The Club (1980)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Interviews-Cast & Crew-"Meet The Team" Short Film-"The Club - Then and Now" Featurette-David Williamson - "Compulsive Playwright" Music Video-"Up There Cazaly" Music Highlights-"Hear Jack Thomson Sing"-The Collingwood Club Song Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Malcolm, Pubert y Blues, Barry McKenzie Holds His Own. Trailer-The Big Steal
Rating
Year Of Production	1980
Running Time	95:07
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Bruce Beresford
Studio Distributor	South Aust Film Corp Madman Entertainment	Starring	Jack Thompson Graham Kennedy Frank Wilson Harold Hopkins John Howard Alan Cassell
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Mike Brady

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Based on David Williamson's magnificent play of the same name, The Club remains one of Australia's most biting satires, and great Aussie movies of the 1980s. Having only ever seen this film on television or on video, it's brilliant to finally be able to enjoy a widescreen version through the wonder of DVD.

    Written for the stage, (and adapted for the screen), by one of Australia's most successful playwrights, David Williamson (The Removalists and Don's Party), as a play, The Club was extraordinarily successful. Melbourne Theatre Company launched it on 24 May 1977 at the Russell Street Theatre, and it played to full houses in an extended four-month run. Even in the non-Aussie Rules states the play did very well. For example, The Nimrod Theatre production in Sydney also enjoyed an extended run with packed houses.

    Apart from its great, and unexpected, commercial success, The Club has been a critical success as well. Indeed, within two years of it opening, The Club was added as one of the plays studied in Australian High Schools. I'm sure many of the readers of Michael D's web-site would have discovered the play as part of their schooling. The Club was also performed overseas, where it was warmly welcomed, and well reviewed.

    "Outside, the fans are cheering the high marks and the low tackles. Inside, the executives are wheeling and dealing, back slapping and back stabbing."

    The Club is not necessarily a story about Aussie Rules Football. It's a story about egotism, commitment, power, jealousy, and greed, i.e. it's about human beings in a competitive and public environment. The story covers the transition of Australian sport into becoming Australian business. The culture and rituals of an old club are torn to shreds as the mighty dollar takes over. As one player remarks "we joined for the honour of wearing the Guernsey and a pat on the back . . . not for money".

    The club (referred to in the title) is languishing near the bottom of the Victorian Football League (VFL) premiership ladder, and has done so for a long time. Indeed it's been 19 years since its last Premiership win, and an atmosphere of blame-storming, back-stabbing and desperation has brewed in the resulting tension. The club has just paid an enormous sum of money for a young Tasmanian player, in a huge gamble that he will help change their fortunes. What they don't know is that he's rather disenchanted with "chasing a piece of pig skin around a muddy paddock". His arrival at the Club ignites the tension and friction that has been gradually building between a number of key people.

    One of the great things about The Club are the characters. They are all instantly recognizable as people we've all known or met, with all too recognizable human failings and weaknesses. First there's Ted (Graham Kennedy), a self-made businessman, who has bullied and blustered his way into becoming the Club President. Then there's Gerry (Allan Cassell), the club administrator and the wheeler-dealer. Add to this Jock (Frank Wilson), the wife-beating dinosaur -- a blunt and crude 'Aussie bloke'. There's also Danny (Harold Hopkins), the Captain, and one-time star, who can see the end of his career rapidly approaching. At the moral centre of the story is Laurie (Jack Thompson), a decent man and a struggling coach. Finally there's cynical Geoff (John Howard), the young recruit who has little interest in the ritual and tribal nature of footy or the Club, but somehow he still retains some residual spirit for the game.

    Beautifully acted by the superb ensemble cast, the film is expertly directed by Bruce Beresford (Breaker Morant, Driving Miss Daisy, and Black Robe). The stand-out feature, however, is the expert writing by David Williamson (Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously). Both as a play, and as a film, The Club is expertly crafted, and unlike many plays that get converted to film, The Club does not suffer in the transition. Instead of a bare stage with a few chairs, with the magic of film, we're treated to cathedral stadiums, cheering crowds, and some great footage of classic VFL footy. So there's plenty of action, and not just talking heads.

Video

    Time has been unkind, and the transfer is very, very dated and extremely grainy.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced. I have been told that the film's original aspect ratio was 2.35:1, and if so, the film has not suffered too badly in the cropping (but then again I've only ever seen it in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, pan and scan).

    The image is fairly soft throughout and the shadow detail is poor, for example the interior background at 32:48 has almost zero detail in it.

    The colour has suffered over the years, and whites appear blue. Skin tones are a harsh brown/orange.

    The image is so soft throughout that it's hard to spot MPEG artefacts, and I didn't see any obvious examples. Film-to-video artefacts are present in the form of telecine wobble which appears occasionally, such as at 26:29. As expected, film artefacts appear throughout, but none were too distracting.

    No subtitles are provided on the DVD.

    This is a single-sided, dual-layered disc, and I did not spot the layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Originally released theatrically in mono, the only audio option is English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps).

    The dialogue quality is acceptable, but at times the audio sync does suffer.

    The musical score is credited to Mike Brady, and features his great Aussie anthem, Up There Cazaly.

    Obviously, there is no surround presence nor LFE activity to review.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    As a pleasant surprise, this disc comes loaded with genuine extras.

Menu

    An animated menu with audio.

Meet The Team (35:06)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, this extra includes interviews with the 'team' behind the movie, including Bruce Beresford, Jack Thompson, and Producer Matt Carroll.

The Club Then and Now (2:15)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, this extra compares clips of Collingwood's clubhouse and ground as featured in the movie, with shots of those same areas today. Interestingly, much of it hasn't changed in the last twenty years.

David Williamson: Voices On The Page (26:26)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, this is a genuine and interesting documentary about Williamson, The Club, and Australian theatre.

Complete ABC Radio Adaptation

    Running for about 90 minutes, as the title indicates, this is a radio adaptation of the play (audio with a static screen).

Up There Cazaly Music Video

    Surely one of Australia's most iconic pop songs, along with Men At Work's Land Down Under, this video is guaranteed repeat viewing.

Hear Jack Thompson Sing

    Another audio extra. Over a static screen, here viewers can listen to Jack Thompson singing the Collingwood Club song.

Theatrical Trailer (2:55)

Umbrella Propaganda

    The trailers for Malcolm, Puberty Blues, Barry McKenzie, and The Big Steal.

    From what I can tell, The Club has not been released on DVD in Region 1.

    Filled to the brim with tense human drama and black humour, The Club is a must-see Aussie movie, now available to enjoy on DVD.

    The video quality is very disappointing but still watchable.

    The audio quality is limited.

    The extras are genuine, and really do make this a much better package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall