I recently watched this movie, believing it was an important Australian contribution to the world of cinema. How wrong I was!
It certainly is a well-known film, but perhaps that is only because of the play on which it is based received much publicity. Or perhaps because of its leading cast of well-known Hollywood etc stars.
This movie, originally titled "Summer of the 17th Doll," was in my opinion very disappointing. Firstly, I found the sound so distorted it was difficult to understand the dialog. The accents, mentioned here by other reviewers, were deplorable, and I will never understand why Australian actors weren't used in an Australian working-class story. I suppose the producers wanted "big names" in the important roles, but as hard as they tried, most of the cast never sounded convincingly like Aussies, so all I heard was a changing jumble of false working- class English accents.
The movie itself had some welcome humorous moments, if one could ignore the above comment, and the story line was interesting and believable. What was UNbelievable was the exaggerated and histrionic reactions of the characters to their every frustration. I expected more than melodrama from actors of this calibre.
It could have been so much better.
It certainly is a well-known film, but perhaps that is only because of the play on which it is based received much publicity. Or perhaps because of its leading cast of well-known Hollywood etc stars.
This movie, originally titled "Summer of the 17th Doll," was in my opinion very disappointing. Firstly, I found the sound so distorted it was difficult to understand the dialog. The accents, mentioned here by other reviewers, were deplorable, and I will never understand why Australian actors weren't used in an Australian working-class story. I suppose the producers wanted "big names" in the important roles, but as hard as they tried, most of the cast never sounded convincingly like Aussies, so all I heard was a changing jumble of false working- class English accents.
The movie itself had some welcome humorous moments, if one could ignore the above comment, and the story line was interesting and believable. What was UNbelievable was the exaggerated and histrionic reactions of the characters to their every frustration. I expected more than melodrama from actors of this calibre.
It could have been so much better.