AUSTRALIAN RULES

BY EVE BAILEY

• MA rating
• 98 minutes running time
• 2002

• Director - Paul Goldman
• Producer - Mark Lazarus
• Executive Producers - Antonio Zeccola, Bridget Ilkin
• Screenplay - Phillip Gwynne, Paul Goldman

• Gary 'Blacky' Black - Nathan Phillips
• Dumby Red - Luke Carroll
• Clarence - Lisa Flanagan
• Pickles - Tom Budge
• Bob Black - Simon Westaway
• Liz Black - Celia Ireland
• Arks - Kevin Harrington

• In The USA the film was released on the 11^th January 2002 at the Sundance Film Festival.
• In Australia it was released at the Adelaide Festival of Arts on the 5^th March 2002, and nationwide on the 29^th August 2002.
• The film will be released in Denmark on the 2^nd May 2002.

Australian Rules was released by Palace Films. It is presented by the Australian Film Finance Corporation, and produced by Tidy Town Pictures in association with Showtime Australia, The South Australian Film Corporation, The Adelaide Festivals of Arts 2002 and SBS Independent.

"The film's about courage so it's about physical courage and moral courage and so that was really the prism for all those issues. I mean, the film certainly engages in some discussion about race and about bigotry but it also ... there's a lot of other things that happen in the film ..."

• Paul Goldman: This is Goldman's first feature film. He formerly directed commercials and music videos. As a director he is involved in The Night We Called It a Day (2003). As a cinematographer he was involved in Ghosts of the Civil Dead (1988)

• Phillip Gwynne: This is Gwynne's first feature film. Australian Rules is adapted from Gwynne's novel Deadly Unna?

• Nathan Phillips: Phillips was involved in T.V programmes including - Neighbours (1985), The Saddle Club (2001) and Something in the Air (2000). He is involved in the following feature films: One Perfect Day (2003), Under the Radar(2004), Take Away (2003) and Warriors of Virtue: The Return of Tao (2002).

• Luke Carroll: Luke was involved in the T.V series' Heartland (1994), and Lift Off (1992). He was also in Dallas Doll (1992).

• Lisa Flanagan: Lisa is a newcomer to both feature films and the small screen.

• Simon Westaway: Some of Simon's most well known projects include The Thin Red Line (1998), and Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
• Kevin Harrington: Harrington is best known for his work on the television series Seachange.

• Celia Ireland: One of Ireland's most recent feature film performances was in My Mother Frank (2000)

• Official selection: Sundance Film Festival 2002
• AFI Nominations 2002:

1. Best Film
2. Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Luke Carroll
3. Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Celia Ireland
4. Best Original Music Score: Mick Harvey
5. Best Sound
6. Best Screenplay Adapted from another Source: Paul Goldman and Phillip Gwynne

• 2002 Emirates AFI Best Screenplay Adapted From Another Source: Paul Goldman and Phillip Gwynne.
• Nominated for Best Film by the Film Critics Circle of Australia, and the IF awards.
• The Screenplay was nominated for the 2002 Humanitas Prize.

My research of this film was conducted on the internet. I used search engines such as Google and Alta Vista to find the majority of my information. Using the film's title, director's and producer's names proved very helpful in these searches. I also took advantage of the H231 Website and its links to a lot of helpful media databases.

Australian Rules is set in a poverty-stricken fishing town in South Australia. Prospect Bay is white dominated town, with an Aboriginal mission just out of town. This movie follows the story of its 16 year old protagonist Blacky (Nathan Phillips). Australian Rules explores the racism and bigotry of the small town and Blacky's conflicting life.

Blacky is a keen, but not brilliant member of the town's football club which is about to play in their first grand final in 37 years. Blacky's best friend Dumby Red (Luke Carroll) is a talented player on the team. In this little town, football is the only activity that sees the blacks and whites integrated ( which makes the team colours of black and white appropriate). Just before the big match, Blacky is promoted to the position of ruck after one of the Aboriginal players is arrested. This is a daunting task for him, especially due to the fact that Blacky has been down-trodden by his alcoholic, abusive father (Simon Westaway), and has had it literally hammered into him that he is a coward. The team triumphs over adversity and wins the game, thanks to Blacky's mum Liz's (Celia Ireland) tactical advice, Blacky's accidental heroism, and Dumby's brilliance on the football field.

The racial prejudice of the town boils to the surface at the grand final celebrations when Dumby's talent is denied due to the colour of his skin. This leads to tragic events culminating in Dumby's death and a division of the town. Blacky falls in love with Dumby's sister Clarence (Lisa Flanagan) and breaks the pattern of racial tension, by being the only white person at his best friend's funeral. Blacky eventually stands up to his abusive father and he and Clarence decide to leave the Bay and its racist attitudes behind.

Australian Rules is based on the semi-autobiographical novel written by Phillip Gwynne: Deadly Unna?. The film is a disturbing yet brilliant exploration of small town attitudes. It exposes the hidden disgraceful secrets of racism and domestic violence. Blacky is the representative of the only link between the white and black communities in this town and it is from his point of view that we experience the racial tensions. For me this film worked around a lot of contrasts. Firstly there is the main issue of black vs white. Another interesting feature for me was that the film was really separated into two halves which were amazingly contrasting. The first half was centered around the build-up to the football game. This part of the movie, was littered with humour ( a brilliant performance by Kevin Harrington as the over-bearing coach), and the warmth of the friendship between Blacky and Dumby. After the game, the tone of the movie completely changes, and it develops into a dark and violent portrayal of the lives of the characters. The events that occur after the game are even more powerful when compared with the light, comedic beginning of the film. It began with a football game, and ended with an insight into a town's tragedies.

The performances by Nathan Phillips, Lisa Flanagan and Luke Carroll are outstanding. Simon Westaway adds a brilliant element to the film, in his dark and disturbing role as the abusive father, and Celia Ireland is amazing as Blacky's abused, yet vital mother. Australian Rules is a heart-wrenching drama which is at some stages difficult to watch. It exposes a violent and abusive world that many of us entrenched in our safe, sheltered urban lives have never been exposed to. It puts the reality in your face and refuses to sugar-coat it for a mainstream audience. I found it to be an honest and courageous film.

The majority of reviews written about Australian Rules were very positive. Even the international reviews had excellent things to say about the film. The performances of the three young characters were hailed as wonderful, and Simon Westaway, and Celia Ireland are also given special mentions for their performances. Most critics were very impressed with Paul Goldman's first feature film:

"Goldman sharply depicts a static community cut off from the world representing but never overstating the typical small-town fauna of faded, put-upon women and boozy, bigoted men." David Rooney, Daily Variety, Jan 29^th, 2002

Caroline Libresco of the Sundance Film Festival Program commented on Australian Rules:

"enormously moving, immensely satisfying, sensitive and unflinching."

However this movie was nearly sabotaged due to a campaign led by the former co-coordinator of the South Australian Indigenous Screen Culture Organisation and vocal black nationalist - David Wilson. Wilson claimed that during the making of the film, Goldman, Gwynne and Lazarus, did not consult enough with the indigenous people of the Point Pearce Community, and that the movie was disrespectful to indigenous people. The campaign built against the movie believed that the plot of the film was too similar to the shooting of two young Aboriginals in an attempted robbery at a local pub in 1977. Goldman and Gwynne made a few changes to the film to try and appease those involved in the campaign. However they were still not happy with the film being released, and made this fact well known. Despite this, screenings of the film were successful, and the campaign failed.

Lisa Flanagan commented on the claims made by the campaign that the film was racist, in an interview with Richard Phillips for the World Socialist Website:

"This is not a racist film but simply a picture of what really happens in this country It was something I felt very strongly about, and I told Mark Lazarus, the producer That I'd be there 100 percent."

In an interview with Les Everett, Mark Lazarus talked about the people behind the campaign: " But there was also a larger group, also directly related to those issues who urged us to make the film, and said it's a story that got to be told. It was a real conflict for us as filmmakers because we are nice guys and we didn't want to cause any pain. But we felt the overriding motivation to tell the story was right. When you bring a painful story to light it is at that point the healing starts."

I believe that claim that Australian Rules is a racist film, is ridiculous. The central theme of the film is the opposition to racist attitudes and behaviours.

Australian Rules has a clear identity as an essentially Australian film. It deals explicitly in an emotional and physical Australian environment. It is difficult without box-office figures to tell what sort of general reaction Australian and foreign audiences had towards the film, but critically it was acclaimed as a success. It may be a very Australian concentrated film but it's exploration of the universal themes of racial tension, and domestic violence would allow it to appeal to a foreign market. This foreign market would probably be limited to an art house audience as it is not a film that would compete with Hollywood blockbusters for foreign interest.

Australian Rules has the ability to appeal to foreign audiences due to it's uniquely Australian style, landscape and characters, yet it also has elements that are relatable for people from any country. The small budget that Australian Rules was created with (3.8 million dollars) cannot compete with Hollywood Blockbusters which have far greater budgets.