Dimboola

I wouldn't exactly label Dimboola as an ozploitation film but there's certainly a sense that it's a close relative of the genre, owing to their common ancestor in The Adventures of Barry McKenzie - the popular early 70s Australian film that brought Barry Humphries' satirical comic-strip creation to the big screen. Dimboola takes a similarly parodic but good-natured look at over-the-top Australian social mores by offering a contrast with the British national character, favouring a broad three-act approach to a 'typical' Australian country town wedding with a cast of engaging two-dimensional caricatures brought to life by an array of crusty and gawky 70s Australian acting talent.



The town of Dimboola is about to play host to the wedding of Morrie (Bruce Spence) and Maureen (Natalie Bate), a typical young couple very much in love. Morrie's mates have taken him to the shearing shed for his bucks night, which could have some very disastrous consequences thanks to the presence of a stripper with rather loose, er, 'financial motivations'. Meanwhile, Vivien Worcester-Jones (Max Gillies) is a rather uptight British journalist who has come to observe the town and it's wedding for the purposes of an anthropological article on Australian culture. He dons drag to infiltrate Maureen's kitchen tea.



There's some comment passed on the role of alcohol in relation to the Australian national character (summed up by Mr. Booze - the plaintive, ambivalent showtune at the end) but the film only brings it up as an afterthought, neither condoning or condemning it's prevalence in the plot. Bruce Spence is a rather unlikely-looking leading man - an endearing factor when it comes to regional filmmaking like Dimboola or any other piece of cultural filmmaking that comes from a part of the world where movies have virtually no financial incentive attached to making them. Indeed, the growing commercial viability of Australian films in the 1980s would put an end to any further possibility of Bruce Spence taking lead roles in film productions, but I guess it's no small consolation that he's probably one of our most internationally-recognised actors thanks to his subsequent supporting roles in major franchises like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and The Matrix. The rest of the cast of Dimboola is recognisable but more in a "did I see that guy in the pub a few months ago?" kind of way as opposed to a "what other films was she in?" kind of way.



I was surprised to learn that this film was based on a play... it didn't really seem wordy or involved enough to have been based on a piece of theatre. There's a subplot where Worcester-Jones misinterprets the Dimboola-based oddballs as typically Australian and tries to work out our traditions accordingly, but it isn't really developed enough, and Worcester-Jones spends most of the film as a jokesy British stereotype who just hangs around in the background. A lot of the film's more overt jokes are based on the rising Australian hatred/ridiculing of poms in the 1970s, a trend based on the public emergence of our own national character thanks to the growth of Australian media (and the subsequent subsidence of the 'cultural cringe'). It's mildly amusing in the context of films like Dimboola and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie because it positions Australia in opposition to the UK, a relationship that would pale into insignifcance (and something resembling camaraderie between white Australians and their colonial cousins) when our social landscape changed further with the rise of multiculturalism in the late 1980s/early 1990s. There's a particularly funny scene where a rather large and thuggish Australian (Max Fairchild) challenges Worcester-Jones to a fight, revealing a T-shirt with the slogan "Keep Australia beautiful - shoot a pom". Worcester-Jones further represents the butt of jokes when he asks a breakfast bar if they have any "Twinnings" (the reply? "Get nicked"), and tries it on with Maureen ("Pardon my colonising instincts").



As far as 'ocker' comedies go, it's actually rather gentle in its exploration of Australian cliches. I mean, they're all there and they're hardly subtle, but the film doesn't draw attention to itself in the post-modern self-referential way that a modern Australian comedy would. In Dimboola you can see the ancestry of more recent Australian comedies like The Castle and The Nugget, but this 70s comedy would probably fall flat with modern viewers because its comedy relies on a range of quirky Australian characters and situations that have become nauseatingly well-trodden cliches in the last two decades. There's little else to sell this film to modern viewers, it doesn't exactly have strong character development, and it's plot is a simplistic collection of large set pieces - first act: the bucks party/kitchen tea, second act: the next day, third act: the wedding. It's a shame, because I'm sure the film would've been quite entertaining in it's day as a genuine slice of smart-arsed, coarse, thick-skinned Australiana. I certainly enjoyed it as a modern viewer, but I also don't have the general expectations that the average Australian filmgoer would have. I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny, but it has a lot of charm to it, and I just enjoyed experiencing the fictional community they put on the screen.



HIGHLIGHTS: Maureen's dad gives a speech at the wedding and drags out every cliche in the book of Dad Wedding Speeches.



There is also some nice usage of salvation army band music as everyone in the local pub goes home for the night... the drunk, the broken-hearted, the bickering and the loving, all belched out into the night as the pub shuts it's doors. It beautifully evokes the atmosphere of closing time in small pubs and bars the world over.



TRIVIA: Quite a few of the supporting actors who appear in Dimboola have never appeared in any other films or television shows.



Dimboola is a real town in Victoria, and this was also where the film was made.



DIRECTOR: John Duigan

WRITER/SOURCE: Written by John Hibberd, based on the play by John Power.

KEY ACTORS: Bruce Spence, Natalie Bate, Max Gillies, Bill Garner, Max Fairchild, Max Cullen.



RELATED TEXTS

- The play Dimboola, which actually just focused on the wedding reception. The film version expands it into a larger three-act structure.

- A filmed 1973 version of the play exists on the Umbrella DVD release of this film.

- The films The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Barry McKenzie Holds His Own are progenitors of the Australian vs. Pom thing. Alvin Purple is another close relative of these films.

- As mentioned in my review, films like The Castle and The Nugget can trace their ancestry back to films like Dimboola. There's a whole plethora of Australian comedies that fall into the same 'quirky Australiana comedy' subgenre.