Fantastic stuff ? Tragically realistic ? Sensational ? You have all gotta be kidding !!
1)The settings were totally incongruous with Malaysia (where it all is supposed to take place) I'd say ludicrous as the background-extras looked like some typically cheap Australian back-lot instead of the multi-cultural, multi racial Malaysia. There were hardly any faces which might even pass for ethnic Malays. Has the Director even been to Malaysia?
2)The movie was also supposed to be a documentary-drama of sorts but the producer-director could not resist spicing things up a bit. So he created a plot to bribe a prison guard to allow an escape. When you consider that there a few, if any, escapes at all from Malaysian prisons and to think that some low-level local prison guard could actually arrange an escape for 2 high profile, Caucasian convicts, is all incredibly naïve.
3)But then again the producer-director was making a film set in Asia so anything is possible and passable isn't it? So he introduced a further scene of the same guard bringing a prostitute into the prison for a convict's pleasure. Was the Director thinking of Thailand perhaps or just trying to live out his own fantasies on film.
4)The actors, most noticeably Julie Christie and Hugo Weaving, valiantly did their best, I suppose, what with a miserable script and all. Incredibly it was made into a painful and tediously 3 hours long "mini-series"! Australia in the 80's suffered a terrible inferiority complex and tried to glorify themselves with a mini-series on almost any stupid event where Australians are involved. A piece of advice, avoid Australian mini-series like the plague.
5)Of this whole sad enterprise I can only pity 2 things. One would be the parents/families of the 2 convicted drug traffickers. And the other would be any TV network actually stupid enough to buy this terrible Australian farce. Really this movie isn't even fit to grace the toilet seats of a cheap curry house.
6)I'd recommend "Return to Paradise (1998)" as a far superior film on the subject.
On a more serious note, this movie tried to set a human face on the very inhuman drug trafficking trade. The movie of course failed miserably but what is annoying is
1)It's inaccuracy over the events themselves
2)It's failure to portray Barlow & Chambers as the cynical opportunists that they were and who got exactly what they deserved.
3)The Australian press naivety that they can somehow force their view unto other countries through extensive media coverage. In this the Australian media likes to fancy itself to be like the American media which has U.S politicians dancing to their tune. Trouble is of course that no one pays any attention to Australian media except Australian politicians.
4)The then Prime Minister Bob Hawke stupidly fell in with this mob and was snubbed & humiliated accordingly. His outburst that hanging was "barbaric" got a response from the Malaysian Government "that if hanging drug traffickers was barbaric, then drug trafficking must be a very civilized trade". Hawke should instead reserved this adjective in describing Australian films such as this.
Incidentally "Dadah" means illicit drugs, in the vernacular, not Death.
1)The settings were totally incongruous with Malaysia (where it all is supposed to take place) I'd say ludicrous as the background-extras looked like some typically cheap Australian back-lot instead of the multi-cultural, multi racial Malaysia. There were hardly any faces which might even pass for ethnic Malays. Has the Director even been to Malaysia?
2)The movie was also supposed to be a documentary-drama of sorts but the producer-director could not resist spicing things up a bit. So he created a plot to bribe a prison guard to allow an escape. When you consider that there a few, if any, escapes at all from Malaysian prisons and to think that some low-level local prison guard could actually arrange an escape for 2 high profile, Caucasian convicts, is all incredibly naïve.
3)But then again the producer-director was making a film set in Asia so anything is possible and passable isn't it? So he introduced a further scene of the same guard bringing a prostitute into the prison for a convict's pleasure. Was the Director thinking of Thailand perhaps or just trying to live out his own fantasies on film.
4)The actors, most noticeably Julie Christie and Hugo Weaving, valiantly did their best, I suppose, what with a miserable script and all. Incredibly it was made into a painful and tediously 3 hours long "mini-series"! Australia in the 80's suffered a terrible inferiority complex and tried to glorify themselves with a mini-series on almost any stupid event where Australians are involved. A piece of advice, avoid Australian mini-series like the plague.
5)Of this whole sad enterprise I can only pity 2 things. One would be the parents/families of the 2 convicted drug traffickers. And the other would be any TV network actually stupid enough to buy this terrible Australian farce. Really this movie isn't even fit to grace the toilet seats of a cheap curry house.
6)I'd recommend "Return to Paradise (1998)" as a far superior film on the subject.
On a more serious note, this movie tried to set a human face on the very inhuman drug trafficking trade. The movie of course failed miserably but what is annoying is
1)It's inaccuracy over the events themselves
2)It's failure to portray Barlow & Chambers as the cynical opportunists that they were and who got exactly what they deserved.
3)The Australian press naivety that they can somehow force their view unto other countries through extensive media coverage. In this the Australian media likes to fancy itself to be like the American media which has U.S politicians dancing to their tune. Trouble is of course that no one pays any attention to Australian media except Australian politicians.
4)The then Prime Minister Bob Hawke stupidly fell in with this mob and was snubbed & humiliated accordingly. His outburst that hanging was "barbaric" got a response from the Malaysian Government "that if hanging drug traffickers was barbaric, then drug trafficking must be a very civilized trade". Hawke should instead reserved this adjective in describing Australian films such as this.
Incidentally "Dadah" means illicit drugs, in the vernacular, not Death.