Planes, Trains & Automobiles

1987 - Dir: John Hughes - 1 hours 28 minutes
Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 23rd March, 2013

This is one of those films that has inexplicably stuck in the international sub conscience. It was never a blockbuster. It didn’t attract the sort of critical acclaim that would make it an art house favourite. It’s never been as much of a cult movie as, say, The Blues Brothers... Yet everyone knows it, everyone has a favourite moment, a favourite quote ("You’re going the wrong way" or "Those aren’t pillows" for example) which instantly triggers an empathetic smile. Apart from the excellent writing and the fine acting, it’s probably the thought that this could happen to any of us that gives it that extra lift. Anybody who has ever endeavoured to fly or travel by bus or otherwise transport him-or-herself from one place to another has met Del. For the regular commuter, he is that dreaded archetype - the guy in the next seat. Your life is lived in mortal terror of him. If you're sitting quietly minding your own business waiting for your plane to take off and there's only one seat left on the aircraft and it's right next to you and a not-small person squeezes his way past the stewardesses and advances toward you grinning a big, blobby grin ... that's Del. Only your worst enemy -- or that fiendish deity who takes a perverse joy from scrambling our travel destinies -- would give Del the seat assignment next to yours on a crowded commuter flight. But that's exactly what happens to Neal.... or YOU!

SWEARING ALERT

For those of you sensitive to the use of strong language we suggest you cover your ears when you see Neal approach the car hire counter. He only uses one word. It begins with F. He uses it many, many, many times for about a minute. It’s an object lesson on how the power of a swear word diminishes the more times you use it... which might be the point the scriptwriters are making... or it might not! You can safely unstop your ears at the end of the scene - the rest of the film is F free.

Barnacle Bill

1957 - Dir: Charles Friend - 1 hr 23 minutes

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 23rd March, 2013

By the time "Barnacle" Bill was released, Ealing Studios had already sold off its physical studio (to the BBC) and was about to shut down altogether. After so many great films in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Ealing couldn’t adapt to changing times. But it went out doing what it did best and this is a typical Ealing film. There’s a group of very British, eccentric characters in an outlandish situation and they take it all with superhuman control. It’s all been done before, and done before by Ealing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a lot of fun. Alec Guinness puts in another top notch performance - perhaps with a bit more gusto than normal. The supporting cast is excellent (when has an Ealing film ever had a weak supporting cast?), the characters, particularly Ambrose, are engaging, and the story presents plenty of opportunity for witty banter and comfortable chuckles. It might not be the most hilarious side splitter - but it does give us a final fond look at a world before every movie had to be a blockbuster. It was titled "All at Sea" in the USA.... because the studios feared it would be associated with a lewd seafarers’ song entitled "Bollocky Bill The Sailor".

Red Dog

2011 - Dir: Kriv Stenders

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 8th March 2013
Most Australians were familiar with the legend of Red Dog - a stray Kelpie cross who wound up in the newly established mining town of Dampier, western Australia, sometime in the early 70s. He became such a friend to the locals that a statue of him now greets all visitors to Dampier. It was a sighting of this statue, the town's sole piece of public art, that led Louis de Bernières to turn the dog’s tale into a book upon which this film is based. How much of the resulting movie is embellishment is up for debate. But in the tradition of films such as semi-fictionalised The Castle (shown at the FeckenOdeon in 2008), it's a hilarious and occasionally sad look at a side of Australian life whose essence is rarely captured with such affectionate accuracy. The film gathers incidents from every dog movie you ever saw, from Rescued by Rover and Rin Tin Tin to Greyfriars Bobby and Lassie Come Home.
The film’s two legged star Josh Lucas (who is American) did a bit of research into the truth of the legend by meeting some of the older labourers who knew the real Red Dog, and hearing stories about his presence in their community. "I kept finding these people that would show me a photograph of Red Dog with a cigarette in his mouth and a beer in his paw, passed out asleep in their beds ... They’d say, ‘You’d be pissed off because you’d come home and Red Dog would be in your bed.’ I asked, ‘Well, why didn’t you just kick him out?’ - ‘Oh, no. You’d never kick Red Dog out.” came the reply. The setting also contributed to Mr Lucas' interest in the project. "they showed these images of the place where they were going to film. Out in way remote Australia, where the movie takes place. I’ve known so few people who have ever been to this place out in the middle of nowhere. It looked so beautiful. And knowing that no movie had ever been made there before, and that they were going to tackle this difficult land. Because the land, really, is forbidden. You only go there if you’re part of the mines. There’s no water. The land is literally made of metal."
The real Red Dog was an Australian Kelpie, possibly crossed with an Australian Cattle Dog, and is believed to have been born in the town of Paraburdoo, Western Australia in 1971, and died on November 21, 1979. Sadly Koko, who played the Red Dog in the film died last December. The film had been so successful in its native land that the country went into impromptu mourning. Koko had earlier won the American Golden Collar Award for “Best Dog in a Foreign Film”
The movie received considerable support from the controversial Rio Tinto mining company on whose land much of the film was shot, and they were no doubt hoping to gain some friendly public relations warmth from the Rio Rin Tin Tinto effect (pun courtesy of Philip French!).