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October 11, 2004
Two Australian Movies
I have recently watched two Australian movies directed by Rob Sitch that were both excellent and both based on true stories. Saturday night I watched The Dish, a movie about the giant telescope in the small town of Parks, Australia that relayed the TV signals from the first astronauts on the moon. It is a fairly simple story about the scientists who work at the dish and how they have to overcome a couple of mishaps (like losing Apollo 11 after a power outage) to make sure the signals reach NASA. The different scientists are each unique and the town is full of colorful characters who have to interact with important people who descend on the town because of the landing, like the prime minister of Australia and the American ambassador. The film does a good job of showing the small, but important part these people played in letting us all see people walk on the moon. It is very optimistic and captures the excitement of space exploration well.
The other film is The Castle, which is about another group of weird Australians. This is a story about a very loving family that is happy in its home right next to an airport and a giant set of power lines. Almost all is going well for the family until they receive an eviction notice stating that their home is going to be torn down to expand the airport. They do not want to leave their home and enlist a friend who is a small time lawyer who tries in vain to help them out. At one point he tells a judge they should not be kicked out because that goes against “the vibe” of the constitution. Besides being funny, it tackles important moral issues about the often abused government practice of eminent domain. In this case the airport and the corporation involved have other options, but it is cheaper and easier to kick out the people who have lived in these homes for years. This is also a very optimistic movie and although it has some funny foul language at times it is, like The Dish, a fairly clean movie that few will be offended by.
Posted by Pete at October 11, 2004 01:34 PM
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