Distributor:
AV Channel-Umbrella Entertainment Certificate: PG | 139
minutes (Also available on VHS)
Director: Chris Lofven
Cast: Joy
Dunstan, Bruce Spence, Graham Matters Extras: Yes
With
it’s soundtrack by Ross Wilson
of Daddy Cool and a whole raft
of 1970’s kitsch happening Oz
a Rock N Roll Road Movie is a
classic of its kind.
Director
Chris Lofven’s debut (see here
for more on Lofven’s early
career as a music clip director)
in an allegorical take on The
Wizard of Oz, Australia (well
the bit around Melbourne where
it was filmed anyway) becoming a
real Oz; Joy Dunstan plays rock
band groupie Dorothy who after a
car crash finds herself on a
strange trip (in more ways than
one) which takes her to the
farewell concert pf The Wizard
(Graham Matters) – The concert
was shot at the Myer Theatre in
Melbourne as part of a real
concert that featured AC/DC and
The Little River Band.
The
characters in the movie all bear a vague resemblance to the Yellow Brick
Road Brigade but The Scarecrows a surfie, the Tin Man a mechanic, the
cowardly lion a bikie whilst the wicked witch is an evil truckie and
though Oz, looking very very glossy in the new 16x9 transfer, is without
question a curio, it is an entertaining one; The songs are great and the
1970’s fashions and cars are delicious.
Worth
adding to your collection not just as a social document of the
burgeoning music scene in Australia in the seventies but
also as a groovy nostalgia feast.
EXTRAS:
A 20 minute feature on the movie’s history (with interviews with Chris
Lofven and Ross Wilson); an alternative opening shot for the US market;
2 of Lofven’s experimental short films Part One – 806 and Part Two
– The Beginning (the quasi scifi of the Beginning works the better of
the two); 2 music videos by Lofven (Daddy Cool’s Eagle Rock and
Spectrum’s I’ll Be Gone); A stills and poster gallery, radio ads and
the theatrical trailer.
