Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!

Documentary of Australian exploitation films from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. They're presented in three section--the sex movies, the horror movies and the action movies. There's generous clips from various movies with LARGE doses of nudity (male and female), sex, blood and gore (I'm really surprised this got by with an R rating). There's also some very interesting interviews with the directors, producers, film critics and actors from the various films. Quentin Tarantino introduces each film.

I was looking forward to this a lot. I love exploitation films and thought this might be fun. It was--but I felt it was lacking somewhat. For one thing Tarantino gets annoying. It seems he loves each and every film which I question ("Road Games" is one of the most boring "thrillers" I've seen). Also with the exception of a few I haven't seen any of these films. They do explain them and why they're here--but I didn't know what EXACTLY they were talking about. The best parts were the interviews with the actors and actresses who talk about why they did the films and how they feel about them. It was especially surprising to see Jamie Lee Curtis discussing "Road Games"! This is (obviously) for a very limited audience but it is fun and interesting. Just quite lacking something to put it over. I wanted to like it so much more but, as it stands, I can only give it a 7.

Subtitled "The Wild, Untold Story of Ozsploitation", and that's what we get: a 100-minute cavalcade of all (?) the dizzy highlights of Australian exploitation cinema. The parceling into sex comedy/horror/action subheadings serves the material quite nicely, giving us a broad view of the aesthetic: ideologically working class, plain-spoken, and very male. That latter point is given just enough emphasis as the female participants offer their diverse bewildered reactions to the paces the filmmakers put them through, without getting all superior; the one pompous ass film critic who tries THAT trick is roasted on a spit. There's a lot of initiative, energy, and inspiration on display in this exhausting avalanche of quick clips; I was writing down titles like a mad man, there's a lot of stuff I'd never heard of that I'm dying to see. Genre film-making is presented, rhetorically, as a polar alternative to the classy upmarketing of familiar exports like Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford et al...even though Beresford was responsible for the Barry McKenzie series and Weir bequeathed us The Cars That Eat People. But dichotomy or not, I can tell you with certainty that Patrick has now jumped The Last Wave on my must-see list. Quentin Tarantino is dispensed in quantity, but I didn't get annoyed; he knows of what he speaks, and he's well-mixed with the folks who were there.

Best documentary I've seen this year. It feels as if these films have been swept under the carpet by a film industry which is overprotective of its image. The Australian film industry is so very narrow-minded and so it is great to see a documentary which has been so brilliantly edited but also used along with the great characters of the industry through the 70's and 80's who make this possible multiple movie preview so entertaining. There is a good mix of local and international actors/producers/directors and there is also contradictory comments and varying disagreements which merely adds to the movie myths. This film is also refreshing as it harks back to a time when the business was far from a business and less stringent with the absence of governing bodies which equates to many broken bodies and lots of bodies on show in terms of nudity. These films make me proud to be Australian. Thank you Mark Hartley. Now will someone just release them on DVD!!

FILE THIS ONE UNDER.... "DIFFERENT"!

BUT BEFORE DIVING IN: Let us FOCUS on the Title's Content & Context!

If you like Quentin Tarantino, you'll simply Love NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD! There are many contributing/participating narrators, but Tarantino has, by far, the most ON-SCREEN time. (Storyline Blurb doesn't even mention his crucial participation!)

This extremely entertaining and informative low-budget documentary traces the revival of the Australian film industry, which all but died at the mid-30's Pacific onset of WWII, from its fledgling late 60's re-birth, through its multi-faceted heyday in the 70's and early 80's.

Initially, HOLLYWOOD seemed determined to go in the direction of a soft-core documentary, but this was only during the initial 20 to 25 minutes.

In the early and mid-70's, the AUSTRALIAN industry saw nudity and sex as an easy road to making big Aussie Dollars! Be forewarned, however... There's a LOT of frontal nudity and some mildly simulated sex during this opening segment! So probably better for viewers 16 or over!

Throughout, CLIPS from SCORES of films appear, some from movies considered rather mainstream like MAD MAX and RAZORBACK, but the vast majority are from obscure cult classics like '78's PATRICK and '79's LONG WEEKEND, or totally unknown, never released in the U. S. or on DVD, titles like The CHAIN REACTION-'80 and MANGO TREE-'77.

HOLLYWOOD is truly a veritable treasure trove of early Aussie Titles! I'm not the BIGGEST Tarantino fan on the planet, but most of his films are, I reluctantly admit, GREAT!

On a PERSONAL level; he's one of my favorite famous people. Talk about not being affected by fame! He's a joy to watch! Despite being in his mid-40's, he's the same rather nerdy, little-kid-at-heart, goof-ball genius he was when he burst onto the entertainment scene nearly 25 years ago, God Bless him!

An ABSOLUTE Must See for ALL "GENRE" and History of Cinema Buffs!

9*********.....ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

Thoroughly enjoyable - a few notes I made afterwards follow, including quotes from my wife First section of the movie covered how the new R-rating allowed an explosion in the Australian film industry. Specifically, as much nudity ( boobs, pubes, and tubes ) as the filmmakers could squeeze in...

"And here was me thinking Australian film in the 70s was prudish." On John Holmes rather, ah, prominent role in the doco - Australia's first exposure to him ( or possibly the other way around )

"Wouldn't his head implode when he got an erection?" and about paying to see the movies covered

"We're supporting the Australian film industry!"

"Given that quite a few of those movie were made to *lose* money...." The stories about the incredibly lax safety procedures at these flicks were pretty alarming. Take just one example from Mad Max ( where the head stuntman arrived on his first day with one limb already broken! ).

Do you recall the shot in that movie, from the motorcyclist's POV, where the bike is screaming along the highway and the odometer is hitting 180? The director got that shot by leaning over the motorcyclist's shoulder with a camera. Helmet? Hell no - protective equipment is for sane people.

Tarantino's excited fan-boy bouncing was amusing.

Regarding one of the very few movies they covered that I actually recall seeing ( I may well have seen more but have protected myself by blanking the memory ) - Razorback. I wonder if this movie is the reason my old D&D group would blithely deal with a pack of animated skeletons, but leg it for the nearest tree when an ordinary wild boar showed up? Also - The Return of Captain Invincible? Australia made a superhero musical? All I can say is that Australia made some amazingly bad movies, *that actually managed to get theatrical release*. Still, it made me miss the old days of drive-in cinema, even if the only one I recall seeing at such a cinema was Death Race 2000 ( the exploding baby scene - which I still find hugely funny).

If you have any interest in Australia's contribution to cinematic immortality, you have to see this documentary :D