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Australia 1987
Directed by
Michael Pattinson and Bruce Myles
96 minutes
Rated M


3 stars

Ground Zero

An effective conspiracy thriller that satisfies at the larger level whilst failing scrutiny in the detail. Focused on the Australia Government’s Royal Commission into the atomic tests at Maralinga in the 1950s, it has Colin Friels as a cameraman on the trail of an apparent cover-up and dirty dealings on the part of the powers-that-be.

Penned by Mac Gudgeon and Jan Sardi, the glibness with which this is achieved stretches credulity at many points and is on the one hand delivered in a quite stock standard format, including a sub-plot involving Friels's marital situation, and on the other is rather Antipodeanly off-beat with the introduction of Donald Pleasence, looking like he should have been on the set of Mad Max(the film won an AFI for sound design, two of the team Roger Savage and Gary Wilkins had both worked on the Mad Max films), as a desert-dwelling recluse lacking a voice-box . The technology, which no doubt was very state-of-the-art in 1987 has dated and as for the 80s fashions well, they are truly awful (the film also won an AFI for Art Direction, as well as for editing by David Pulbrook and the cinematography by Steve Dobson). And yet thanks to a well-constructed ending, a solid performance by Friels and the reality that the film provocatively addresses, there is enough here to make for worthwhile viewing.

BTW: This film was seen on video, released by Vestron Video International. Although claiming to have the same running time as the original theatrical release, 109 minutes, it was in fact about 96 mins. For an unknown reason the voice of Natalie Bates who plays Friels’ ex-wife was dubbed by Sandy Gore (uncredited). The American version of the film has a score by Tom Bahler instead of the original score by Chris Neal which also appears on this VHS version. BH

 

 

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