This is a highly underrated action drama (with comic flourishes) that was skillfully adapted from a static play into a rollicking film by the late, great Tim Burstall. The film basically looks at the lives of several wildcat miners in the Aussie outback and how they cope with the heat, hard work and boredom of their jobs through booze, gambling and fighting. The ensemble cast are great including Gerard Kennedy, Mike Preston, a young Steve Bisley, Peter Hehir and ex-pro wrestler Steve Rackman. Hehir as the skinny kung-fu bank robber who turns up at the mine looking for a place to hide is an unlikely hero who allies himself with the essentially decent mining foreman Tarzan (Gerard Kennedy). Preston - as the bully Pansy - is a suitably nasty villain. The fact that he and Tarzan (Kennedy) can't defeat each other in their final fist fight is a sorta tip o' the hat to the ongoing, never-ending struggle between good and evil if you want my humble opinion. Hehir's climactic battle with the brutish Rackman is worth waiting for and you'll be cheering on every punch and savate kick. KNUCKLEMEN is being re-released on DVD and I recommend that all movie fans get their hands on it. Don't let the bad language put you off, it all seems quite harmlessly salty nowadays.
Review of The Last of the Knucklemen
