Assignment 2 – H231 Australian Cinema
Welcome
to Woop Woop (1997)
Contents: Part One
Ratings
Cast and
crew details
Production
Companies
Release
Dates
Box Office
Figures
Research
Methods
On-line
Presence
Part Two
Plot and
Crtitcal Commentary
Critical
Uptake
Production
Circumstances
Prior Work
of Cast and Crew
Uptake and
Current Place of Australian Cinema
A Medium
Sized English Language Cinema
References
Films Cited
Assignment 2 – Part 1
Welocme to Woop Woop –
Film Information
Rating – MA (Aus.)
13
(Argentina)
14 (Chile)
18 (UK)
R (USA)
Cast and Crew Details
Directed by
Stephan Elliott
Writing
Credits: Stephan Elliot (Additional material)
Douglas Kenndey (novel The Dead Heart)
Michael Thomas
Johnathon
Schaech .... Teddy
Rod
Taylor .... Daddy O
Susie
Porter .... Angie
Dee
Smart .... Krystal
Richard
Moir .... Reggie
Maggie
Kirkpatrick .... Ginger
Barry
Humphries .... Blind Wally
Mark
Wilson (IV)
.... Duffy
Paul
Mercurio .... Midget
Stan
Yarramunua
.... Young Lionel
Bob
Oxenbould .... Moose
Jan
Oxenbould .... Big Pat
Daniel
Rigney .... Small Kenny
David
Hoey .... Dirty Dean
Sarah
Osmo .... Laverne
Con
Demetriou .... Darren
Rachel
Griffiths (I) .... Sylvia
Tina
Louise .... Bella
Chelsea
Brown .... Maude
Adryn
White .... Herbie
Felix
Williamson
.... Jerome
Kevin
Copeland .... Plato
Shane
Paxton .... Sonny
Bindi
Paxton .... Cher
Alan
Finney .... Barman
Pat
Gibbs .... Auntie Di
Bella
Cooper .... Leigh Ann
Cale
Morgan .... Damien
Baden
Jones .... Leon
Breanna
Sonsie .... Tina
Ding .... Projectionist
Antonia
Barnard .... co-producer
Finola
Dwyer .... producer
Margot
Lulick .... line producer
Nik
Powell .... executive producer
Stephen
Woolley .... executive producer
Boy
George (song)
Guy
Gross (I)
Martin
Walsh (I)
Colin
Gibson
Production
Management
Catherine
Bishop .... production manager
Wil
Milne .... unit manager
Guy
Campbell .... second assistant director
Carolynne
Cunningham .... first assistant director
Jude
Gorjanc .... first assistant director: New York
Paul
Sullivan (III) .... third assistant director
Lea Worth .... property buyer
Myk
Farmer .... boom operator
Mark
Heslop .... adr editor
Tony
Johnson (II)
.... sound recordist
James
Rogers (III)
.... digital compositor
Brian
Bansgrove .... gaffer
Colin
Chase (II)
.... best boy
Robin
Clifton .... location manager: Sydney (as Robyn
Clifton)
Michael
Corden .... first assistant editor
Polly Duval .... producer's assistant (post-production coordinator)
Stephen
Law .... post-production consultant
John
Laws .... special thanks
Nadia
Naimi .... second assistant editor
John
Platt .... camera operator
Adrienne
Read .... thanks
Sophie
Siomos .... production accountant
Judy
Whitehead .... continuity
Production Companies
AFFC
Scala
Productions (UK)
Unthank
Films
France (Cannes Film Festival) – 13
May 1997
UK (Edinburgh Film Festival) –
August 1998
Australia – 13 August 1998
Canada – 13 November 1998
Hungary - 19 August 1999 (Video Premiere)
Argentina
– 15
September 1999 (Video Premiere)
Box
Office Details
Australia: opening Weekend - $226, 506
Total - $398, 127
USA: Opening Weekend - $19, 812 (US$)
Total - $35,
471 (US$)
Research
Methods
Most
of the information used in this critical review was collected from the
Internet, as actual
Written
documents in newspapers and magazines proved hard to find. A short preview in Variety
gave an unfavourable account of the
film, whilst box office figures in the magazine did not include Welcome to
Woop Woop. A review in The
Advocate magazine was published on
the Net. Various Internet sites used included the Internet Movie DataBase
(IMDB) and the Urban Cinefile site, which is a site for Australian films. There
was no shortage of information about the film on the Internet, as well as a
range of reviews. Unlike Variety magazine, the Urban Cinefile site gave full
box office details of the week the film was released, an indication of the
place of the film in American media and at the US box office itself.
Web Literature
Welcome
to Woop Woop actually had quite a
large on-line presence on the Internet, and the number of different websites
containing information on the film was amazing. Perhaps the lack of success of
the film is responsible for its wide exposure on the Internet. It was not
difficult to find links to the film, most of which contained reviews of the
film after its release. A lot of the information in the critical reviews was
gained from interviews with Stephan Elliott and various cast and crew members
prior to the release of Welcome to Woop Woop.
Bibliography and Links
The
most useful websites used were:
http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=1408&s=Reviews
http://efilmcritic.com/hbs.cgi?movie=71
http://infilmau.iah.net/reviews/woopwoop.htm.
http://www.bonza.rmit.edu.au/essays/text/1998/woopwoop/
Assignment 2 – Part
Two
Plot and Critical Commentary
On the other hand, Welcome to Woop Woop has displayed a darker message centred on outback
Australians. The people of Woop Woop live with many of the values still held in
isolated communities, such as sexism, community loyalty and an obvious
hierarchy of power. But even though the characters and community as a whole may
hold these realistic values, the characters themselves are highly exaggerated
and difficult for the audience to relate to. Whatever the audience understands the message to be, Elliott
has chosen to approach these issues and values with his definitive and strange
sense of humour. However, only a specific few may understand its attempts at
satire.
After first refusing to direct such Hollywood films
as Twister and First Wives
Club, and describing Hollywood as a
system of “no control, no freedom,” Elliott decided to return to
Australia to direct The Big Red (The
working title of Woop Woop’s).
Following the international success of Priscilla, critics expected a definite repeat performance by
Elliott. Prior to its release, Elliott described the film as “outrageous,
risky, vulgar, fun”. 1
Unfortunately for Elliott, critics didn’t quite
see it in the same light. Even the film’s midnight screening at the 1997
Cannes festival meant that organisers thought the film to be a little risky for
such a prestige event and audience. Critics slammed the film, claiming that it
“[took] the stereotypical Australian ‘yobbo’ image and exaggerates
it to the point where it becomes annoying rather than funny” 2.
Most believed it was an embarrassment to Australian
cinema, and was a forum for “the harsh treatment of the Australian
character”.3 SBS Movieshow reviewer David Stratton describes how
‘likes many of the “in jokes” that the film has (most of
which fly way over the head of Joe Public)’.4 This statement highlights the point made previously, that the film is
difficult to relate to.
Screen writer Michael Thomas, whose work includes
Backbeat (Softely 1993) and Scandal (Caton – Jones 1989), converted
Douglas Kennedy’s novel The Dead Heart to the form of screenplay. Even though Elliott was handed the script at the 1995
BAFTAs, actual production on location did not take place until October 1996, a
time when the desert temperatures were rising rapidly. The excessive heat
caused many setbacks to the production process, including equipment
damage.
1:From an
interview with Stephan Elliot: http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/scripts/cinefile/Features.idc?Article_ID=1432
2: From a review with Luke Buckmaster
http://infilmau.iah.net/reviews/woopwoop.htm.
3. From http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=1408&s=Reviews
4. From http://bonza.rmit.edu.au/essays/text/1998/woopwoop/Oz_Reaction.html
The film was set in the natural basin of Mount
Ooramina, located 35km out of Alice Springs, and filming here took three weeks.
After its initial screening at Cannes and Edinburgh, Woop Woop underwent extensive editing prior to its official
release in Australia.
This release process also suffered a number of
setbacks: the original release date was April 1998, yet the film was finally
released August 13th 1998. Perhaps one reason for the poor box
office business of Woop Woop was
its release in the same week as the Australian drama Head On (Kokkinos 1996). As stated by an annoyed Stephan
Elliott “This industry is not big enough to support two Australian films
competing with each other”. The truth is, there really was little
competition involved – Head On remained in the top 20 films for ten weeks and made more than
$1.6million, whereas Woop Woop lasted
only three weeks and made around $400,000. 5
The total box office gross in the US was (US)$35,812.
6 Test audiences in the US were reported to be
perplexed by the vulgarity of the film, and many failed to understand
it’s humour, evidence that Australian film often “has highly
specific audiences in mind” (O’Regan, 1994, p70). In this case the
audience who associate with the humour of Woop Woop are somewhat alienated.
Director Stephan Elliott made his film debut with the
award winning, but lesser known Frauds (1993) followed by Priscilla, released in 1994. Elliott’s filmmaking techniques are undeniably
characteristic of Australian cinema, and what O’Regan describes as
“a quirky, eccentric cinema to one side of the international norm”
(1994; p54).
As
mentioned earlier, many of the crew from Priscilla returned to work with Elliott. Included in the
credits was Academy-Award® winning costume designer Lizzie Gardiner, BAFTA
nominated Guy Gross, who also worked on Frauds and Production Designer Owen Paterson, who has
numerous television credits.
Various
other crewmembers include Cinematographer Mike Molloy, who originally was a
cameraman for Walkabout (Roeg
1971) and A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick
1971). As his role as Director of Photography his credits include Bliss (Young 1997) and Scandal (Caton-Jones 1989). Also included in the credits was
Australian producer Antonia Barnard, whose short Aboriginal film Two Bob
Mermaid (Barnard 2000) was nominated
for several overseas awards.
Welcome to Woop Woop features a predominantly Australian cast, the main
exception being American actor Johnathon Schaech and also to some extent
veteran Rod Taylor, who has played three Australian characters in his 42-year
absence from his home
5: From http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/News_Bums_on_Seats_new.asp
6: From http://us.imdb.com/Business?0120491
country. Schaech’s prior work includes How
to Make an American Quilt (Moorhouse
1995) and his most famous role in Tom Hank’s directing debut That
Thing You Do! (Hanks 1995) Taylor has starred in over 70 feature films,
including The Birds (Hitchcock
1963) and various US television shows. Woop Woop features Susie Porter in her first major role, her
prior work including Paradise Road (Beresford 1997). Paul Mercurio, of Strictly
Ballroom
(Luhrman 1992) fame, played
the desperate Midget, and Muriel’s Wedding (Hogan 1994) Co-star Rachel Griffiths make a cameo appearance as
Sylvia, as does Barry Humphries, best known for his work as Dame Edna Everage.
Uptake and Current
place of Australian Cinema
Welcome to Woop Woop was created at the end of 1996. At the beginning of
the 90s an increased need for Government investment was experienced, after the
failure of the 10BA tax concessions in the 1980’s. The new federal body,
the Australian Film Finance Corporation (AFFC), which actually provided some
funding for Woop Woop, played a
major part in supporting Australian film. Government commitment has significant
links to the role of public support of Australian cinema. Critics and the
public deemed the release of Woop Woop an embarrassment. Such a film acts to
devalue the Australian cinema, which ‘needs not only a cinematic identity
but a positive one’ (O’Regan, 1996; 112). Woop Woop presents a negative perception of Australian values.
Australian cinema is defined as ‘mundane’
– ‘it is seen to lack distinction and great value’
(O’Regan, 1996; 121). Welcome to Woop Woop features a landscape that is undeniably Australian,
with its’ vast and isolated outback sequences and lack of high-speed
action, which gives the impression that many Australian films offer the same
landscape.
Another emergent aspect of the 90s was increased
internationalisation amongst the National cinema, and the international aspect
was often determined ‘other’. An example of this is shown by
Johnathon Schaech’s character. Here the American is used as an innocent amongst ‘monsters who
happen to be Australian’ (O’Regan, 1994; 52). The
national/international cleavage (O’Regan, 1994; p280) is an emergent idea of Australian cinema, and Teddy
is a fine example of how the international figure is used to ‘establish a
collective identity by showing how we are different from them’
(O’Regan, 1994;p280). Prior to its official release in August 1998,
Elliott extensively edited the film to ensure it was ready for a local and
international audience. Unfortunately it is the lack of social commentary in
the film that signifies how it is devalued as Australian cinema. A national
cinema should ‘generate meanings of significance and value…and be
able to speak and connect with local and international audiences’
(O’Regan, 1996, 112). Woop Woop does not generate such significant meanings and leaves little place for
positive social criticism amongst the audience.
The Australian Cinema is defined as a medium sized
English language cinema due to it’s “mainstream exhibition
orientated to the English language” (O’Regan, 1996: 86) and medium
sized market. This means that Hollywood is regarded as the centre of the cinema
industry and Australia is a market situated within it. Welcome to Woop Woop provides us with an example of how Australian cinema
is different: it negates Hollywood norms, and competes. However, this
competition can be viewed purely as an alternative as Australian cinema
struggles against the dominant Hollywood. Woop Woop was neither successful nor a means of competition in
Hollywood. It is an unsuccessful film that enforces the Australian cinema as Mundane
and reveals why the Australian National cinema remains to be Medium-sized.
There is no doubt that Australia has produced some classic and highly
successful films, yet local audiences simply crave the international product.
For example, in the week Welcome to Woop Woop was released, seven of the top ten films were
imported. As described by O’Regan, ‘the Hollywood competition is a
cultural imperialism, preluding the local and engaging in an unequal and unfair
competition’ (1996; 117). But this is just one offer of the argument that
attempts to devalue Hollywood. The specific audience, by which Welcome to
Woop Woop is received positively by,
is somewhat related to Australian cinema as a whole: it will always remain a
minor stream in the local and international entertainment industry. If the
Hollywood-going audience does not understand the Australian film then it is
unlikely that it will find any success at all.
References
See
listed web sites
O’Regan,
T Australian National
Cinema Routledge London, 1996
Films
Cited
The
Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (Elliott 1994)
Backbeat
(Softely 1993)
Bliss
(Young 1997)
The
Birds (Hitchcock 1963)
A
Clockwork Orange (Kubrick 1971)
Frauds
(Elliott 1993)
Head
On (Kokkinos 1996)
How
to Make an American Quilt (Moorhouse 1995)
Muriel’s
Wedding (Hogan 1994)
Paradise
Road (Beresford 1997)
Scandal
(Caton-Jones 1989)
Strictly
Ballroom (Luhrman 1992)
That
Thing You Do! (Hanks, 1995)
Two
Bob Mermaid (Barnard, 2000)
Walkabout
(Roeg 1971)