Pure S

Excellent account of a group of people drawn together in the never ending chase for their next hit. It draws together characters who have just given up, just starting on a path to destruction, people who have already begun a path to crime. Nobody ever considers pulling out they just keep going. The journey includes overdoses, burglary, speed freaks and the blockaid methadone program that became popular in the 70s. The characters seem real and the low quality of the acting only makes them more real. Guys who have to have their hits before the girls, no sex relationships and other reality bites add to the quality of the script. An Excellent film that shows Australians can produce worthwhile films in the drug/road movie genre.

I stumbled upon this movie because I was reading Helen Garner's famous debut novel "Monkey Grip," and noticed the same year that came out, she appeared in this independent Australian feature. Adding to the notion that the novel was pretty autobiographical, the "junkie movie" her heroine has a small part in sounds a lot like this film, where Garner has just a single (but memorable) scene as a speed freak.

Considering that it was presumably made on a shoestring, with at least some actors who were living pretty close to the criminal edge depicted, "Pure S" is surprisingly well-made, expertly photographed and fairly fast-paced despite its relatively minimal "plot"-which to a point is basically just one long night's search to find, sell and take drugs by a bunch of Melbourne addicts.

A friend of mine who actually did heroin for a while once said that he found the hyperactive style of "Requiem for a Dream" ridiculous for a movie about junkies. (Although another friend who had the same background felt otherwise, so go figure.) You could make the same objection to this film. But despite the crisis-every-five-seconds tenor, it has its own integrity. Unlike the mix of casual recreational drug users and serious addicts mingling in the amorphous community of lovers and friends in "Monkey Grip," some of whom even have jobs, the characters here seem to have nothing going on beyond chasing their habits. And as is often the case with such people, they spend a lot of time yelling, accusing each other of hoarding "the stuff," when not getting what they want and nodding out. They also commit a certain about of reckless crime, notably armed robbery.

That makes for a movie in which just about everyone is an argumentative, volatile irritant you'd flee from in real life, though the filmmaking is fluid and pacey enough to make watching them bearable. "Pure S" is quite different from the bleaker, grittier U. S. movies about the same topic in the same era, like "Panic in Needle Park" and "Dusty & Sweet McGee," with a more wiseass, revved-up tenor. It's certainly not flawless-I defy you to actually care about anyone in it-but certainly deserves more notice as an enterprising feature that came out at the dawn of the Australian film renaissance, but got comparatively little attention.

Pure S**t is, in short, pretty crap. However it does has its moments of hilarity, the highlight of the film being the finale at the rehab clinic. The humour of the rest of the film is quite weak, with the exception of just about the worst car-chase scene I have ever seen, which is so crap that it is surprisingly enjoyable. The bulk of Pure S**t really serves only to set the scene for the last act which, excepting the stroke of genius in the naming of the film (a rival perhaps to the entirely anonymously produced "The Best Film in the World"), is the only real reason you would watch this film. The four junkies are comprised of a dopey girl with an annoying voice whose name I cannot remember, John and his girlfriend, and Lou. The director obviously decided that Lou would be the 'complete dickhead', which sets up the film quite well. After the raid on the pharmacy John gets kidnapped by the rehab clinic and the others go to try and rescue him, but acting as a prelude to this finishing tour de force is a scene in which they go to visit one of Lou's friends who is out of mind on I presume coke or speed. He is the 'stupid bloke that runs around naked' and his girlfriend plays the 'cleaning freak' and it is only at this point that the bad acting (which I doubt is intentional) plays out its advantage and the whole point of Lou becomes apparent - he is of course the twat that plays out all the stupidity; It is not really posible to convey the screwball humour of it in writing but it revolves from this point around Dr Woolf who is the hilarious gimp in charge of the rehab programme. It is not black humour, as is suggested by other reviews - dark-ish stuff, but the morons who dubbed it the "most evil film in the world" are essentially of the same ilk that would praise the film as a masterpiece. This it is not - it would be worth seeing if it came out on video, but this seems like a gradually dying possibility.

I was always wondering if I'd ever see this movie, that was actually a cult movie from '75. It's title so befits this movie. Apart from Buffy Down Under which was intolerable viewing, this is the worst Aussie film I've ever seen. It's one of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen too, it's cover like the one for Buffy Down Under is the best thing about it. Dig the syringe that replaces the I in S..t. It's about drug culture in the 70's. It's flat, boring, and repellent. I rather watch Palm Beach, honestly, a much better movie on this subject. I'll never watch this one again, and would swear it on an oath. If it popped up on t.v. I couldn't change the channel fast enough. Do yourself a favor, take note of what I've written. You may just find yourself revisiting the DVD shop and asking for a refund. And this advice, goes a thousand times over for Buffy. Abominable.

This film covers one night for a group of people living, and trying to score drugs, in Melbourne in the late seventies. Sad and funny.