Not mad about Mad Bastards
Brendan Fletcher’s debut feature Mad Bastards (Transmission Films) opened with $81,597 on 27 screens (average $3,022).
The film’s release was clouded by “life imitates art” reports about the sentencing of one of the cast members, Roxanne Williams, for manslaughter.
The $3m project, which screened at Sundance earlier in the year, stars non-actors and follows an Indigenous man trying to reconnect with the son he hasn’t seen in years, before he becomes another ‘mad bastard’ caught in a downward spiral of alcohol and crime.
The Australian box office was once again dominated by Universal’s Fast and Furious 5, grossing more than $21m in three weeks.
I think a large number of Australians will avoid “Mad Bastards” like the plague after being sucked in by clever marketing to watch “Samson & Delilah”, which I felt was hugely overrated, slow and boring….(a lot of my friends feel exactly the same)
that’s not to say MB isn’t a good film – I’m sure it is!
The film looks to be well made and far more cheerful than Samson & Delilah, but it’s not a movie I’m remotely interested in seeing. And I’m not sure about the Roxanne Williams sentencing clouding the issue. This is the first I’ve heard of it and, if anything, I would have expected it to increase interest in the film.
Mad Bastards looks like a great film…but I’ll catch it on DVD. I do wish it all the success in the world, best of luck.
For me, ‘Mad Bastards’ was a wonderful cinematic experience and one of the best Australian films in years.
It will be a real shame if the film fails to capture the audience it deserves as a result of it’s subject matter and the fact that Australian audiences have been burned so often that they are wary of seeing yet another Australian ‘turkey’.
I would strongly recommend ‘Mad Bastards’ to anyone interested in quality filmmaking of a kind that says much about a part of Australia that most Australians do not get to experience first hand. Great screenplay, great direction and mostly great acting. The story is tough, but it is very moving and, without giving anything away, it is a film filled with hope and optimism. Congratulations to all involved in every aspect of the film – including Screen Australia and Screen NSW for getting behind it as they have. Go and see it!
‘Mad bastards’ is an Australian film in every sense of the word. We could make 10 or so such films (if there are 9 other scripts as good) for the amount what Australian tax-payers will contribute to the production of ‘The Great Gatsby’.
James – I hear you mate. How the HELL does The Great Gatsby qualify for the Producer rebate when;
a) the story is set in the US
b) its a remake of a major US film
c) it stars a number of major US “names”
d) it’s clearly an American classic
That money WOULD be better spent on Aussie films instead…
The Great Gatsby..its about jobs..its about Sydney getting some zing back in its defunct step..its about helping out Fox Studios, its about promoting Screen Australia as a brand and its about furthering the career of our chosen visionary cinema ambassador Baz. Call it what it is.. Its about dishing out the bread and providing one trick ponies for the circuses. Maybe that’s not all bad..but then again maybe the money would be better spent developing careers of emerging filmmakers and innovative Aussie films and rolling out better funding for screenwriters. But the prevailing attitude is “fuck them, let them eat cake..let them navigate the obstacle course of proven criteria and when they’ve proven themselves to us and they still have a glimmer of passion and hope they can come for a ride on the Government funded amusement park”
Every now and then it is worth seeing our current problems within a historical context.
In the late 60s and early 70s the various bodies involved in providing the industry with a philosophical base stressed that “(T)he industry (should be) pre-eminently Australian in character, not dominated by other cultures; that government sponsorship would support ‘film and television projects of quality’ and produce ‘distinctively Australian’ films that would ‘provide the Australian people with a national voice and a record of their way of life”.
The Report of the Interim Board of the Australian Film Commission declared that:
“Australia, as a nation, cannot accept, in this powerful and persuasive medium, the current flood of other nations’ productions on our screens without it constituting a very serious threat to our national identity. The Commission should actively encourage the making of those films of high artistic or conceptual value which may or may not be regarded at the time as conforming to the current criteria of genre, style or taste, but which have cultural, artistic or social relevance.
Some may not become commercially successful ventures, but these may include films which posterity will regard as some of the most significant films made by and for Australians. Profit and entertainment on the one hand and artistic standards and integrity on the other, are not mutually exclusive. In the long term the establishment of a quality Australian output is more important for a profitable, soundly based industry that the production exclusively as what might be regarded as sure fire box office formula hits.
Baz Luhrman’s ‘Great Gatsby’ may well be a box office hit. It might be a masterpiece. It will undoubtedly provide, for a brief period of time, much wanted and needed employment for those who crew on it. It will not, however, be an Australian story told for Australian audiences and reflecting aspects of our own culture for the benefit of present or future generations of Australians. It will an American story with zero relevance to Australia above and beyond the relevance that all great cinema (all great art) has for mankind in general.
No matter how successful Baz’s film is it will not, in 20 years time, be on any lists of great Australian films like ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’, “Newsfront’, ‘My Brilliant Career’ ‘Breaker Morant’ and so many others that form part of our cultural heritage.