....Because it takes everything modern Australians despise about this country's past (most specifically its rural past), expands upon it in a manner almost perfectly designed to make us feel humiliated by it, and then packages it neatly in widescreen.
Well, maybe not. The fact is, WtWW is an oddball film, with a range of rather unpleasant characters in an equally unpleasant setting. Peter Weir's "The Cars That Ate Paris" took the same scenario and managed to turn it into a watchable, if not entirely likable film (best remembered for the spiky VW beetle).
But director Stephan Elliot isn't known for his directorial subtlety, and as such, WtWW treats the subject with all the vulgar caricature we've come to expect. He'd wanted to capture the last vestiges of "Old Australia" he'd encountered when he'd filmed "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" in various outback towns. \ But the majority of Australians are urbanites, many of whom seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to live down their past. As such, when this film was released in Australia, it reopened all those wounds of low cultural self-esteem and died the death of 1,000 bad reviews. Quite apart from being an intrinsically bad film, that is. ;) Elliot, in a TV special about the making of "Eye of the Beholder", said he felt he'd been well-sufficiently punished for it....
Over time, WtWW seems to have found itself a following, mostly amongst non-Australian viewers.... But considering it is an hour and a half of my life that I desperately want to take back, I'm certainly not amongst them. A pity really, for, as unpleasant as Daddy-O was, Rod Taylor's performance really is something to see....
Well, maybe not. The fact is, WtWW is an oddball film, with a range of rather unpleasant characters in an equally unpleasant setting. Peter Weir's "The Cars That Ate Paris" took the same scenario and managed to turn it into a watchable, if not entirely likable film (best remembered for the spiky VW beetle).
But director Stephan Elliot isn't known for his directorial subtlety, and as such, WtWW treats the subject with all the vulgar caricature we've come to expect. He'd wanted to capture the last vestiges of "Old Australia" he'd encountered when he'd filmed "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" in various outback towns. \ But the majority of Australians are urbanites, many of whom seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to live down their past. As such, when this film was released in Australia, it reopened all those wounds of low cultural self-esteem and died the death of 1,000 bad reviews. Quite apart from being an intrinsically bad film, that is. ;) Elliot, in a TV special about the making of "Eye of the Beholder", said he felt he'd been well-sufficiently punished for it....
Over time, WtWW seems to have found itself a following, mostly amongst non-Australian viewers.... But considering it is an hour and a half of my life that I desperately want to take back, I'm certainly not amongst them. A pity really, for, as unpleasant as Daddy-O was, Rod Taylor's performance really is something to see....