Australian Rules (Rental) (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Menu Animation & Audio Theatrical Trailer-2 Trailer-The Best Man's Wedding; Yolngu Boy
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	94:31
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Paul Goldman
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Nathan Phillips Luke Carroll Lisa Flanagan Tom Budge Simon Westaway Kevin Harrington
Case	?
RPI	Rental	Music	Mick Harvey

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Films that focus on the struggles of the indigenous population of this country have become quite common recently. The brilliant Rabbit-Proof Fence and the recently released The Tracker are obvious examples of films that highlight the plight that Aborigines have endured since European settlement. Australian Rules follows this trend, but its story is focused on a modern day perspective and not the historical context where the other two are set. Directed by Paul Goldman and based on the Phillip Gwynne novel Deadly, Unna? it is set in the small South Australian coastal fishing town of Prospect Bay. It is the story of Gary 'Blackie' Black (Nathan Phillips) and Dumby Red (Luke Carroll), two players at opposite ends of the social divide in the town who share a strong friendship and a place on the local Australian Rules football team. Blackie is a white boy and lives in the town with his parents. He is also one of the least talented players on the team. Dumby is Aboriginal and lives on the outlying mission (most probably in squalor, though this is not seen at all). He is also the most talented player on the team.

    The football team is coached by local butcher Arks (Kevin Harrington paying homage to Footscray legend Doug Hawkins) and is making a grand final appearance with the possibility of winning the town's first premiership in thirty-odd years. The team is comprised of roughly half-and-half white boys and lads from the Aboriginal mission. While not exactly all the best of mates, the team is at least a team and on the field racial tensions are absent. There are some quite humorous moments in the first half of the film as Arks berates the team for their ignorance of the game plan, and poor talentless Blackie having to step into the rucking duties when the incumbent ruckmen is carted off to gaol.

    Once the football action is complete at around the half-way mark, the film takes a sudden turn. The gloss and shine that the football season brought to the town is removed and is replaced by a definite racist and intolerant undertone. Tensions come to a head when Dumby is overlooked for the end of season awards and he realises it can only be because he is black. The racist underbelly of many of the townsfolk is exposed and the results are not pleasant. Blackie is further caught up in this tension when he falls for the charms of Dumby's sister Clarence (a delightful performance from Lisa Flanagan) despite the absolute abhorrence of his fisherman father Bob (Simon Westaway like you have never seen him before). Bob Black is your archetypal racist redneck, beer-swilling buffoon who beats his wife and puts his sons down at every turn. His actions later in the film prove to be the turning point of the story and Blackie and Dumby's friendship is changed forever because of them.

    This is a dramatic film that will leave you laughing one minute and flinching uncomfortably the next. The performances from the cast are varied with a couple of the characters being not much more than one dimensional stereotypes. The highlight is without a doubt the job done by the three leads in Nathan Phillips, Luke Carroll, and Lisa Flanagan. They are superb. They bring youthful enthusiasm and some gentle naivety to roles that wouldn't have been easy.

Video

    Being shot on an extremely low budget, I was expecting many and varied problems with the source material. I must say that I was suitably impressed with the quality of this print. Apart from a couple of minor niggles, this is a rather impressive effort that was a real pleasure to watch. There are several wide angle shots of the bleak South Australian coastal landscape that have been very nicely conveyed with plenty of colour and composition.

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the transfer is also enhanced for 16x9 televisions.

    There is a nice level of sharpness throughout, with only the barest traces of edge enhancement popping up here and there. The most notable of these is an example at 58:57 when Blackie walks into the Memorial Hall. There are several quite dark scenes, but the shadow detail is handled very well and there is no loss of clarity as a result. There is virtually no grain. This was somewhat surprising, given the use of wide angle shots on the clear, bright South Australian sky - just the conditions I would have thought would have highlighted this problem. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are quite unusual. They are nicely saturated with few problems, but it must have been the light conditions outside that have led to a sort of muted look (much like an eclipse) for some of the shots. The colours of the bush and the football uniforms are superbly rendered. Skin tones are all perfectly natural.

    I saw no MPEG artefacts. There are few instances of film-to-video artefacts, with only minor traces of aliasing on the odd window frame or sill. There are a few film artefacts throughout, though not in the quantity or size that I was expecting. Most notable in the closing scenes, they are seldom distracting.

    Strangely, there are no subtitles present on this disc.

    This is a single layered disc only, so there is no layer change to navigate.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two audio soundtracks on this disc; English Dolby Digital 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0. I chose the former to accompany my viewing of the film. Essentially a dialogue-based drama, there is still plenty of front channel separation across the left, right, and centre channels, most notable during the football games. Dialogue is anchored squarely in the centre. Clean and powerful with no apparent problems, despite the low budget, this is still a quality soundtrack.

    Dialogue is precise and clear with no audio sync problems. Some of the Aboriginal dialect is a little difficult to understand at times, but the meaning of the plot is never misunderstood.

    The original score is credited to Mick Harvey and is certainly restrained and suited to the drama on screen.

    There is consistent surround channel use, though this isn't the sort of film that really requires a great deal of surround action. A couple of door knocks reverberate around the room and during the football games there is quite a bit of action.

    There is some quite deep and rumbling subwoofer use which was quite surprising. At 10:16 there is a real solid rumble during the early football game. It adds quite an impressive dimension to the soundtrack and is handled extremely well.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu Animation & Audio

    Themed around Aussie rules football, these are nicely conceived menus.

Theatrical Trailer

    There are two theatrical trailers present. The first is The International Sales trailer. It runs for 2:09 minutes and contains many of the humorous images from the early parts of the film and gives only a hint of the darker side of the story. The Australian Theatrical trailer is also available and is very similar to the former, running for a little longer at 2:34 minutes, with perhaps a little more of the racial undertones evident. Both are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 but are not 16x9 enhanced. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Trailer

    Bonus trailers for two other upcoming releases; The Best Man's Wedding and Yolngu Boy.

    This title is not yet available in Region 1.

    Australian Rules is a really interesting film that alternates between comedy and uncomfortably disturbing drama. Starting out with quite a few comedic moments, it soon turns into something more dark and complex. The racist underbelly of life in a small remote town is soon exposed and will leave you pondering just how advanced and civilised Australian society really is. The three young cast members are sensational. Their portrayal of earnest, yet somewhat naive teenagers adds much to the believability of the plot. I enjoyed this immensely.

    The video transfer is excellent, with few faults to report.

    The audio is modern and at times quite powerful in its delivery. I was suitably impressed given the low budget nature of the film.

    The extras are limited to a couple of trailers.

    Highly recommended.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall