Frank Wilson Movies

One of the most expensive miniseres ever assembled for Australian television, Changi covered a time-span of nearly 60 years. The story was told in flashback as a group of six former POWs, arranging a reunion, recalled their experiences in a Singapore prison camp. Though all six suffered mightily at the hands of their Japanese captors, all managed to survive the ordeal and remain friends even after cessation of hostilities. Still, each man had retained a deleterious "side effect" from his imprisonment, which threatened to cast a tragic pall on their reunion. Running an exhaustive gamut from comedy to horror, Changi sustained its believability by having each of the main characters played by two actors -- one young for the WWII scenes, one old for the postwar scenes. Though critics and the general public were impressed when the series first aired on Australia's ABC network from October 14 to November 12, 2001, there were a number of real-life prison camp survivors who condemned the project as unrealistic and offensive (and never mind that at least one of the lead actors on the show had himself weathered six years in a Japanese stockade). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Brian Moore from his own novel, The Black Robe is a sprawling recreation of a turbelent period in Canadian history. In 1634, Jesuit missionary Father Laforgue (Lothair Bluteau) arrives in the New World, hoping to convert the Huron Indian tribe to Catholicism-and, incidentally, to expedite the French colonization of Quebec. Laforgue is regarded with a combination of warmth and wariness by the natives, who refer to Laforgue and his fellow priests as "black robes". Offering his services as both guide and friend is Algonquin chief Chomina (August Schellenberg). The by-the-book Laforgue does little to endear himself to the Indians-one of whom, a holy man, labels the priest as a demon who will bring nothing but death and destruction. The one who suffers most is Chomina, the man who most desires peaceful coexistence. In an ironic coda, we learn that the "black robes" have set into motion the fall of the Hurons, simply by imposing their Christian values upon them. Black Robe has been compared to Dances with Wolves, but the films do not share the same philosophy: while the idealistic hero of Wolves strives to understand and appreciate his new Indian comrades, the pious protagonist of Black Robe has only conversion in mind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sometimes it just gets to be too much for a man. One day, successful mining engineer Martin Brown packs it in, leaving behind his wife and family and heading for a rural idyll in the hinterlands. Despite his best efforts to escape from the hurly-burly of competitive life, he must fend off the efforts of his greedy former boss to acquire the lush horse-farming estate he has wound up on. Curiously, his abandoned wife doesn't put up much of a fuss over his absence but seems most concerned about his rejection of the prevailing culture's values. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Bruce Beresford directed this adaptation of David Williamson's play (Williamson also scripted) about the ever-widening gap between professional sport and its boardroom intrigues. Jack Thompson is Laurie, a once popular ball player on the Australian Rules football circuit, but now an ineffective coach who tries to spark a mediocre football team into winning the league championship. But as he struggles to motivate his players, he becomes increasingly disenchanted with the sport as he witnesses how big business interests have become the main motivation of the game that has turned the game that he has devoted his life to into a heartless and insensitive sports franchise. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Although it is sometimes billed as an animated feature, this children's story is an entirely live-action film, filled with wacky and silly-looking adults for the amusement of the youngsters. It is, however, based on Fatty Finn, a cartoon-strip character popular in 1930s Australia. Set in the earlier part of the century, the story concerns Fatty, a freckled youngster living in a pleasant suburb who feels the need to cut up a bit just to prove himself, and though he ruffles a lot of feathers, the fact that he is basically a good kid eventually settles them down again. The funny-looking paterfamilias, John Finn, is played by the beloved Australian national treasure Bert Newton. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In order to raise the money for his "breakthrough" film Breaker Morant, Australian director Bruce Beresford dashed off the guaranteed audience pleaser Money Movers. Terence Donovan masterminds a bank-vault heist that will potentially net his gang 20 million Australian dollars. The scheme predictably goes sour, but this conclusion is reached via a most unexpected fashion. Ed Devereaux, best known to American audiences for his leading-man gig on the TV series Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo, is second billed as "Dick Martin" (no, not the American TV-comic Dick Martin). Money Movers was based on a novel by Devon Minchin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Poignant and pointed, as well as funny, this love story by director Leslie Norman has a simple message: act your age. Since they were older teens, two buddies Barney (John Mills) and Roo (Ernest Borgnine) have gone to a summer rendezvous with the same two women, for fun in the sun in Sydney. They work on sugar-cane farms and after the harvest spend the summer with their women. In this 17th such summer, they arrive only to discover that Barney's girlfriend has married and Pearl (Angela Lansbury), a rather straight-laced widow, has taken her place. Roo's girlfriend Olive (Anne Baxter) does not get her annual gift of a special doll because Roo is broke -- he has had a bad year. As these adults mix and mingle, various circumstances arise that force them to rethink their behavior. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide