DUST OFF THE WINGS

DUST OFF THE WINGS

A critical review by Emmeline Summerton

CAST AND CREW:

Writer/Producer/Director: Lee Rodgers

Executive Producer/Writer: Ward Stevens

Cinematographer: Jeff Malouf

First Assistant Director: Adam Spencer

Sound: Eric Putre and Simon Kane

Line Producer: Emma Brunton

Editor: Peter Whitmore

Production Companies: Bombshell Films, Zinc and Winning Post Productions

Marketing: Australian Film Commission

Lee – Lee Rodgers

Ward – Ward Stevens

Jenna - Kate Ceberano

Phil – Phil Ceberano

Rash – Rash Ryder

Jo – Alana Ross-Stevens

Roxanne – Kate Fischer

Release Dates

Australia – 30^th October 1997

Singapore – 3^rd December 1998

Box Office

No box office figures available

Interviews

Lee Rodgers – www.urbancinefile/file://A:/Urban%20Feature2.htm

Reviews

www.film-reviews.com/cgi-bin/reviews/reviews.cgi?id=6

www.iig.com.au/film/dustoff.html

www.ozcinema.com/reviews/d/dotw.html

www.us.imdb.com/reviews/96/9642

www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~nikki/m_r/current/Dustoffthewings.html

www.entertainment.msn.com/Movies/Movie.aspx?m=500744

www.entertainment.ninemsn.com.au/movieguide/movies/1225.asp

www.alphalink.com.au/~pjh/f446dus.htm

Online Presence

Dust off the Wings has a fairly low profile on the internet; which considering its limited release worldwide and the fact that it is now 6 years old is not surprising. There were no listings for box office takings on any of the large box office sites such as The Numbers or Box Office Guru. There may be a listing on the Urban Cinefile site, but I was unable to access it. For the most part Dust of the Wings’ presence on the Internet came in the form of unprofessional reviews of the film; there was only one site that featured an interview with the filmmaker. There were no links to newspaper or magazine reviews of the time nor was there any links to professional online reviewers other than Urban Cinefile.

Search Details

An initial search of the Murdoch library for published works on Australian cinema failed to turn up any information on Dust off the Wings. I subsequently did the bulk of my research on the Internet, focussing mainly on Australian cinema sites and the search engines Google and Yahoo. I found that the while the film was mentioned in most sites; it was brief and in some cases incomplete. US centred websites had less information, as it appears that the film may not have had a US distribution.

Critical Review

Dust off the Wings is a semi-autobiographical account of Lee Rodgers’ real life marriage to co-star Kate Ceberano; inspired by their wedding video filmed by writer/producer Ward Stevens.

In the film, Rodgers’ character, also called Lee, is about to marry long term girlfriend Jo. Set in the hedonistic world of Bondi’s surfing subculture, Lee and his mates discuss the impact his upcoming nuptials will have on Lee’s life and friendships as well as the realisation that he will no longer be able to pursue the same promiscuous lifestyle as his friends. The plot takes on a new turn when it is revealed to Lee that Jo has slept with Phil, one of Lee’s best mates. This further confuses Lee and forces him to make a decision about his future and what it is he really wants.

Dust off the Wings seeks to address the issues of trust and loyalty in relationships and to explore the feelings of men about commitment issues. Unfortunately the film gets so bogged down in its crude and stereotypical portrayal of men as “Victims of their dicks” that it lacks any real insight. The central relationship between Lee and Jo is ignored and she makes only a very brief appearance at the end of the film, instead we are presented with the most base of male behaviour: swearing, misogyny, drinking and drug taking to excess. It is difficult to feel sympathy for Lee and his crisis of confidence, as he and his friends are so dislikeable and his main concern seems to be not being able to have sex with strangers. There are multiple segues between scenes involving the male characters and the women who are also preparing for the wedding. One assumes this is to provide an insight into the differences between the genders and how they deal with the issue of marriage. However the female characters are at best two-dimensional and at worst made out to be weak and ineffectual. Considering that it is Jo who has had an affair with her fiancé’s best friend, you would think the women would have more to talk about than getting their make-up done, but apparently not. The wild and raucous buck’s night is also juxtaposed with the quiet dinner of the Hens night, again a fairly predictable take on the differences between the sexes.

The general theme of the movie seems to be that relationships don’t work out, there is no example of a successful marriage and all of the characters, bar Kate Ceberano’s Jenna, seem to try and dissuade Lee from taking the plunge. It feels odd then at the end of the film when Lee goes ahead with the wedding, seemingly based solely on a rather lacklustre speech given by Jenna about the true meaning of marriage.

All of the film’s main cast are non-professional actors, many of whom play themselves on screen and while they appear to be comfortable with their roles (and why wouldn’t you be when playing yourself?) the dialogue feels awkward and there is an unconvincing wooden quality to the performances rather than the naturalistic performances they were perhaps striving for. Likewise the humour is based on the kind of bawdy jokes you can hear at any Aussie BBQ or pub and it lacks the kind of sophisticated humour you might normally expect in a comedy.

The cinematography attempts to make up for the disappointing story and acting performance. Bondi looks great and in many ways it seems like the filmmaker’s real agenda was to create an ode to the Bondi he obviously loves; the surf shots in particular are wonderfully executed. Combined with the thumping soundtrack, one can’t help but feel that Lee Rodgers would be better off sticking to what he knows best: music videos and TV adverts.

Critical Uptake

Dust off the Wings was released in 1997, the same year as seminal Australian films, The Castle and Shine. Whilst these two films were lauded both at home and in the case of Shine, internationally, Dust off the Wings was greeted with mixed reviews. Whilst some reviews heralded its exuberance and energy and its frank depiction of Bondi’s surf, sex and drug culture as a “thought provoking, fresh and confronting new Australian film” (www.iig.com.au), others branded its portrayal of women as misogynistic and containing an “overwhelming tide of hatred for women” (www.iig.com.au).

Production

Dust off the Wings was produced on the extremely small budget of $50,000; raised mostly through credit card debt, profit deferrals and the sale of executive producer Ward Steven’s Mercedes Benz. Filmed on video and then converted to 35mm film, it was taped in 17 days over a number of weekends in April and May 1996. Costs were kept to a minimum by casting from a select group of friends and local Bondi identities all of whom offered their services for free and by filming in and around the cast and crew’s own homes. Although the finance for Dust was raised independently, the Australian Film Commission provided marketing assistance. Released in Australia in October 1997 and also in Singapore the following year, Dust off the Wings had a limited theatrical release; actual box office details are unavailable at this time.

Subsequent and Prior Work

Writer, producer and director Lee Rodgers had 12 years of corporate and music video experience before he began working on Dust; his first feature film. Similarly this was the first film for writer and executive producer, Ward Stevens. Neither had acted before. Rodgers completed a screenwriter’s course in LA and at the time of Dust’s release he had plans to direct two more films in what was to become a “Dust” trilogy: Speck of Dust which would be about pregnancy and Dust to Dust about death. As yet neither of these projects has seen the light of day and there is no indication in my research that either Rodgers or Stevens have made any more films.

Cinematographer Jeff Malouf has many TV and film credits to his name having worked on “Murder Call” (1997), “Soldier Soldier”(1991), “Jackaroo” (1990), “Body Surfer” (1989), Blackfellas (1993), Wendy Cracked a Walnut (1990), and “Stringer” (1988).

Australian Film and its Value

As an example of Australian filmmaking, Dust off the Wings combines a number of the thematic regularities that Tom O’Regan outlines in his book Australian National Cinema (1996). Most notably are the masculinization of Australian cinema and the “eschewing of heterosexual romance” (1996:198). The main heterosexual relationship in Dust is relegated to the fringes of the narrative, in fact they are never seen together and the bride is shown only briefly. Instead the dominant relationships are between Lee and his male friends. The concerns Lee has over the decision to marry revolve more around how it will change his friendships rather than the relationship he has with his fiancée. The male ensemble cast spend an awful lot of time talking about the women they have bed or would like to bed and are yet only rarely seen in the company of women and only then in an unfulfilling way. There is no example of a successful heterosexual relationship and even after the wedding takes place the final shot of the movie is of Lee and Ward surfing nude together as if to say that even though Lee is now married, the central (somewhat homoerotic?) relationship between the men is still the priority.

Dust off the Wings also contains that curiously Australian theme of “ordinariness and ugliness” (1996:243). The film glorifies the ugly side of the typical Australian male, slovenly, directionless, misogynistic, rude, crude and only concerned with surf, sex and beer. It also in its use of real people playing themselves in a setting that is natural to them and a story based on real events presents itself as a film about the ordinary. A man is getting married; he has concerns that he discusses with his friends, there is nothing at all out of the ordinary in the plot development.

Continuing in the long tradition of exploring subculture in Australian surfing movies and perhaps being the most comparable with Puberty Blues (1981) Dust also has its roots firmly planted in Australian filmmaking history.

These features of Dust along with the setting of Bondi align it with a distinctive Australian type of cinema. In this case perhaps limiting itself in its ability to cross national boundaries. Although the theme of cold feet before a wedding is a universal one that can be appreciated around the globe, the stylistic elements used in creating Dust off the Wings narrows its outlook to one than is extremely parochial in nature, a fact that can be seen in the films limited international release.

Australian National Cinema and a Medium Sized English Language Cinema.

As a national cinema, Australia must compete with other more dominant national cinemas like the US. Australia must also compete with other medium sized English language cinema like British and Anglo-Canadian cinema for space at the box office. In doing so Australian cinema seeks to define itself in terms separate to the standard types of film that come out of Hollywood in particular. Utilizing thematic regularities that go against the US trend is one way of achieving this. Dust off the Wings does this by playing up its typical Australianness, its setting, the naturalistic performances, the rejection of the heterosexual love story and its portrayal of the ugly and the ordinary. It is however extremely difficult for a film that embraces these uniquely Australian thematics to translate into an international market; which can be seen by the lack of success in distributing Dust overseas. However even though Dust may not be the best example, as a small budgeted local film aimed solely at the Australian market it still has important relevance, as it is this type of film that helps to maintain a sense of Australian identity in cinema something can be lost when a film is made with an international audience in mind.

Bibliography

O’Regan, Tom, 1996, Australian National Cinema, Routledge: London.