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Review from London Guardian newspaper. |
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17th August 1978 |
Backroads and Love Letters from Teralba Road, two excellent hour-long Australian films, arrive at the Scala fresh from much admiring comment at both the Cannes and Berlin festivals. And deservedly too, especially in the case of Phil Noyce's Backroads, which was to have become a fully fledged feature before the money ran out. Even with a rather obviously tacked on denouncement it is a remarkable attempt to fuse a serious statement about the plight of urban aborigines with the excitements and drive of an American-inspired road movie. |
I have already commented that I thought the film to be one of the very best of the Australian new wave, and that's because its rough-hewn and powerful style (photographed by Russell Boyd) seems completely at one with its subject matter. There is absolutely no romancing at all in this story of a young Aborigine (Gary Foley) whose marriage fails and who then meets up with a middle-aged white (Bill Hunter) on an aimless journey in a stolen Pontiac that begins with drunkenness and ends in a tragic attempt at petty thieving. |
Having never been to Australia, I ought not to say this; but I haven't seen a film that looks more truthful about the country since Ted Kotcheffs stunning Outback. And Bill Hunter's performance matches that of Chips Rafferty in the Kotcheff film, which is high praise indeed. |
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