Hotel Coolgardie

Well you don't need to go in the bush to find this behaviour in Australia, you can actually find it basically everywhere. This wannabe male machismo behaving, getting drunk and then if they can't get a sheila, a group of drunk guys would attack a single male, due to their frustration that they couldn't score a girl. Reality is pretty bad, I worked in the security industry over there and had to deal with pretty bad things, I am just happy that I was able to save some life through my actions. Maybe it is time to realise for example that there is an alcohol problem over there, drug problem, violence problem, domestic violence problem, racism problem etc. I really disagree with a comment in a review saying "I have seen such places in Scandinavia and most of Europe." Well living in Europe I haven't to be constantly aware of my surroundings that someone will sneak up from the back and will hit me with a coward punch, or that I will get attacked by some drunks or a meth head etc. This is also the reason why drinking in public isn't allowed, while in Europe people just enjoy to have a drink in a park etc. Life is quiet here in Europe and for sure no police helicopters flying around the whole time nor sirens. Instead of sugar coating constantly things in Australia, it is time to acknowledge there are many problems, just like in schools should be shown The Australian Wars tv series, to start a serious discussion about how aboriginals are getting treated in their own country.

Oz band Men At Work once wrote a song about a land down under, "where women glow and men plunder". They obviously weren't singing about Coolgardie, where the women are every bit as vile and repugnant as the men. The last time I heard the phrase "bar girl' was back in the 70s in a town in a third-world country, and even back then the term was considered derogatory. But it is still gleefully used by a bar called The Swan in Coolgardie, in the new millennium! The reason why I watched this till the end (and might watch again) is because of my fascination with rural Australia, facets of which were well served by movies like Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and the remake of Wake in Fright. So yes, I found this movie downright unpleasant, yet fascinating to watch, if only to tell myself how lucky I am not to be living there :) !!

Hotel Coolgardie is an engaging, human tale that follows two Finnish travelers in the Australian outback. Following the theift of their credit cards they are forced to find work in a small mining town east of Perth where lodging is provided. In this isolated and harsh environment, Lina and Steph encounter continunous drunken, chauvinistic behaviour from the patrons (and bar manager for that matter), behaviour the two outgoing barmaids seemed to imbrace. To Lina and Steph's credit they handle their work under these horrible conditions with grace and even form bonds with some of the locals, Lina in particular.

While the sexism on display is predictable and uncomfortable to watch, there's also a loneliness and sadness to the locals portrayed. Some of the drunken interactions are amusingly cringeworthy, with their macho behaviour exposed to be very fragile at times. I almost felt a degree of sympathy for them.

This was a moving, well paced documentary where I felt genuine care for the two travellers. I would thoughorly recommend. 8.5/10

Very good filming where you forget there is a camera and it is quite clear the people in this documentary forgot the camera quickly as well.

It shows a rough brutal way that a hotel owner treats temporary employees and how a small mining town looks forward to greeting new staff.

Some characters come off ok, some clearly are lonely and welcome the chance to get to know new faces and take a trip with them to relieve the boredom of the town but others clearly have other ideas.

Shocking to see how an employer reacts to illness, to know what I mean watch the movie.

It's safe to say that Hotel Coolgardie won't be being used by Tourism Australian anytime soon to help drive backpackers and tourists to our undeniable beautiful, yet sometimes harsh and almost medieval like landscape filled with both the very best and some of the very poorest of human behaviours.

Like an updated real-life version of Ted Kotcheff's 1971 Australian based cult-classic Wake in Fright, Pete Gleeson's documentary, that follows a few months in the lives of Finnish backpackers Lina and Stephie as they try to earn money and experience Australia as barmaids in the small Western Australian mining centric town of Coolgardie is a raw, insightful and painstakingly honest portrayal of the oft-unspoken drinking culture at the heart of many Australian communities and the casual sexism, racism and arrogance that comes along with it.

For those that view the Australian culture through rose-tinted glasses, Hotel Coolgardie will be a real shock to the system.

Gleeson's camera never flinches as Lina and Stephie experience a range of confronting and often hard to watch scenes. From drunk patrons talking to them about deeply personal and utterly wrong ruminations of why they can't find the right woman, through to abusive and highly offensive comments made to them by their employer, Hotel Coolgardie shows things how it is making it an effective and in many ways important showcase for the underbelly of our great yet sometimes sadly disappointing country and those that call themselves true Australians.

It's not all doom and gloom here however as Gleeson's documentary still shines a light on much of the good that makes Australia such a desired destination.

From the friendly patron of the girls pub known as the Canman though to Stephie friendship with a kind-hearted yet troubled local, Hotel Coolgardie reminds us all that underneath some of the rough and tough exterior lies some genuine care, affection and spirit that is sometimes sadly squashed by a harsh exterior, built up over time to combat the very nature of a town and its citizens of a community such as Coolgardie.

Final Say -

While the film would've benefited greatly from Lina and Stephie being more purely likeable central figures and for us to know more about their situations and road to this point in their lives, Hotel Coolgardie is an often fascinating look into a taboo subject matter and an under-examined aspect of core Australian traditions and lifestyle.

3 ½ camping trips out of 5