QT6 – AUSTRALIAN FILM NIGHT!
Today was an early day, of course – we only all went to sleep at 10am today, why not have the first film at 5am. Heh, I jest, I kinda missed the usual 12am Kiddie Matinee that Quentin usually does. That’s the one that usually separates the boys from the men. And I am a BOY!
Well, this year, Quentin decided on showing BMX BANDITS late in the game and wanted to show it for his Kid Show – but didn’t “get it together” till it was too late to advertise the show for kids. So, he decided to show BMX BANDITS on all of us instead.
When he took the stage, I didn’t note what clothes he was wearing, because he managed to instantly make me hate him. He uttered into the microphone that “I hate GOONIES!” I instantly booed him – and most of the audience followed my lead with some sort of hissing or booing. Quentin brushed it off with a “yeahyeahyeahyeah, WHATEVA!”
But this is exactly the sort of thing that can make me judge you for all eternity. He likely feels the same way about me, given my dislike of SUSPIRIA – but at least I don’t HATE that, I just don’t feel it’s the best Argento by a long shot. I prefer DEEP RED. But back to this GOONIES thing. I can’t claim that it is an age thing – just because Moriarty and Tarantino both HATE the GOONIES – I can only credit it to some deep rooted hatred of childhood. Heh. Moriarty had the gall to actually call GOONIES heartless. I now truly believe he’s never seen the film.
Anyway – after the booing and hissing incident – Quentin continued on saying, “If you were from Sydney, BMX BANDITS would be your GOONIES. Growing up there it’s a childhood standard. We never really had anything like it here, closest was Hal Neeham’s RAD and BMX BANDITS waxes all over RAD!”
He then went into a bit where he was going on about how the 3 lead kids were great in it and really very cool. His big problem with the film was that in the set up, the bad guys are so rough, they come across a bit like “the Australian Reservoir Dogs, but by the second half they’re total comic villains.”
He also is a big fan of Brian Trenchard-Smith, who he says is a bit Don Siegel-esque, having directed films like MAN FROM HONG KONG, TURKEY SHOOT, DEAD IN DRIVE IN and THE SIEGE OF FIREBASE GLORIA. Unfortunately, I’m afraid the only film of his I saw was the dreadful cheesefest MEGIDDO: THE OMEGO CODE 2. And the greatest film ever created by a god, STUNT ROCK!!!!!!!! Of course, after STUNT ROCK – you could only crash and burn, as man is only meant to fly so high.
Quentin, upon Nicole Kidman in the film, said, “And the lovely Ms Kidman, after THE OTHERS, this is my favorite Nicole performance.” The audience began laughing – and Quentin said he didn’t mean that as a sleight – but that he really loves her in this film.
He gives a nice toss to the mike – and it’s time for trailers.
First was a really great Aussie trailer called THE LAST WAVE. I’m not really sure what it is about – but damn the trailer made me think it was about the end of the world. And it looked damn good.
Next was the trailer for DEAD IN DRIVE IN – this was a very fun trailer.
Now – what’d I think of BMX BANDITS?
Personally, I thought it was GLEAMING THE CUBE quality. One of those mildly entertaining kid flicks that just doesn’t float my boat. Give me GOONIES or SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES or THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG or ESCAPE FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN or WARGAMES or DARYL or CLOAK AND DAGGER or THE EXPLORERS or FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR.
I actually kinda dig it, but I think any and all nostalgia is null and void for me on this flick. It is really bizarre seeing a totally illegal Nicole doing BMX bike stunts – and I suppose if I saw this at the right age I’d probably have had a real crush on her – but the BMX song drives me nuts. She does have one of the best lines of the fest so far. She’s putting her arms around both of her friends and says, “You know what they say, ‘Two is company, but 3 gets us talked about!’” OHMYGOD the audience roared at that line. Great line, Nicole!
The 3 kids are fun, but everyone else just kinda blows in this. I won’t be watching this one again. STUNT ROCK on the other hand, where’s my DVD?
Quentin’s assistant tells Quentin that Brian Trenchard-Smith heard he was playing BMX BANDITS and wanted to send his thanks to Quentin for playing one of his fave films of his career. Cool. I just wish Quentin had a film print of STUNT ROCK!
Quentin tells us that BMX BANDITS was just a warm up for the double feature we’re getting into next, he also has that damn BMX BANDITS song stuck in his head. But this next film he called a “Terrific crime thriller from the 60’s.” And while 4 DESPERATE MEN ( the U.S. title) most likely didn’t hit the states till 1960, it was released in England in mid 1959 – after premiering at the Berlin Film Festival earlier that year.
“I bought it because Aldo Ray is the star!” – this then kicked off a great and detailed history about the life and times of Aldo Ray. Turns out that George Cukor saw a screen test of Aldo Ray in a wife beater flipping cards into a hat. From that, he cast him into THE MARRYING KIND opposite Judy Holiday – and Aldo was kicking it from there. He was in PAT AND MIKE, MISS SADIE THOMPSON (played BNAT last year in startling 3D with Rita Hayworth… pant pant pant), NIGHTFALL – but then mentioned the war flicks he did like BATTLE CRY, THREE STRIPES IN THE SUN, THE NAKED AND THE DEAD (3 really great war flicks, btw) and said that Aldo was really known as the quintessential Sergeant in the 50’s. Quentin loved his husky voice, and one of the reasons that Quentin loves Bruce Willis so much is that he feels he’s that Aldo Ray type – and that before Bruce played in PULP FICTION – Quentin sat him down and showed him a couple of ALDO RAY flicks – he didn’t mention which ones, dammit – and told Bruce to not IMITATE Aldo Ray – but to affect that Aldo Ray kinda vibe. Which he feels Bruce nailed.
It was at this point that Quentin mentioned that Aldo was a horrible drunk which ruined his career and his life. In the 60’s his star was going way way down, so Aldo took of to England and did THE DAY THEY ROBBED THE BANK OF ENGLAND, JOHNNY NOBODY and some other flicks. Then he went to Australia and did this. But that after he did THE GREEN BERETS with John Wayne – his star was really really falling, but he kinda became the Patron Saint of all Has-Been Actors. At this time he was really on the bottle and just doing the cheapest and schlockiest fucking movies ever that would get him for basically a dollar a day. Now the booze and the downward spiral actually won him a couple of notable firsts.
1st – He was the 1st SAG actor to do so many cheapo Independents that he was thrown out of SAG.
And the other first?
He was the 1st legitimate star to do a Porn movie. Specifically SWEET SAVAGE, which was a Porn western – and no, he didn’t do a sex scene, he was in the PLOT part of the film – and actually won best Actor for the Adult Film Association of America for his part!
Now when Quentin got this print, he discovered that it was not only a great crime picture, but an escape and siege film, but also an Australian film with a terrific storyline that just wouldn’t work in the here and now, but that could have happened back then. He also felt that this film had the very best location footage of Sydney that he’d ever seen. When he showed this film to some of his Aussie crew members while shooting in the Beijing area on KILL BILL – it blew them away, and Quentin talked about how it’d be a great film to remake, to which they all laughed and said, if that were to happen, it’d be the first Australian film to be remade, cuz nobody has apparently bothered to give that a go. But Quentin nominates FOUR DESPERATE MEN!
The first trailer was for HIGH ROLLING IN A HOT CORVETTE – and was just silly.
Then there was ROAD WARRIOR. Sigh – I love this film! But the trailer doesn’t do it for me. Rodriguez cut his own special trailer for ROAD WARRIOR that just absolutely kicks ass so hard it grows wings. Amazing spot.
Ok – so what’d I think of FOUR DESPERATE MEN? In my opinion – it’s the best movie that has screened at QT fest so far – and is just unbelievably great.
Here’s the basic storyline. 3 of Aldo Ray’s friends & family – break him out of jail, cuz he’s innocent of the charge – and wants a new trial – or to just get away. He’s been in jail before, so nobody believes he’s innocent. Aldo’s got some money to pay for his escape. They’ve got a boat and they’re getting away, when suddenly a rope gets tangled into the prop of the boat – and they end up drifting to this small island fort in the middle of Sydney’s harbor called PINCHGUT ISLAND – where apparently it was armed for defense against the Japanese in case they made an attack on Sydney during World War II.
Once there – things get fucked up, the screws begin to tighten – and they decide to threaten to use one of the cannons on the island to blow up a demolitions boat sitting in the harbor – that – if it were to go – it’d wipe out nearly the entire harbor and town.
Folks – this movie is the shit! After they fire the initial blank – this film becomes a fucking Godzilla movie, with Aldo Ray as the Godzilla of Sydney. He goes from a full on button shirt to a wife beater to a bare chest. He moves from calm to animalistic. From loving to killing. From peaceful to wanting to blow up the world.
There’s this sequence where the police are setting up sharp shooters across a bridge to take aim at anybody that moves on the island – and I swear to god the music sounds like the military theme to GODZILLA – It’s so fucking intense.
Think of this as the nitty gritty fucking balls out film noir version of THE ROCK, ok? It’s a film that ultimately is about mutually assured destruction… and how it only works if one side is wiped out. The film was produced by EALING STUDIOS and shot all over Sydney – and man… I didn’t know Ealing had balls this big. The movie is just awe-inspiring. Aldo – sweaty – screaming out over the cannon aimed to destroy Sydney at the top of his lungs… You kinda have to wonder if Akira Kurosawa saw this at Berlin in 59 – and took inspiration for the character of Manny in his screenplay for RUNAWAY TRAIN that Voight so brilliantly brought to life.
This is a film that absolutely screams to be rediscovered and worshiped like the awesome work that it is. Absolutely electrifying! Best film of the fest, thus far.
At this point I was just on cloud nine. Father Geek and I were just on this spit fire of Noir geek speak chatting about screen bad guys that just rip the screen in two and set up siege in the lap of the audience – and as man – Aldo Ray here could set up shop with Cody Jarrett by the end of this film. The dialogue doesn’t quite sear the mind like in WHITE HEAT – but man… I’ve seen WHITE HEAT 40-50 times in my life – I’ve just seen this once, and I’d kill to have Aldo Ray’s dialogue that he screams out over the cannon. Really was awesome.
Now – the problem with seeing a movie that just blows one’s mind is it’s very hard to follow. Quentin after hanging out chatting about the greatness of FOUR DESPERATE MEN with me for about 10 minutes, hit the stage to introduce an episode of an Australian TV series called RIPTIDE which starred Ty Hardin as “Moss Andrews”. Apparently – Ty was a contemporary of Steve McQueen, back in McQueen’s WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE days (great show btw) – when Ty played Bronco Layne in the western show, BRONCO. Now – I’m familiar with Hardin from his genre work in THE SPACE CHILDREN (how can one forget the giant pulsating brain that talks to kids?) and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE. Though – my fave part on film that I remember him from was when he played Robert Shaw’s (Custer’s) subordinate in CUSTER OF THE WEST – as Major Marcus Reno. Anyway – Quentin brought up MERRILL’S MARAUDERS and MOVING TARGET. However, In RIPTIDE – Quentin described the character of Moss as being an American Adventurer with a boat that gets into adventures.
In particular he was quite excited that the episode had “Fat” Jack Thompson who was in basically every 80’s Australian Film you could see. Then Quentin mentioned that he and Tim had run out of Australian trailers and would now be relegated to moving to Filipino Trailers – out of a pure desire to keep it in the Indian Ocean. He tossed the mike (6)
Only one trailer before the episode of RIPTIDE:
THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE – it’s like the world ended, but with Christopher Lee singing about booze. Woo Hoo!
This episode was entitled, “HAGAN’S KINGDOM,” the 19th episode of the series.
My immediate reaction to RIPTIDE is that this is what Race O’Bannon did before hooking up with Johnny’s dad! He is exactly wearing the same outfit as Race. His theme is just slightly off the Quest theme. I believe – that Moss’ last adventure had to do with Dr Quest – Moss wound up being a marked man as a result and changed his name to Race O’Bannon – and together with Dr Quest continued his adventures on an even more fantastic level.
The show was a lot of fun, but mainly because I finally found out Race’s secret identity.
