Buddies (1983)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Interviews-Cast-Interview with Harold Hopkins and Kris McQuade Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Trailers for Don's Party, Malcolm, The Club & Monkey Grip
Rating
Year Of Production	1983
Running Time	95:26
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:56)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Arch Nicholson
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Colin Friels Kris McQuade Harold Hopkins Simon Chilvers Norman Kaye Dennis Miller Lisa Peers Bruce Spence Andrew Sharp Dinah Shearing
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Chris Neal

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.20:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, and plenty of outback drinking!
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Buddies is the 1983 follow-up to John Dingwall's most successful screenplay, Sunday Too Far Away (made in 1975). Both these films dealt with working-class, outback Australian male culture. In Sunday Too Far Away the focus was on shearers on an outback sheep station in South Australia, in Buddies the focus of the film is on two friends who are sapphire miners in outback central Queensland.

    Colin Friels plays Mike, an adventurous young lad from 'out-of-town' who convinces his friend Johnny, played by Harold Hopkins, to stay in the outback region of Emerald. Although the film does not present this background to the main characters, it is mentioned in the film's dialogue, importantly too, as the main characters lead a lifestyle that is seamless with the comical traditions of their neighbours, they really fit into the community that they are a part of. Dennis Miller plays Andy, a rival miner who seeks to lay claim to unmined territory in the region and subsequently comes into conflict with Mike and Johnny. The film spends a great deal of time showing how Andy, Mike and Johnny take revenge on each other for their mining claims. Mostly this is presented in a comical fashion, in keeping with the spirit of the central Queensland outback 'way-of-life'. In this way, writer and producer John Dingwall compares the story of Buddies to the old-fashioned American westerns of the mid to late 19th century. Bruce Spence adds to this overall characterisation of the film by playing a neighbour Ted, the first of many iconic and funny characters that Spence would go on to play in his career during the 1980s. Kris McQuade plays Stella and Lisa Peers plays Jennifer. In a traditional screenplay these two female characters would receive more attention and time, however, Dingwall presents these women as merely two opposite examples of the Australian lifestyle, the focus of the movie on the male miners of the town is maintained throughout.

    Buddies has taken a long time to come to DVD, and I know from my readings on the internet that this film has many fans who have waited for it to have done so. Well, I can gladly say, that Umbrella Entertainment have continued their fine tradition of supporting Australian cinema with this release, fans of this film will not be disappointed. John Dingwall, who produced the film, ran into distribution problems when the film was released in 1983. Apart from support from the Queensland Film Corporation, no one was interested in this film in 1983, apart from the audience it got in Queensland when Dingwall's company, JD Productions took it around the regional areas of Queensland. As a result of these experiences, John Dingwall refused to allow Buddies to be released through any film distributors in Australia, even up until his death in 2004 (this being despite repeated requests to do so). Buddies was nominated for 4 AFI awards in 1983, winning for best original screenplay.

Video

    The film was shot using Panavision 35mm anamorphic film. Traditionally, this would equate to a 2:39:1 aspect ratio. However, the film is presented in an aspect ratio of 2:21:1. This is also consistent in the theatrical trailer of the DVD. Thus the film is slightly cropped, or was really shot using very expensive 70mm film stock, which would produce a 2:21:1 aspect ratio when projected. This was more popular during the 1960s (Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and 2001:A Space Odyssey were all shot in 70mm) but has now made way for cheaper filmmaking methods.

    The 2:21:1 aspect ratio is 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

    Cinematographer David Eggby (famous for Mad Max and Pitch Black) has produced a nice looking film, for a DVD transfer it looks quite sharp. Umbrella has presented the film on a dual-layer disc, 5.3 gb in size at an average bitrate of 7.64 mb/sec so there are no compression issues.

    David Eggby's cinematography supports the beauty of the natural look of the Australian outback, both during the dry and wet scenes of the film.

    There are some minor artefacts present on the transfer, but these are not too distracting at all. These occur at 6:12, 8:38, 9:21, 14:51, 19:24, 20:27, 21:11, 22:41, 37:29, 39:06, 47:27, 58:22, 62:18, 72:16, 78:36, 78:45, 79:46, 80:32, 80:51, 81:33, 86:22, 95:01 and 95:21. Reel change marks can be seen at 39:06, 58:12 and 77:59.

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitles.

    The RSDL change occurs at 67:56, during a scene change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Chris Neal's soundtrack uses different themes for different characters, these are mostly comical and upbeat in nature.

    There is one audio track in English. It is a Dolby Digital 2.0 track encoded at 192 kbps.

    Dialogue is clear and audio is synchronised throughout.

    Apart from Chris Neal's soundtrack, John Williamson wrote and sings a song called Buddies during the film. There is a also diegetic music used in some scenes when minor characters play harmonicas or accordions. There are some audio clicks present in the soundtrack. These are at the beginning of the film at 0:11 and 0:31 and during the parts of the film where the reel change marks are evident at 39:06, 58:22, 78:10.

    The film was original released in Dolby Stereo, however the soundtrack sounds mainly mono, there weren't any stereo effects that I noted.

    The Subwoofer is not utilised.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Interviews-Cast Buddies: A Gem of a Time (24:02)

Theatrical Trailer

Trailer

    The Region 4 release of Buddies is the first and only presentation of the film in the DVD format.

    Buddies was released in 1983 and largely forgotten, but has become a cult favourite in the ensuing years, especially in the late 1990s/early 2000s when it was unavailable on DVD. The Umbrella release of this film onto DVD for the first time is a welcome addition to Umbrella's fine support for Australian cinema. If you are a fan of this film, you will not be disappointed in acquiring it for your collection.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall