Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Featuring Quentin Tarantino, Barry Humphries, Dennis Hopper, George Miller, Stacy Keach, George Lazenby, Fred Schepisi, Jamie Lee Curtis, Barry Crocker, Wendy Hughes, John Jarratt, Jamie Blanks, Graeme Blundell, Leigh Whannell
UK certification 18 | UK RRP £17.99 | Runtime 99 minutes | Written & directed by Mark Hartley
What?" I hear you say. "You've awarded top marks to a mere documentary? A documentary about low-budget, B-grade Aussie films from the 1970s and 80s?" Yes, I have. "Is it because you're an Aussie, or simply you're a big fan of smut, boobs, vulgarity, action, violence and horror? But particularly the boobs?" Well yes, there is that. But the main reason is that this is absolutely the best documentary — on any subject — that I've seen in many, many years.
The 70s and the 80s were a strange time in Australia. The regime of censorship, which was the most repressive in the western world, that had ruled in the 50s and 60s came to end end (as a sidenote, sadly, it currently seems to be back in full force). And that meant filmmakers were given a lot more freedom to express themselves. We were also trying to find our "cultural identity" — whatever that means (as the great Barry "Dame Edna" Humphries says: "I never thought Australia was a place that needed culture of any description, but we did feel that we had to have it"). So all these filmmakers got to work — but with a lot more passion, ideas and sheer gumption than they had money. And as the "proper" Aussie film industry was growing up and making "worthy" films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, My Brilliant Career and others, the wonderful sub-genre that's now known as "Ozploitation" was born. I was but a mere lad during much of this period, so many of the films passed me by because they were classified R, meaning you had to be at least 18 to see them. I have now seen quite a few of them — Mad Max, of course, but Alvin Purple, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Felicity, Barry McKenzie Holds His Own and Roadgames.
Not Quite Hollywood is dividied into three sections. The first, titled Ockers, Knockers, Pubes & Tubes, deals mainly with the bawdy, smutty little sex romps that we churned out — films such as The Naked Bunyip; the afore-mentioned Alvin Purple and its sequel, Alvin Rides Again; Stork; Fantasm; Eliza Fraser; Pacific Banana; and The True Story of Eskimo Nell — and raunchy TV soap operas like Number 96 (which I often tried to sneak a peek at, because it was always a talking point in the school playground). Part two is Comatose Killers and Outback Chillers - scary, eco chillers like Lost Weekend, or horror films like Inn of The Damned, Thirst and Night of Fear, or straight out thrillers like Patrick and Snapshot. And the third part is called High Octane Disasters and Kung Fu Masters. It takes in films such as The Man From Hong Kong, Stone, Mad Dog Morgan, Deathcheaters, Stunt Rock, and the biggest of them all — Mad Max.
Writer-director Hartley has crafted more than just a documentary here. It's a love letter to a style of film that is no longer with us, as well as being an important historical document. He has managed to get interviews with all the major players in the industry at the time — along with Tarantino, who is a massive fan of Ozploitation films. This is more than just a collection of clips from old films and people talking about them; it puts all the films in context, and some of the stories behind the making of these films are as entertaining as the movies themselves. It's funny, audacious, often startling (shooting real bullets at actors?) and as full of naked flesh as you would expect. And, as an added bonus, it's got a very young BMX-riding Nicole Kidman, with a massive head of curly red hair. If you buy or rent only one documentary on DVD this year, make sure it's this one.
EXTRAS **** There's an audio commentary with writer/director Mark Hartley and a lot of the interviewees from the film; an interview with Hartley, filmed in the UK, in which he tells us about his lifelong passion for these films, how there is still a stigma about them in Australia, and how he managed to get hold of such an impressive line-up of interviewees for his documentary; a chat with Quentin Tarantino and Australian filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith; and an Ozploitation panel discussion at the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival; trailers for several of the films featured in the doco.