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The Last of the Knucklemen

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Wikipedia article




'The Last of the Knucklemen' is a 1979 Australian film directed by Tim Burstall.

Plot



The story involves a gang of rough miners. Tom (Peter Hehir) turns up at the mine looking for a place to hide. He allies himself with the mining foreman Tarzan (Gerard Kennedy) before the big fight.

Cast



* Gerard Kennedy as Tarzan

* Michael Preston as Pansy

* Peter Hehir as Tom

* Dennis Miller as Horse

* Michael Caton as Monk

* Steve Rackman as Carl

* Michael Duffield as Methuselah

* Steve Bisley as Mad Dog

* Stewart Faichney as Tassie

* Gerry Duggan as Old Arthur

Production



Before Tim Burstall started on 'Eliza Fraser' he thought Hexagon Productions should make a male bonding film, and considered 'Rusty Bugles', 'The Odd Angry Shot' and 'Last of the Knucklemen'. He eventually decided on the latter. He had to wait to get the rights because the Melbourne Theatre Company were negotiating to sell the rights to the US but this fell through.Scott Murray, 'Tim Burstall', 'Cinema Papers' Sept-Oct 1979 p577

Burstall did the adaptation himself, which was largely faithful to the play. He felt that the film was weak in the first half setting up characters. Burstall:

I was trying to take the ocker stuff and cross it, as I think John Powers' play was, with anthropology. Before I rehearsed the cast, I got them to read 'The Territorial Imparity of the Native Aid'. I wanted it to be seen not just as ockerism but as anthropology. But the only people who got that were the French. It was bought in France and it's done terribly well there much better than it ever did in Australia.[http://www.signis.net/malone/tiki-index.php?page=Tim+Burstall&bl&PHPSESSID=b84a60315abeb35485367633c6533d29 Interview with Tim Burstall, 30 March 1998] Retrieved 14 October 2012


The movie was shot over six weeks in September and October 1978 mostly on sets at Melbourne's Cambridge Studios. Exterior scenes were shot in the South Australian outback town of Andamooka.

Reception



'The Last of the Knucklemen' grossed $180,000 at the box office in Australia,[http://film.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/AA4_Aust_Box_office_report.pdf 'Film Victoria Australian Films at the Australian Box Office'] which is equivalent to $703,800 in 2009 dollars. Reviews however were strong. Burstall:

I don't think they knew how to market it. A lot of women said to me, 'I'd never go to a picture that had the title The Last of the Knucklemen'. But nobody ever looked at it as an analysis of the way men work. It's a right-wing view of unionism.


AFI Awards, 1979



*Best Actor - Mike Preston - Nominated

*Supporting Actor - Michael Duffield - Nominated

*Adapted Screenplay - Tim Burstall - Nominated

*Original Music - Bruce Smeaton - Nominated

*Sound - John Phillips, Edward McQueen-Mason and Peter Fenton - Nominated

*Art Direction - Leslie Binns - Nominated

*Costume Design - Kevin Regan - Nominated

Home media



'The Last of the Knucklemen' was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in January 2012. The DVD is compatible with region codes 2 and 4 and includes special features such as the trailer, photo gallery and interviews with John Powers, Gerard Kennedy, Dan Burstall, Steve Bisley and Michael Caton.

Original play



John Power's play had been produced in 1973.[http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/work/5779 'The Last of the Knucklemen'] at AusStage

Leslie Rees described it as "a sequence of sketches using the same basic characters but without much development or thematic resolution".Leslie Rees, 'Australian Drama in the 1970s', Angus & Robertson, 1978 p 207

It was performed Off-Broadway in 1983 at the American Theater of Actors, featuring Kevin O'Connor and Dennis Quaid.

See also



* Cinema of Australia

References



Further reading



*


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