AFL-Biffs, Bumps and Brawlers: Footy's Wildest Moments-Volumes 1 & 2 (2001)

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    All of the Australian Rules football violence you can imagine is included in these two discs. If that appeals to you, then this would be a worthwhile purchase. Video and audio are satisfactory, but there are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

AFL-Biffs, Bumps and Brawlers: Footy's Wildest Moments (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	66:09 (Case: 70)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Aust. Football Video Visual Entertainment Group	Starring	Rex Hunt
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	None Given

    Rex Hunt presents Biffs, Bumps and Brawlers. In fact, while Biffs, Bumps and Brawlers is the title on the case, the programme is actually entitled Bumps, Biffs and Brawlers. The title tells it all, though it could easily have been called Thugs, Boofheads and Show Ponies.

    The field is AFL and the subject is thuggery. After watching this disc I am grateful that this sort of thing has been virtually stamped out of the game, as I found myself more infuriated than amused by some of the players and their antics. The effect of watching so much violence all at once is numbing. On the other hand, umpires should be forced to watch this before doing their reports for the week, as it will put a lot of the stuff that gets sent to the tribunal these days into perspective.

    This programme originally aired on Channel 7 in 2001. Each segment is introduced by Hunt, who reads a banal, jokey script to camera (written by Stephen Phillips) in characteristic fashion. The bulk of the programme is footage from the 1960s onwards of players punching, kicking, kneeing, pushing, gouging and just plain running into each other. The original commentary is heard.

    Great thugs of yesteryear as well as today feature, including Tony Lockett, Gary Ablett, Leigh Matthews (how he ever was reported only 3 times in his career I'll never understand), Carl Ditterich, Wayne Carey, John Worsfold, David Rhys-Jones, Robbie "Mad Dog" Muir, Neil Balme and Mal Brown. There are the famous incidents, such as the "battle of Windy Hill", Mal Brown taking on the entire Carlton team in a post-season match, and Phil Carman demonstrating how to head-butt an umpire. Great brawls from Grand Finals are also a feature.

    This material is interesting enough to justify watching it once. It is hard to imagine watching this again and again all the way through. Maybe I'll dig it out every few years and fast forward to the best bits, just for a laugh.

Video

    The video quality is quite good.

    As you would expect from television footage, this is presented in 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The video is quite sharp most of the time, particularly the recent footage. Shadow detail is not an issue, and contrast levels are quite good except on  some of the black and white footage, where blacks and whites are often just different shades of grey. The colour sequences are good, with lifelike colours for the most part. Blood is certainly shown accurately.

    Artefacts introduced in the digital transfer are limited to some slight pixelization which occurs throughout most of the footage. This is relatively mild and therefore not distracting. The older footage mainly suffers from various forms of deterioration and the poor quality of the original recording. There are a few instances of video tracking errors which appear to be in the source material. All in all the producers of this disc have done a pretty good job with the material.

    This is a single layered disc without subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is a single audio track, in English Dolby Digital 2.0.

    Dialogue is quite clear and distinct, which is good given the absence of subtitling. Rex Hunt's voice comes across clearly, as does the commentary from days past. A lot of the early stuff consists of Michael Williamson going "Oooooooooh!", or Peter Landy saying something totally at odds with what we see on screen. The latter is of course not due to audio sync problems.

    The only music I noticed was behind the opening and closing credits. The closing credits feature the song "When Footy Ruled The World".

    I did not detect any surround or subwoofer activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Not a single extra biff, bump or brawl.

    This has only been released in Region 4, for obvious reasons.

    Interesting and also disturbing archival material from 45 years of violence, sorry, footy on Seven. Worth a look if you follow the game.

    The video quality is quite good given the source material.

    The audio quality is satisfactory.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

AFL-Biffs, Bumps and Brawlers: Footy's Wildest Moments-Volume 2 (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	81:08 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Aust. Football Video Visual Entertainment Group	Starring	Rex Hunt
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    This programme is a follow-up to Bumps, Biffs and Brawlers, and was first broadcast in 2002. Like the previous entry, there seems to be an identity crisis, as the programme is actually titled Biffs, Bumps and Brawlers 2, though even Rex Hunt gets the name wrong in his introduction.

    As you would expect, this show contains more VFL/AFL violence culled from the archives of Channel Seven. After starting inauspiciously with a five minute recap of material shown in the first instalment, we get some extended highlights of various random acts of thuggery from the last 40 years. The oldest piece of footage is from 1963, with John Peck being kicked in the backside and retaliating, in an interesting segment from World of Sport voiced by the late Ron Casey and featuring Lou Richards interviewing Bob Davis and Bob Skilton. The Neil Sachse incident from the early 70s, which resulted in him being paralysed, is shown twice but no mention is made of the extent of his injury.

    The material is categorised into various types of footbrawl, with coathangers, elbows, kicking, eye-gouging and biting all getting their own segments. There are also "tributes" to various players, such as Mark Maclure, Dale Weightman, Lazar Vidovic and Chris Lewis. There is an air of barrel scraping with two segments: umpires getting knocked over, and painful injuries. The latter is a little disturbing, with knee injuries and dislocations. Did we really need to see the footage of a Collingwood player with a dislocated elbow?

    Rex Hunt hosts again, with the usual banal script delivered in a manner only Hunt could muster. Rather too much of Hunt is shown in this show, probably in order to pad the TV show out to two hours, though there must have been forty minutes of commercials in there. As with the first show, Hunt signs off by asserting that the programme does not glorify the contents, just shows how the game used to be. Sure, we believe you, Rex.

    If you enjoyed the first disc in this series, you will probably enjoy this one.

Video

    The video quality is quite good.

    Presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, this material is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The footage is sharp and clear for the most part, though some of the earlier footage can be blurry or fuzzy. Shadow detail is never a problem. Colour is good, though some of the 1970s footage looks washed out, as though the colour was turned down. The black and white footage is again low on contrast.

    There is some minor aliasing from time to time as well as cross-colouration. Pixelization is less of an issue with this release than its predecessor. There are some analogue tape tracking errors in the form of horizontal black or white lines that flash across the screen briefly.

    Film artefacts crop up in the 1963 footage, with scratches and dirt making it look as though it was filmed during a torrential downpour.

    There are no subtitles on this single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The single audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0, and appears to contain no surround information, so the rear channels and subwoofer can have a rest.

    Dialogue is generally easy to understand, though the commentary on the older footage is necessarily not as clear as more recent video recordings.

    There is some awful music played when the footage has no commentary, but there is no composer credited.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    No extras are provided. The main menu is static with some background audio.

    This material has only been released in Region 4, so the choice is easy.

    More violence and cowardly acts in this overlong sequel to the original programme. You can buy this disc separately, or as part of a double-pack with volume 1. Recommended only if you enjoy watching people hurting others and themselves.

    The video and audio quality are quite good.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall