Not Quite Hollywood

It is about time a documentary was made about Australia's 70's and 80's exploitation films, which range from sex comedies, car chase films, hardcore horror and kung fu flicks. Mark Hartley has created a fitting tribute which moves at an almost non-stop pace and is full of hilarious interviews, great clips and interesting tales of on-set accidents and rowdy actors. Unfortunately, I never got to experience this period of unknown Aussie film making which now (thanks to this documentary) may be uncovered again!

Not Quite Hollywood starts off with some background of the Aussie film industry back in the late 60's/early 70's and the strict censorship policies we had. This then moves into the first type of exploitation we had; sex-fueled, gross-out comedies. Some notable ones are: Stork (1971), Alvin Purple (1973), The True Story of Eskimo Nell (1975) and Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974). Most of these features copious amounts of nudity (both male and female) and sex (of which the doco shows quite a bit of). These made a fair bit of money, but most of the critics despised the crassness and abrupt sexuality. Interviews with the lady stars (who are not afraid to talk about their mostly naked roles) and Barry Humphries are often funny. This first half an hour or so is a great introduction to the next section...

"Comatose Killers and Outback Chillers." In this section, Hartley shows us Australia's disturbed side with absurd, sadistic horror films which have a confessed fan, Quentin Tarantino. He excitedly reels off his favourites and how they have inspired some of his films (especially "ill Bill: Vol. 1." A few stand-out movies are: Patrick (1978), Razorback (1984), Snapshot (1979), Harlequin (1980) and Long Weekend (1978). Interviews with directors (Brian Trenchard-Smith and the late Richard Franklin) and the many actors are again incredibly intriguing and quite amusing. These films were popular in America, being released in the exploitation cinemas and garnering cult followings.

The last section of the documentary is about "High Octane Disasters and Kung Fu Masters." Tarantino really contributes to this part, showing a vast knowledge and passion for our car chase scenes and the "fetishistic" way they are filmed. Cult classics such as: Mad Max (1979), The Man from Hong Kong (1975), Roadgames (1981) and Turkey Shoot (1982) are all mentioned and discussed. This part becomes interesting, as directors talk about troubles with stunts (involving tragic deaths of cameramen and stuntmen), injuries and actor problems. Tarantino lavishes praise on pretty much all these films and he is a pleasure to listen to. Also, new Aussie horror directors Greg McLean ("Wolf Creek") and James Wan and Leigh Whannell ("Saw") are interviewed and discuss the old and new Ozploitation cinema.

Hartley knows how to make a documentary to the point, funny and always captivating. The interviews are hysterical (especially Bob Ellis, a critic who constantly bashes the genre in a comical uptight manner) and the clips are appropriate and show all the right parts. This will please all ages, from the older people who lived through this time and the younger generation (my friends and I) who will discover a new genre of Australian movies to enjoy. This doco is almost one of the best things to come out of the cinemas this year, and opens up a part of Australian culture that up until now was left hidden. Is this recommended? YES! Hopefully (and it DOES look hopeful), Australia can start to release some great Ozploitation style films. With films like Rogue, Wolf Creek, Storm Warning, Black Water and Saw there is still a chance.

A solid 5/5

Documentary of Australian exploitation films from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. They're presented in three section--the sex movies, the horror movies and the action movies. There's generous clips from various movies with LARGE doses of nudity (male and female), sex, blood and gore (I'm really surprised this got by with an R rating). There's also some very interesting interviews with the directors, producers, film critics and actors from the various films. Quentin Tarantino introduces each film.

I was looking forward to this a lot. I love exploitation films and thought this might be fun. It was--but I felt it was lacking somewhat. For one thing Tarantino gets annoying. It seems he loves each and every film which I question ("Road Games" is one of the most boring "thrillers" I've seen). Also with the exception of a few I haven't seen any of these films. They do explain them and why they're here--but I didn't know what EXACTLY they were talking about. The best parts were the interviews with the actors and actresses who talk about why they did the films and how they feel about them. It was especially surprising to see Jamie Lee Curtis discussing "Road Games"! This is (obviously) for a very limited audience but it is fun and interesting. Just quite lacking something to put it over. I wanted to like it so much more but, as it stands, I can only give it a 7.

A very fine documentary. I went into this at the London film Festival screening yesterday, never previously even having heard the term, ozploitation but came out ready to search out the films. A good film book will have you eager to google away to track down some hitherto unheard of 'must have' and this movie does the same. I felt I should have taken a notebook with me to take down some of the titles so enthusiastically spoken of. The films celebrated here were made in the 70s and 80s and are an Australian equivalent of what would usually be called drive in or exploitation movies. Sex, violence, cars and fighting is generally the name of the game and the more extreme and wild the better. Numerous, high quality clips from the movies leave one open mouthed and the people who made them tell us amusing anecdotes and horrifying details of things that went wrong. All of this would be enough but we also get generous helpings of Barry Humphries and the ever reliable, ever enthusiastic, Quentin Tarantino, just in case we were not already convinced that some of these trashy movies are just the greatest movies ever made. Joyous.

This is an excellent documentary on the "Oz-ploitation" films of the 1970's and 80's. It covers a number of genres from sexploitation comedies ("Alvin Purple") to horror ("Patrick", "Long Weekend") to Down-Under Westerns ("Mad Dog Morgan") to auto-obsessed action flicks ("Mad Max"). They interview many of the directors/producers of these films including Brian Trenchant-Smith, Richard Franklin, Tony Ginane, and John Le Monde. They also interview a number of the English and American "name" actors (Jamie Lee Curtis, Stacy Keach, Dennis Hopper, Steve Railsback, George Lazenby) that came to work in Australian exploitation during this time. They all have some funny stories to tell (a drug-addled Dennis Hopper managed to wreak havoc even in the hard-drinking Australian outback). They even interview many of the local Aussie stuntmen and T-and-A queens, who certainly made their own daring contributions to these films. Moreover though, there are A LOT of clips from these films, and they serve to make this documentary more fast-moving and entertaining than most of the movies it covers.

It's unfortunate that many of the important figures from that era have died, like actor/director David Hemmings, but even they show up in archival footage. It also might have been nice to hear from people like Jenny Agutter and Olivia Hussey, who both made some memorable films Down Under. The omnipresent Quentin Tarantino, on the hand, had nothing to do with Australian films, but he certainly is VERY knowledgeable about them.

The only disappointing thing about this is the short shrift it gives to the more arty Australian films of this era--"Walkabout" is represented only by a single full-frontal still of Jenny Agutter, and some of the interviewees refer disparagingly to films like "Picnic at Hanging Rock". It's understandable that some of these "exploitation hacks" would resent the more arty, "culturally important" Australian films that received most of the international recognition (and government support), but the line between exploitation and art is a lot less clear than it's made out to be sometimes. Peter Weir who directed art films like "Picnic" and "The Last Wave" also directed much more straight-forward 70's genre films like "The Cars that Ate Paris" and "The Plumber". And if you look at the career of someone like Canadian David Cronenberg, it's certainly possible in many countries to start out as a genre/exploitation director and become an arty, more mainstream one. These resentments were more the result perhaps of the Australian film financing policies of the era than of any real differences between the two kinds of film. Whatever the case, this definitely an entertaining documentary. Don't miss it.

Subtitled "The Wild, Untold Story of Ozsploitation", and that's what we get: a 100-minute cavalcade of all (?) the dizzy highlights of Australian exploitation cinema. The parceling into sex comedy/horror/action subheadings serves the material quite nicely, giving us a broad view of the aesthetic: ideologically working class, plain-spoken, and very male. That latter point is given just enough emphasis as the female participants offer their diverse bewildered reactions to the paces the filmmakers put them through, without getting all superior; the one pompous ass film critic who tries THAT trick is roasted on a spit. There's a lot of initiative, energy, and inspiration on display in this exhausting avalanche of quick clips; I was writing down titles like a mad man, there's a lot of stuff I'd never heard of that I'm dying to see. Genre film-making is presented, rhetorically, as a polar alternative to the classy upmarketing of familiar exports like Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford et al...even though Beresford was responsible for the Barry McKenzie series and Weir bequeathed us The Cars That Eat People. But dichotomy or not, I can tell you with certainty that Patrick has now jumped The Last Wave on my must-see list. Quentin Tarantino is dispensed in quantity, but I didn't get annoyed; he knows of what he speaks, and he's well-mixed with the folks who were there.