The Big Steal

I am Danny, and yes, I did have a girlfriend named Joanna who I was desperate to impress. My friends were there too: Alex, who actually was Russian but hung out with a group of Greek petrol heads, did indeed drive a Monaro - a Limited Edition in burgundy - and fancied himself something of a Lothario. My other good mate Peter would hate to have been told he was just a bit nerdy, but he was, and he worked part time at a parking station behind the cinema strip in Sydney while we were studying Engineering and going out and trying to impress the girls and all those things you do when you are 19 or 20.

My parents aren't perhaps quite as eccentric as the parents of the movie Danny, but they are close, and certainly keen on Scrabble and wordplay, and while there wasn't actually a Nissan Cedric in the family (it was actually a Mazda) it was a family in-joke. They also happened to be friends with some of the people involved in making this movie, so stories about my misadventures with the Jaguar, and Joanna and so on obviously got back.

The strangest thing it was then to see the movie, in company with several of the people whose lives were depicted, when it first came out. We had no real inkling of where the story had come from, beyond "hey, it is about a boy with a Jag, like yours". So many scenes I'd lived through (and some I only wished I had) were up there on the screen. And so many in jokes, like the reference to the Jensen Interceptor (which Peter had), and the horror of being caught driving a Volvo. Joanna really did say "nice car - what is it?" and "I'm not really into cars", though to some extent her character is an amalgam of the real Joanna and another girl I went out with (who had a father in the property development game, and who did front me to tell me what he expected and what would happen if I misbehaved with his daughter). The Jaguar really did leave me in the lurch in the middle of the Cross and on several other occasions, and undergo an engine swap, and there's too many others to list. Farkas was a lot like the bloke in the Eastern Suburbs to whom I traded the Mazda on the Jaguar too: Steve Bisley may not have met him but he really nailed the character.

In fact in the end I came out of the cinema thinking "how did they know all about that" and "I didn't think I'd even told Mum and Dad some of that stuff", and with my friends asking the same question. That is how close to the truth it was.

My view of it all is therefore coloured, but I did really enjoy it. It really is a picture of a time I remember with fondness, and in some respects where it didn't quite happen the way it is depicted well, it should have.

If ever there was a great duo , it would have to be Ben Mendelsohn and Claudia Carvan. This movie is a down to earth , no rubbish , personification of youth in Australia. I have seen this movie many times and still want to see it over and over again. True Blue Aussie humour at its best.

This is the sort of film, the Australian film industry needs to make more of. No forced acting.

Do your self a favor and hire it on video its just a great movie and very funny also any bens films are worth a see ive seen em all

It doesn't matter if you like teen movies or not , once you have seen the Aussie version of this genre you will forget all the rest. Ben Mendelson and Claudia Carvan make you fall into the plot as a teen couple from different sides of the school yard who eventually fall in love. However , as with all teenage boys , Danny Clarke (Mendelson) cant resist the fallacy of having to find a way to impress the girl and win her love, and you guessed it , it involves a CAR ! A jaguar no less ! Anyway , with the help of his friends they get the car of his dream only to realize that they have been ripped off by the car yard he bought it from. Needless to say, the girl is not impressed by cars, and the resulting chaos of getting back at the car dealer ends up in a hilarious comedy of everyone chasing each other around. I still remember this film as the one that made me fall head over heels in love with Claudia Carvan.... Didn't You ?