Bastard Boys

I was only 12 when the waterfront dispute took place, and because I was away at the time, I knew basically nothing about what had happened. I didn't even know what the dispute was over.

Bastard Boys brilliantly recreates the events surrounding the waterfront dispute, where company Patrick Stevedores tried to sack all of their unionised workers and replace them with non-union staff. To find out what else happens, watch the program.

The miniseries uses recreations of real people involved with the events, such as John Coombs (Colin Friels) and Chris Corrigan (Geoff Morrell), as well as fictional characters such as the Tullys (Dan Wyllie and Jack Thomson).

Bastard Boys does an excellent job of combining the vital legal proceedings with the human side - particularly the wharfies. All the acting is outstanding, although special mention should go to Geoff Morrell, who had the challenging job of bringing Patrick boss Chris Corrigan to the screen and making him human, believable and not simply a two-dimensional bad guy.

There were a few problems with the script - Chris Corrigan's brother appeared out of nowhere, while Greg Combet was strangely underused towards the end. Other than that, an outstanding miniseries - not near the brilliance that was Answered By Fire, but outstanding all the same.

This is a great TV movie. It explains the events of the Waterfront Dispute very accurately, particularly the legal issues which were not very straight-forward. There were a few inaccuracies - for example, the dramatic scenes in relation to the Australian Endeavour happened at Port Botany and not Webb Dock and the ACCC did not seek fines in its cases against the MUA. However, the most disappointing aspect of the production was the inaccurate claims that the MUA avoided engaging in violence on the docks. There was plenty of violence directed against the non-union laborers and anybody behind the picket lines. I didn't like all the focus on Josh Bornstein - it seemed quite unnecessary to me to focus so much of the movie on one of the legal advisers.

With "Bastard Boys" I don't think the makers truly set out to be so one sided, they simply only see one side as the "truth" despite the fact that the reality is much more complex.

For those not familiar with the story portrayed in this mini series, it involves Patrick Stevedores controversial sacking of its entire workforce (of mostly union members) and replacing them with non unionised workers.

This wasn't a very good thing to do, but what "Bastard Boys" fails to do is point out the extenuating circumstances that led to this extreme course of action. The Australian waterfront had been virtually held to ransom for years with one of the lowest lift-rates of any OECD nation, workers with "go slow" policies in order to gain valuable overtime rates, but which miraculously disappeared when the right hands were greased, and a unhelpful union intent on waging an "us vs them" battle of ideology against any sort of attempt to change a status quo that wasn't working.

Bastard Boys completely failed to portray Chris Corrigan (head of Patrick) as anything other than a weird loner. We didn't see him at his wits end, unable to do anything about the lack of productivity that was costing his company a fortune. We didn't see all the rubbish he had to put up with from the union. We just saw unionists and union officials playing happy families and horrified at their "unwaranted" mistreatment.

This miniseries should have been about how union and employer couldn't work together to resolve an obvious issue, so extreme (and yes, wrong) actions were taken. Instead Patrick's and Corrigan are demonised and the unions and sacked workers are painted as pariahs. The series should have pointed out that years after this dispute, the lift rates which the unions so flatly condemned as unsafe and impossible were being achieved by the very same workers who were fired once they had been reinstated.

Bastard Boys should have been about how this whole incident could have been avoided if everyone just worked together, instead of turning into another preachy bit of political revisionism and selective history which only shows one side of the debate.

Bastard Boys should have been about how the workers, the unions AND Patrick's did the wrong thing, and how after all this fuss it was worked out in the end. Fuss that could have been avoided.

I think the writer (Sue Smith)and producers made a bold step to create and televise this mini-series. Recreating, not just a real life event, but one with characters who are still alive and concerning such a controversial issue. Inevitably, it will ruffle feathers as it depicts such an important milestone in our democratic history. A portrayal of living public figures will always be seen as biased, one way or another.

But this was a story that needed to be told. A sanctioning by government of aggressive, potentially violent behavior, towards a group of men and their families who had broken no laws, merely been very successful in their fight for wages and conditions. And yes, maybe some of these had gone further than was healthy for the survival of the industry. (I have to claim ignorance here. I am not an economist or business owner) However I don't hear anyone up-in-arms about those business owners who are in the happy position of taking large slabs of time off to play golf, go overseas etc. We seem to have a different set of values for 'workers' and for business owners.

Back to Bastard Boys. One of the many themes was the portrayal of the personal lives of the main characters - the MUA leader, John Coombs (for which Colin Friels should get an award), Chris Corrigan (owner of Patricks, stevedores coy), Greg Combet, ACTU, the on-site Union rep (name?) and the solicitor, Josh Bernstein.

There are some surprises in store for those of us who felt angry towards Corrigan at the time. Corrigan is portrayed as a man with his back against the wall financially. He takes on the banks very forcefully. But the biggest surprise was some of the writing posted on the screen at the conclusion. It mentioned the friendship that arose between Coombs and Corrigan who met quite regularly after the conflict was over. Obviously, somehow or other, a mutual respect developed between them.

On the other hand, Bernstein is quoted this week in the Age's Green Guide as saying that this was a watered down version of what actually happened. The reality was a lot more heated and more intense. One wonders to what extent lawyers specialising in libel had been consulted and how much footage ended up on the cutting room floor.

Bastard Boys has single-handedly broken new ground in Australian TV - a drama about real events that took place, not 100, 50 or even 20 years ago, but in our recent memories. A story about a time when our democracy was severely tested. Thank goodness our restrictive laws concerning free speech (see Right to Know campaign) didn't stop this one! Don't miss it!

This story is a recreation of the battle of the 1998 waterfront dispute between the unions and Patrick Corporation, in Australia. Even if you are not a student of political history, or think the storyline is a bit dry, you can still enjoy the confrontation between the major players of the day, superbly performed by an array of the cream of Australian actors. The acting and the production levels are so good that I didn't notice the time go by watching it , and I was sorry it was over, and wishing there was more. There are four episodes of approximately 1 hour each, which gives the viewer an insight into four respective characters(real people central to the historical events). I gave it a 9 out of 10 vote.