Movies

Australian Rules

Synopsis

Prospect Bay is a poor fishing village in South Australia, where Gary 'Blacky' Black is an unremarkable 16 year old in a battling family of four siblings.

He is also part of the local Australian Rules football team - albeit not its star player. His best friends are the edgy and very white Pickles and Dumby Red, a charismatic Aboriginal kid with a lovely sister, Clarence, whose affections Blacky slowly earns.

The racially divided town comes together on the football field, since the Aboriginal players make up half the team. Blacky's mum offers some winning tips, but success at footy, however hard won, does not equate to success at home, as Blacky's racist, abusive father, Bob, demonstrates in a moment of drunken violence that impacts on the whole community.

Details

Cast
Nathan Phillips- Gary 'Blacky' Black
Simon Westaway - Blacky's father
Kelton Pell - ?
Celia Ireland - Blacky's mum
Kevin Harrington - ?
Luke Carroll - Dumby Red
Lisa Flanagan - Clarence
Tom Budge - Pickles
Release dates
August 29th, 2002 - Australia
First shown on the 2002 Adelaide Festival of the Arts.
Video/DVD release date
2005
Awards
Best adapted screenplay (2002 Australian Film Institute Awards)
Rating
MA 15+ - Mature accompanied
Distributor
Palace Films
Soundtrack
Mick Harvey
Notes

Based on a novel by Phillip Gwynne, Deadly Unna.

The film has been the subject of longstanding protests by the Coalition Against Australian Rules. Its members are upset the film dramatises a real-life incident---the shooting death of two Aboriginal youths who broke into a pub in the 1970s.

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Cite this page

Korff, J 2018, Australian Rules, <https://creativespirits.info/resources/movies/australian-rules>, retrieved 11 December 2024

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