Bush Mechanics (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	101:56 (Case: 110)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	David Batty Francis Jupurrula Kelly
Studio Distributor	Film Australia Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Simeon Jupurrula Ross Steven Jupurrula Morton Errol Jupurrula Nelson Junior Jupurulla Wilson Randall Jupurulla Wilson Jack Jackamarra Ross Francis Jupurrula Kelly
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Various

    Although the events are somewhat tongue-in-cheek and an obviously romanticised view of outback life there is real humour present as well as a few glimpses into some of the realities of outback life. I was somewhat surprised that the indigenous view of snakes was much the same as my own - namely that the only good snake is one bashed on the head with a large stick and chucked into the fire for breakfast. The series is also gloriously politically incorrect with campfires left burning, broken glass windscreens dumped in the bush and an abandoned car torched to stop the rival football team from nicking the parts. On a more downbeat note, it was sad to see the genuine apprehension of the guys driving into a strange town and giving the local police station a wide berth - 'Don't even think about asking the police for help - if they see you'll they'll lock you up!' And sadly, in the 3rd episode 2 of the guys were picked up in a police road block and hauled off in the paddy wagon for unpaid fines - white man's law - seems pretty out of place in the outback and the white guys seemed as appropriate as an ashtray on a motorbike.

    The four episodes are:

Motorcar Ngutju

    The guys' band are needed to play for the local kids party 120km away in Willowra - all that is needed is some transport to claim the $500 on offer from Bandy - lucky grandfather's old car is still in the scrapyard and with a bit of tinkering can transport the band and gear to the dance ...

Payback

    Uncle Walter has just been sprung from jail in Alice Springs after 10 years served for the death of someone killed in a drunken brawl - not too much trouble with the car this time, just trouble avoiding the local NT cops' roadblock :(

The Chase

    After defeating the rivals at soccer, the Yuendumu team's coach has his car nicked by the losers. Never fear, the guys give chase to the detriment and loss of all 8 wheels - oh yes, gourmets will be pleased to have detailed instructions on how to cook an emu.

The Rainmakers

    The land is dry - weatherman Monty Dwyer hasn't any good news in store for the drought-ravaged NT until rainmaker Jungala sends the lads off on a 3 day trip to Broome to pick up a few pearl shells to bring on the storms - which duly happened much to the perplexion of said Monty! Oh - you want to know how the guys got back home from WA? - you'd better check out the Bush Mechanics Forum!

Video

    The aspect ratio is almost entirely 1.33:1 in keeping with its destined TV audience - curiously there are a few seconds of anamorphic video featuring the Channel 9 weather team in the 4th episode - it's a shame the whole feature wasn't presented in this way!

    The video is nice and sharp in keeping with the digital video and small format and aliasing is at a minimum. Shadow detail is reasonable in the dark and nocturnal scenes and low level noise is absent.

    The colours were gloriously rich and portrayed the outback well.

    There was a little video noise, especially in some of the low light scenes but pixelization was absent. There was minimal aliasing which wasn't intrusive and mild Gibbs affect around the introductory  titles. The 16mm film sections were identifiable by the few film artefacts - mainly white flecks.

    Translations of the Warlpiri language were burned in as subtitles and additional subtitles could be enabled which provided background noise info for the hearing impaired and also accurate portrayal of the rare instances of spoken English.

   The disc is a DVD-9 and, as I couldn't detect an RSDL transition point, I presume it is recorded as dual layered with a program chain for each layer.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The dialogue was clear from the principal actors and was often recorded in post-production. Some of the live interviews of elders suffered a little from muffling probably secondary to portable live on location recording.

    As most of the dialogue was in the Warlpiri language it was difficult to determine if there were any lip sync errors, but there were no obvious problems.

    The musical score was low key electric country and ska and nicely accompanied the feature - musical direction  was credited to Michael den Elzen.

    There was no surround or subwoofer activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    Static menu in 1.33:1 non 16x9 enhanced.

Featurette

    The video quality was good.

    The sound was wholly satisfactory.

    Extras were extremely limited and it would have been good to have had some interviews with the Bush Mechanics.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall