One of the wonderful things about Australians is that they proudly refuse to take themselves seriously. It's there in "The Dish", and it's there in "Goodbye Paradise". But "Goodbye Paradise" had the added ingredient of razor-sharp political satire. This is, without a doubt, one of the great "lost" films of Australian cinema. It combines quintessentially Australian self-parody with a political commentary that is so sharp and so accurate that it only manages to skate over the thin ice of the libel laws due to the hilarious level of absurdity at which it is pitched. The airborne assault on the hippie vegetable patch by helicopter gunships, for example, is remembered fondly by all who saw it back in the early '80s. God, I hope someone releases this on DVD. It richly deserves it.
Review of Goodbye Paradise
