Buddies

1983 (DVD Release 2009)

Umbrella Entertainment

R4 DVD

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

This film is part of Umbrella’s recent project to resurrect and reissue Australian films. It started with Not Quite Hollywood and the series has become known as Ozploitation. Many of the films are characterised by a slight lack of professional slickness that is more than made up for by the sheer enthusiasm of the actors, stunts and plots. Buddies is another of this kind. The print came from the National Film and Sound Archive.

It is set on the gemstone fields around Emerald in Queensland. The main product of the fields is gem-quality sapphire, dug up under primitive conditions by groups of eccentric miners and sold direct to buyers from Thailand’s gem-cutting industry for large sums of cash. Malcolm and Johnny (Colin Friels and Harold Hopkins) are two such miners. They and their friends are digging a rough but ready living from the dry, dusty country. As one claim is dug out they move on to another.

All is well and the lifestyle suits them until the big mining companies move in, riding a boom in sapphire prices. Malcolm has the ability to spot good sapphire country, but he is hopeless at filing claims to it. His new claim is jumped by a big company and the battle is on.

Into this tense mix we throw some visiting tourists, a divorced aircraft salesman and the sex-crazed neighbouring digger, Stella (Kris McQuade). Can Malcolm and Johnny survive against the big miners? Can their friendship survive in the face of their different ideals and hopes? The final showdown against the big company is decided with bulldozers as the weapon of choice but the personal conflicts will be harder to resolve.

It is all rollicking good fun and I am surprised this film has stayed hidden for so long. It won writer John Dingwall the Australian Film Industry Award for Best Screenplay in 1983 but the film dropped from sight until now, swamped by the flood of blockbusters from Hollywood. Considering it is now a quarter century old, it has survived well. The colours and cinematography are crisp and clean and show the dry dusty outback well. The acting is excellent and the script believable.

Buddies is such a good film that I was surprised I hadn’t even heard of it. I suspect many Australian film buffs will not have seen it either, so here’s your chance.

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.4 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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