Dish, The
Dish, The | ||
|
Director: | Rob Sitch | Actors: | Sam Neill (as Cliff Buxton), Kevin Harrington (as Ross 'Mitch' Mitchell), Tom Long (I) (as Glenn Latham), Patrick Warburton (as Al Burnett), Genevieve Mooy (as May McIntyre), Tayler Kane (as Rudi Kellerman), Bille Brown (as The Prime Minister), Roy Billing (as Mayor Bob McIntyre), Andrew S. Gilbert (as Len Purvis), Lenka Kripac (as Marie McIntyre), Matthew Moore (II) (as Keith Morrison), Eliza Szonert (as Janine Kellerman), John McMartin (as Howard (U.S. Ambassador)), Carl Snell (as Billy McIntyre), Billy Mitchell (II) (as Cameron) | Country: | Australia | Category: | Comedy | Year: | 2000 | Personal Rating: | |
| Description: | *** DVD Rip: Yes - Quality: High *** In the days before the July 19, 1969 space mission that marked humankind's first steps on the moon, NASA was working with a group of Australian technicians who had agreed to rig up a satellite interface. That the Aussies placed the satellite dish smack dab in the middle of an Australian sheep farm in the boondocks town of Parkes was just one of the reasons that NASA was concerned. Based on a true story, The Dish takes a smart, witty, comical look at the differing cultural attitudes between Australia and the U.S. while revisiting one of the greatest events in history. | Imported Comments: | At a time when the comedy genre is saturated with the crude, lewd and unsophisticated toilet humour of the U.S ('See Spot Run', 'The Animal', 'Say It Isn't So'), it's encouraging to watch a film that really makes you laugh out loud without wanting to cringe at the same time. Like it's antipodean predecessor 'Priscilla...', 'The Dish' takes the best aspects of Australian culture and the Aussie persona and uses them to create the finest comedy of the year so far. Much of the humour is brutally honest, delivered in the kind of relaxed, conversational style which has become an Aussie trademark. Paired with a homegrown cast (headed by a wonderfully understated Sam Neill) and filmed on location at the satellite receiver station in South Australia, the film feels refreshingly natural and unconstructed. This sense of cultural identity gives 'The Dish' a surprising depth for such an uncomplicated film. Rather than resorting to the contrived, exaggerated Australian image of Paul Hogan, it revels in its roots without a hint of self-consciousness or compromise. Such an intense warmth towards its small-town location and everyman characters is shown that it is impossible not to share it, and from that grows a wonderful sense of intimacy. Despite the global importance of Apollo 11's mission, a real sense of the importance of it to the community and the individuals therein is present throughout. An American film may have made this subservient to the moon landings - here, the two are intertwined on an equal footing, and you care equally about each. And in that lies the secret of why 'The Dish' is such a damn good film. It's not the well-paced, extremely funny and well-delivered script, nor the quality of the acting, nor the great location or period soundtrack. It's because the film has a real sense of soul. It makes you want to care about it and it's characters. In mainstream film, that's a rare achievement indeed. Let's hope the Farrelly brothers are watching... 8.5/10 |
Languages: | English | Subtitles: | None | Length: | 101 | Video format: | DivX 3.11 Low Motion | Audio format: | MPEG Layer 3 (MP3) | Resolution: | 416x240 | Files sizes (Mb): | 569 |