opened up the question of the Jack Thomas “Show Trial”, I might mention that Radio National’s Law Report has just finished doing an extended piece on this. I expected to hear ... well, some inkling on the part of the presenter Damien Carrick that this guy was in fact a cohort of terrorists. Sally Neighbour presented what seemed a fair coverage on Four Corners of what had happened. From that it is obvious that this guy is not lily white or anything near it. He was at best a blank canvas to be written upon by evil forces, and they had written much. But the Law Report was totally concerned with the case for the Defence. I have to say that it once more illustrates that our neutered legal system is unable to deal with the bleeding obvious unless evidentiary rules and procedures are followed so, so perfectly. And our ABC is aiding and abetting.
The law is a goat, and it is being screwed. All the ABC does is bleat in unison.Is Tracee Hutchison still on the dole? If so, I wonder if she’s declaring the income she’s getting from writing this drivel.
Posted by Oafish and Infantile on 2006 02 28 at 05:49 AM • permalinkwhy do we need to make movies about every Australian historical event? People think that it will preserve Australian ‘culture.’ It isn’t so. History books are for learning about history. Movies are for entertainment, and the minute they are about anything else, they become propaganda. The story of Ned Kelly endures in spite of some very crappy movies about him. If there are no Australian movies, Australian ‘culture’ will not disappear.
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 28 at 12:38 PM • permalink
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ot - maureen dowd is on lateline & her nasal whine is making my ears bleed
what’s so courageous about clooney? nobody is going to kill off his career, nor jail him, nor saw his head off with a blunt swiss army knife, for making a film that mirrors the moonbat hollywood world view exactly