Mr. Beaks Reviews Philip Noyce

When the Phillip Noyce renaissance hit last year with the one-two political punch of THE QUIET AMERICAN and RABBIT-PROOF FENCE, I was shocked at how his critical involvement in the Australian New Wave of the late 70’s and early 80’s was virtually ignored by a number of critics scrambling to work out just how the director of such seemingly interchangeable Paramount blockbusters had suddenly morphed into a skilled auteur. I was shocked, that is, until I began searching for a DVD of Noyce’s important feature debut, NEWSFRONT, a Cannes Film Festival discovery from 1978 that I hadn’t seen in years. Forget anything as extravagant as a DVD, the film is virtually MIA on video, as is Noyce’s other early career success, HEATWAVE.

Fortunately, though, I live in Los Angeles, and was, therefore, fortunate enough to see a brand-new, fully-restored print of NEWSFRONT, which will be screening for the first time in this country with an additional six minutes that had been excised by the director prior to its 1979 U.S. release on Tuesday, August 19th at 7:00 PM at the Egyptian Theater here in L.A. At present, (at least, as of last week) there is no deal in place to release the film on DVD, so if you live anywhere in the area, I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

In NEWSFRONT, Noyce juxtaposes the intimate story of steady, principled newsreel cameraman Len Maguire (Bill Hunter) against the more epic tale of volatile post-WWII Australia, viewing it all through the nostalgic prism of the bygone newsreel industry that used to keep the public in the know before the advent of television. The film chronicles the decline and eventual obsolescence of the medium from the mass 1948 influx of European immigrants, to the contentious 1956 Melbourne Olympics. In between, Noyce thrillingly dramatizes, through an impressively seamless interweaving of authentic and restaged footage, how these daring newshounds captured history for a nascent nation. Of course, as is often the journalist’s lot, this tireless dedication to their calling, without which one would certainly be shouldered out by a more aggressive craftsman, carries with it an unforgiving human cost. In Noyce’s condensed narrative, families seemingly dissolve as soon as they’re started, falling victim to the notoriously incestuous temptations of the closely-knit workplace.

Wisely, Noyce avoids judging these characters for their amorous indiscretions, choosing instead to trumpet the virtues of personal integrity and loyalty to the true ideals of democracy. These are all embodied by Len, the top cameraman at Cinetone News, the scrappy, homegrown newsreel company forever at war against the well-financed Newsco International where Len’s ambitious brother, Frank (Gerard Kennedy), is a top shooter. Eventually, Frank will flee Australia, submitting to the lucrative beckoning of Hollywood, and abandoning his marriage-minded girlfriend, Amy (Wendy Hughes), a Cinetone employee. In his absence, Amy will become a hardened upper-management taskmaster, her feminine allure coarsened by Frank’s cruelly abrupt departure. Out of a mixture of seeming pity for his co-worker/friend and dissatisfaction with his emotionally chilly marriage to the politically and religiously conservative Fay (Angela Punch), Len will eventually abandon his ever-expanding family, and enter into an affair with the romantically luckless Amy. Their coming together is as much a question of convenience as it is one of mutual attraction; the arrangement allows their emotional needs to be met with the bare minimum of potential human wreckage. In many ways, it’s the most humane thing Len could’ve done.

But this admittedly dour human drama never weighs down NEWSFRONT’s whimsical celebration of the cameramen who risked life, limb, and, when forced to cover mind-boggling inanities like a singing dog, professional pride to bring the news to their countrymen. This is where Noyce’s technical proficiency truly amazes: from the static lensing of the Prime Minster’s speeches, to the wild, knockabout coverage of the Redex Trials, the film’s characters are deftly cut into history without a single jarring note being struck that might upset the illusion. Nowhere is this verisimilitude more remarkable than in the recreation of the Maitland floods, where Noyce, operating on a low budget, somehow captures the actor Chris Heywood rowing a boat through what looks like an actual flooded town, and into a waterlogged storefront. I kept looking for a shot that would giveaway how this was done (my mind kept telling me it had to be a studio soundstage, while my eyes were saying “location shooting”), but the expertly spliced-in newsreel footage succeeds brilliantly at tricking the viewer from ever working out exactly how they pulled it all off. This is the kind of visual ingenuity missing from lavishly produced fare like FORREST GUMP. Placed side-by-side today, Noyce’s three-decades-old work is far more impressive.

Complementing the film’s outstanding technical achievements is a great ensemble cast anchored by the paunchy, unglamorous Bill Hunter, whose unflappable manner in the face of infuriating corporate politics or the most heart wrenching tragedy makes it fully understandable, if not excusable, that the actor never caught on in America. But while it would’ve been nice to steal the magnificently understated Hunter away from his native country, he did carve out a very successful career as a popular comedic performer in the Australian film industry, making memorable appearances in STRICTLY BALLROOM and MURIEL’S WEDDING. As Amy, Wendy Hughes adroitly transitions from office sex-kitten to hard-nosed businesswoman, while Don Crosby cuts an endearingly blustery figure as Cinetone’s beleaguered ringmaster, A.G. Marwood. Also in the supporting cast is a fresh-faced Bryan Brown, who was still a few years removed from his brush with legitimate stardom.

There are many keenly observed, behind-the-scenes glimpses in NEWSFRONT that afford us a clearer idea of what made these talented individuals tick, but none are more telling than the film’s final, gloriously corny moment that drives home the brutal, yet gratifying isolation of unswerving obedience to one’s own ethical code. Sure, we’ve seen sequences like this before, but Noyce’s tonal consistency and unabashed affection for his subjects allows him this very Hollywood indulgence. It’s a wonderfully sentimental idea: after a lifetime spent weaving a celluloid tapestry of history, our hero, who devoted his life to providing audiences with ten sobering minutes before the main attraction, finally is the feature.

Faithfully submitted,

Mr. Beaks

Tuesday night, eh? Maybe I’ll see some of you there.

"Moriarty" out.