The F.J. Holden

Sure the movie is slow, the speech is monosyllabic and there isn't much happening. But the sun is shining, the lawns are being mown, the smorgasbord is on down at the club and the backyard parties are in full swing. I too, grew up in Panania. That's pretty much what it was like and it was great....simple, uncomplicated...much like the movie. That seems to me to be the whole point! I love it. One day it will be recognised as the true classic that it is (well maybe)

This is an excellent film. It deserves a lot more respect than it gets. The story of two shady young guys being shady is not much of a plot. However what this film has in spades is a real sense of place. Watching the film (slow and mundane as it seems) it really feels like you are becoming a part of the world of the characters involved.

Furthermore the film seems to touch upon various issues like relationships between the young (a la Puberty Blues a few years later), and the realities of Australian suburbia. There is a fair bit going on here than just the hi-jinx of Kev, Bob, and Anne. Even with these characters you can feel some sort of sympathy (well....at least with Kev and Anne).

There are some other reasons to recommend the film. Spot Prisoner's 'Freak'. Kev's dad is great as a straight talking no nonsense bloke. The cars are great (tho wot's wrong with Valiants. Spot the 'new immigrant' driving one) and some of the dialogue is awesome (Mate.....you're my mate, the biggest dick in Bankstown etc).

This film is all class in a completely unclassy way.

If people are looking for a 'road movie' in the slick US style of American Graffiti, The FJ Holden will not be your cup of tea. For all intents & purposes The FJ Holden is a road movie, however this time it is set in the late 70's in Bankstown, NSW. Bankstown at the time was basically a working class suburb,with the majority of the population coming from public housing estates. It would be of no surprise then that the kids from such an area, were basically poor, both in material goods & education. Young teenage men only had limited social outlets, their cars & their girlfriends & this is the films focus. There is no great outpouring of verbal dialogue in the film, for if it did, the whole movie, as a period piece, would have looked contrived. Take the movie for what it is, a general view of suburban life as seen by a young man struggling to come to grips with his first faltering steps to manhood. It's not pretty, but as a cinematic history of life in the the 70's, it is unrivalled. Michael Thornhill is to be congratulated in his attempts to capture a snapshot of Australian youth in the suburbs.

This film is essential for anyone who wants to experience the glory days of Aus culture. There is very little plot, but it basically follows the adventures of a guy called Kev, who goes out with a girl called Anne. He fixes up his car (guess what model?), goes drag racing, drives around with his mate Bob, gets drunk, and has excruciatingly bad conversations with his parents.

It also includes a scene where you watch Kev and Bob drink an entire slab of beer, with the actors obviously getting drunker and drunker as they slur and forget their lines.

It's on TV every so often. Don't miss it. Tape it, and show it to all your friends. Bring it out at parties. Keeping this film to yourself is a crime!

The closest U.S comparison I can make here to Michael Thornhill's 1977 coming of age drama is George Lucas' earlier 1973 American Graffiti.

The differences, where there are some, are marked however. Both feature - the strongest link - cars, this is in the F.J.Holden of the title, which as far as I can find out, was an General Motors model that was cheap and popularly souped up into a 'muscle' car. Like the American models in Lucas' film, these become far more than modes of transport, being every courting young man's way of life, to cruise around in, showing off like preening peacocks.

In a small town in New South Wales (filmed in Sydney) in the 70s, Bob and his mate Kevin are out boozing and cruising for girls to pick up. Kevin meets Anne. The two friends basically behave like slobs and fairly irresponsible ones at that, getting in trouble with the police and getting drunk and holding the occasional street drag race. When sex gets in the way of the the two, their friendship is tested.

For those that were either there, or were of that generation (I'm just a little too young) then this must bring back memories and hold a more special place for such. For the rest of us, the picture looks dated, but not in the interestingly way that American Graffiti does. I'm sure many a 'new' Australian would now cringe with some embarrassment at how their male young are perceived. These young fellas don't have the looming Vietnam conscription to force them to go off the rails a bit, which was a significant factor in American Graffiti.

There's some quite earthy dialogue and sex scenes to match - I would suggest a modern '15' rating here in the U.K. (in Australia, such DVDs as this one is, are marked "M", for 'mature' audiences).

Such is the nostalgia for both the time/place and the cars themselves, it makes giving a rating difficult, as judging whether it's a good film or not is masked by many personal feelings. Radio Times magazine online don't even list it - seems it's quite a scarcity, so I'm plumping for 6/10, though seven wouldn't be unreasonable.

I viewed the DVD as part of the 12 disc boxed set 'Australian Cinema Collection'.