The Hexagon Tribute Collection - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Following his death in early 2004 Roadshow, in association with his production company Hexagon have put together a box set of his movies, Alvin Purple (which was released earlier in the year but still included in this set) is reviewed separately here but below we take a look at the rest of the movies in this collection.

STORK (1971)

Based on the play The Coming of Stork by the legendary David Williamson Stork was the movie that really put Burstall on the map, winning AFI awards for best actor and best director in the process. The highly singular Bruce Spence stars as the reactionary virgin Stork trying to get off with the free spirited proto-hippy Anna (Jacki Weaver) who is already involved with Stork’s two flatmates Tony and Clyde; Problems arise when Anna falls pregnant and Tony wants to marry her , Stork is not happy that Anna is going bourgeoisie and determines to upset the applecart. Seeming somewhat slow paced today Stork nevertheless set out Burstall’s agenda nicely and its popular success meant that making more films would be easier, his next Alvin Purple put him on the world map. It’s also interesting to note how many of the players in Stork would pop up in most of Burstall’s other movies.

PETERSEN (1974 rated R)

The movie that really cemented JackThompson (and his dangly bits) in the public eye. Petersen is a superb “kitchen sink” realist movie following sparkie (and former Rugby player) Tony Petersen (Thomspon) who chucks in his job to enroll in Uni in an arts programme embarking on several affairs and growing apart from his wife (Jacki Weaver) in the process. A brilliant script from David Williamson lays bare the inner life of the Australian male in the 1970’s as Petersen struggles to place his working class values in his new liberated mindset, backed up by the fantastic playing of the cast which also includes Wendy Hughes, Belinda Giblin, Helen Morse and Arthur Dignam. It all means Petersen is a very high quality piece of film making, easily the best film in this collection and one of the best Australian movies of the 1970’s.

HIGH ROLLING (1977)

Written by Forrest “E Street” Redlich, High Rolling is a piece of fluff masquerading as a road movie starring Grigor Taylor and US import Timothy Bottoms as pair of mates on the run from trouble and heading to Surfer’s Paradise in Queensland, along the way they meet up with the hitch-hiking Spunk Bubble (Judy Davis making her movie debut). Aimed fairly and squarely at the teenage market High Rolling is still pleasantly diverting though, the two leads clearly enjoying themselves which also adds to the fun element, best of all though is the groovy soundtrack by 70’s icons Sherbert. Burstall’s involvement in the movie was as a producer.

END PLAY (1976)

Drawing comparisons with the movie Sleuth Endplay is a nail biting psycho-drama about a pair of brothers Mark and Robert Gifford (John Waters and George Mallaby) one of whom is a serial killer, the stagy setting of the production (Burstall wrote the screenplay from an English novel by Russell Braddon) adds enormously to its charm.

Opening with a hot pants wearing hitch-hiker by the name of Delvene Delaney getting piked up by one of the brothers before being swiftly dispatched the movie cranks up the tension as the police begin to close in. Burstall cleverly keeps us guessing as which of the two brothers is the guilty party and being basically a two hander between Waters and Mallaby the pair have to pull out all the stops, both have an air of quiet menace (Mallaby does especially well with his wheelchair bound character). Burstall keeps directing tricks to a minimum and one suspects the production would have worked equally well as a small scale TV play. Intriguing stuff.

ELIZA FRASER (1977)

Clocking in as Australia’s most expensive movie at the time Eliza Fraser is a lavishly mounted historical comedy drama starring Susannah York as the eponymous heroine who as one of Australia’s first settlers has adventures aplenty from a fling with convict John Waters (Fraser is married to sea Captain Noel Ferrier), a spell as a guest at a convict prison and some time going native amongst an aboriginal tribe. Burstall never seems quite sure what tone to take with this curio based on a real life figure; Is it bawdy romp with its token nude Abigail scene, comedy with Trevor Howards homosexual prison boss or heartfelt drama with the trials of Eliza herself. So while the movie is reasonably watchable it never maintains a consistent enough tone to be properly memorable. It looks impressive though and again there is a script from Burstall’s regular collaborator David Williamson.

LAST OF THE KNUCKLEMEN (1979)

Filmed in dry and dusty South Australia Last of the Knucklemen is a strong tale of men doing what men have to do in a mining town in the middle of the Australian desert. Burstall assembled a great cast for this late 1970’s movie with lead Gerard Kennedy supported by a young Michael Caton, Steve Bisley, Michael Duffield and Dennis Milar. Burstall based the movie on the play by John Power and although it sometimes does make its stage origins obvious (there are too many long speeches for instance) it does succeed on its own merits. The plot is slight, foreman Tarzan (Kennedy) uses his fists to keep his fellow workers in line but what the movie is more about is studying the inner lives of the main characters, none of whom are particularly savory characters with their drinking, fighting and whoring. Knucklemen is a tough movie that probably didn’t do as well as expected, similar in tone to Sunday Too Far Away but without its heart, the movie can be best viewed as a watchable near miss in Burstall’s canon.

Extras on all these discs feature new interviews with prominent members of the cast and crew, the original theatrical trailers, cast filmographies and a photo gallery. Each movie also features a short flick from young directors at the Australian Film School , these range from interesting to not that good to be honest but its great that they are being given a wider audience.

This is pretty much a must have collection, there are so few vintage Aussie movies available that to see these emerge with obvious care lavished on them is great.