I'm surprised by the negative reviews I've read here so far, but, thankfully, there are some great positive summaries offsetting these.
I don't know whether it's "The Great Aussie Film" or not, but it's a great film, alright, and like a few members here, I've known people like these, and having known them, have absolutely no sense of sympathy for them. The experiences I draw from are from a working class childhood... and, interestingly enough, I guess, the worst, overtly violent characters came from lower income families (the covertly nasty ones are another story entirely). I recall no books in their apartments/townhouses, no value on education, their TVs droning endlessly, little to no parental interest -- much less control -- of any kind with those kids (unless one or the other parent took the time to kick the crap out of one or the other of them). My capacity for empathy goes only so far: those people were like human piranhas, every one of them. I suppose part of the film's point is asking what creates characters like these.
There is none of the ubiquitous overt violence common to just about all films now: something the director deserves high marks for, and all performances were outstanding. An Australian poster on a bulletin board recommended it, and he was dead on. Alas, I could only get it as a used VHS tape, but here's to hoping it'll magically appear on DVD over here sometime.
I don't know whether it's "The Great Aussie Film" or not, but it's a great film, alright, and like a few members here, I've known people like these, and having known them, have absolutely no sense of sympathy for them. The experiences I draw from are from a working class childhood... and, interestingly enough, I guess, the worst, overtly violent characters came from lower income families (the covertly nasty ones are another story entirely). I recall no books in their apartments/townhouses, no value on education, their TVs droning endlessly, little to no parental interest -- much less control -- of any kind with those kids (unless one or the other parent took the time to kick the crap out of one or the other of them). My capacity for empathy goes only so far: those people were like human piranhas, every one of them. I suppose part of the film's point is asking what creates characters like these.
There is none of the ubiquitous overt violence common to just about all films now: something the director deserves high marks for, and all performances were outstanding. An Australian poster on a bulletin board recommended it, and he was dead on. Alas, I could only get it as a used VHS tape, but here's to hoping it'll magically appear on DVD over here sometime.