Grievous Bodily Harm

I'd heard about this crime/thriller long time back, but only recently found a copy.

It's a true-blue Australian story that uses a conventional narrative – man on a quest – to flesh out three concurrent stories: a seemingly ordinary school teacher who is searching for his wife thought to be dead; the frenetic daily routine of a crime reporter with one of the national rags who stumbles into more than he expected; and a relentless copper who'll stop at nothing to get what he wants.

So, it has elements that you saw in films like Blood Simple (1984), or Farewell, My Lovely (1944, 1975), or Body Heat (1981) and many others – all of which are generally subsumed under the rubric 'film noir'. Think of Point Blank (1967), and you'll recall Walker (Lee Marvin) who just wanted his wife and his $40,000 back, stolen by the Mob; and the rest is classic cinematic history as Walker decimates the bad guys as only Lee Marvin could do it.

All of those films center upon a husband or boy-friend who's been suckered by The Woman – the one he's trying to find. This film doesn't have the star or directorial draw of the above films, but it's still up there with them as a true film noir.

The fascinating first twist (and there are clever twists in this film) is that the school teacher, Morris Martin (John Waters) is mentally unhinged to the point of insanity by the disappearance of his wife; and that leads him into impulsive acts – acts that you have to see to appreciate for their ferocity. The second twist is that the reporter, Tom Stewart (Colin Friels) is handed – literally – a fortune in a bag of cash from a bank robbery, in the first few minutes of this film; and which, in turn, eventually leads him to meet up with the anguished school teacher. The third twist is discovering – also early in the plot – that the relentless copper, Ray Birch (the late Bruno Lawrence), is also a cold-blooded killer who is after that cash.

Hence, while Morris continues his relentless search for his wife, Claudine (Joy Bell) – and Ray grimly and ruthlessly gets closer to the cash – Tom discovers that Claudine is alive and sets off to find her. Unhappily for Tom, so does Morris; but Tom doesn't know that. Ray, now with Tom in his sights as the bag man with all that cash, is not far behind. And, all the while, the body count just keeps getting higher...

And, as you watch and savor the unfolding nastiness and horror, you might think you will eventually anticipate how it might all end. Well, that's where the final twists come into play, and which upset all of your preconceived ideas about who gets what, and when. Truly, it's not often you are dealt such excellence in story, acting and direction, proving that you don't need block-buster money to provide intelligent and thrilling entertainment.

The filming is simply excellent, along with the editing which is sharp, focused and keeps you on edge – to follow the plot and to keep up with the fast pacing. The acting from the three central characters is just superb with John Waters – first time in my view – reminding me of a young Peter Finch and just as accomplished; Colin Friels always giving his best; and, well, Bruno Lawrence was simply one of the best actors I've ever seen. The supporting cast is more than adequate to help carry the story on, especially the very attractive femme fatale, Joy Bell.

This story and film, for me, reminds me most of the films of the Cohen brothers, well known as masters of dramatic irony, horror, and suspense. Director Mark Joffe and writer, Warwick Hind aren't there yet, but this one is an admirable addition to that type of film.

Just you wait to see the final irony in this one...delicious! Get a copy if you can. Highly recommended.

June, 2011.

GBH is admittedly one of my favorite Aussie films. I never get sick of it. It is a stylishly done film, with Waters in one of his undoubtedly best roles, as a teacher, infatuated with a beautiful woman, believed to be dead, only he doesn't think so. In one scene, he loses it with a student which took me back to an incident, in a classroom, where my English teacher, kicked a kid out, for saying the F word, though didn't resort to the excessive methods of Waters. Water's character, just can't let the past rest, resorting to murdering woman who won't tell him where his sweet heart is. The other story to this story, is Friels, a hot shot journalist/best selling non fictional author. He's the kind of journo who will break the rules to get the story, while even helping out police, here and there, like in one terrifying hostage situation. On his tale is a corrupt cop (Lawrence) who this time, might really be going down. See he believes Tom is keeping information from him, as well as a big bundle of cash, a criminal gave him, as in act of trust, before carking it. Lawrence becomes quite an important part near the end of the story, in a twist of disbelief to us audience, you could say, when he see what he ends up with. I like too, Friel's cameraman, Kym Gyngell, who was doing a few films around this time. GBS is a very tightly constructed thriller, with all the right scenes in place. The movie chooses great locations in and around Sydney, while also choosing some really visually effective ones, out Blue Mountains way. We see too that this mystery woman, we hope we meet, was partaking in some saucy sex tapes, with another hottie (Lederman) who Waters takes care off, mercilessly and coldly. She was also escorting too. GBH is a slick thriller, with some good performances (Kerry Armstrong as Friel's ex, and of course Lawrence as 'bad cop', Ray) who you'll definitely remember after.

This movie was a confusing one, and I found myself struggling to comprehend it. From what I could gather, a man receives photos of his wife in rather suggestive poses and hires a cop (who turns out to be crooked) to investigate. Ordinarily, I like Bruno Lawrence films, but this one just didn't cut it.

** 1/2 out of ****

Stupidest plot, laughable action, and oh my God the acting are you kidding me. Only redeeming feature of this movie was it was shot on location. I always enjoy films shot on location in other parts of the world. If you're not looking for a travel log in Australia, skip this POS.

This Australian film tries desperately hard to be 'film noir' with it's convoluted and somewhat confusing storyline. But that's where any similarity ends as lots of action takes place in daylight and massive sunshine, a noir no-no.

Once the story of a man searching for his missing wife emerges more, it turns out it isn't that intriguing anyway. And since she's staying what only seems a few streets away, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, except the people in this aren't that smart really...

This sort of thing has been so much better in the past with classics like 'Farewell, my lovely' or more recently with 'LA Confidential.'

This just isn't in the same league.