Not Quite Hollywood

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.

Thoroughly enjoyable - a few notes I made afterwards follow, including quotes from my wife First section of the movie covered how the new R-rating allowed an explosion in the Australian film industry. Specifically, as much nudity ( boobs, pubes, and tubes ) as the filmmakers could squeeze in...

"And here was me thinking Australian film in the 70s was prudish." On John Holmes rather, ah, prominent role in the doco - Australia's first exposure to him ( or possibly the other way around )

"Wouldn't his head implode when he got an erection?" and about paying to see the movies covered

"We're supporting the Australian film industry!"

"Given that quite a few of those movie were made to *lose* money...." The stories about the incredibly lax safety procedures at these flicks were pretty alarming. Take just one example from Mad Max ( where the head stuntman arrived on his first day with one limb already broken! ).

Do you recall the shot in that movie, from the motorcyclist's POV, where the bike is screaming along the highway and the odometer is hitting 180? The director got that shot by leaning over the motorcyclist's shoulder with a camera. Helmet? Hell no - protective equipment is for sane people.

Tarantino's excited fan-boy bouncing was amusing.

Regarding one of the very few movies they covered that I actually recall seeing ( I may well have seen more but have protected myself by blanking the memory ) - Razorback. I wonder if this movie is the reason my old D&D group would blithely deal with a pack of animated skeletons, but leg it for the nearest tree when an ordinary wild boar showed up? Also - The Return of Captain Invincible? Australia made a superhero musical? All I can say is that Australia made some amazingly bad movies, *that actually managed to get theatrical release*. Still, it made me miss the old days of drive-in cinema, even if the only one I recall seeing at such a cinema was Death Race 2000 ( the exploding baby scene - which I still find hugely funny).

If you have any interest in Australia's contribution to cinematic immortality, you have to see this documentary :D

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.

as a lover of 'Ozploitation" films from way back, (hell im a card carrying member of the Turkey Shoot fanclub hahha) to say that Not Quite Hollywood was going to be essential viewing is quite an understatement. And so i finally made the 3 hour trek to Melbourne to see this thing and all i can say is WOW! Mark Hartley has done good with what was available to him, however there were a few other films that never got a mention that are quite vital to the "ozploitation" story.

To my knowledge COSY COOL was the first independent Aussie exploitation film, and it never even got a mention! (admitedly its not a really great "film", but is still an interesting watch).

1979 slasher flick ALISON'S BIRTHDAY never received a mention either, and quite crucially RUNNING ON EMPTY is only shown in a collage of car crashes, but nothing is said about it at all. And don't even get me started on the absence of genuine classics like STIR, THE MONEY MOVERS, LAST OF THE KNUCKLEMEN.

However it all really comes down to time. 2 hours is only really long enough to just skim the surface, which is what NQH does, and does a commendable job of it.

In my eyes there are only 2 problems with NQH, one which is inevitable.. it has to end sometime. The second is why does everyone hate Turkey Shoot so bloody much? It is a genuine classic and is definitely one of the most entertaining films to come out of Australia! In summary a commendable effort and hopefully we will get all of these films appearing on DVD (and yes i already know that most of them are)

Fantastic! A great documentary focusing on a long unsung faction of cult cinema known as Ozploitation. Tarantino features heavily as an expert of the genre. As an Australian, it's scary watching how a foreigner could have so much knowledge and enthusiasm for films that have been almost purposely forgotten in their own homeland.

Like any good documentary, it's a real eye opening experience to get an insight into the lost world of blood, bikers and boobs. The directors, actors and those influenced (Greg McLean (Wolf Creek/Rouge), James Wan and Leigh Whannell (Saw)) share the stories of a fledgling film industry that embraced a Guerrilla style of film-making that stuck it to the stuffy cinema elite that wished they would disappear.

An absolute must watch for anybody who thinks they're an expert on cult/trash cinema.