Cecil Holmes Movies
- 1984
Released in the same year as the Bounty starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, this documentary continues to clear the name of the much-maligned Captain Bligh, overthrown by a mutiny in 1789. Captain R. W. Bligh-Ware, several generations removed from his famous ancestor, put together a crew of eight and sailed from Tonga to Fiji, to Vanuatu, to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia's east coast, and finally, to the island of Timor, in eastern Indonesia -- a trip of 4,000 miles across the middle of the South Pacific. After he was thrown off the Bounty, this was the route followed by Captain Bligh in an open boat -- and he survived somehow. The difficulties of this journey across dangerous seas, and through one severe storm, were captured on film by director Michael Edols. The narration is particularly lively, apparently based on many of the original Bligh's own thoughts and feelings, though the documentary needs to be edited to less than 94 minutes to eliminate over-extended passages. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1981
- PG
Director Donald Crombie's fourth feature tackles the problem of out-of-control redevelopment by unscrupulous corporate developers. Angel Street is a row of charming and quaint homes on the shore of Australia's Sydney Harbor. A development company wants to buy the homes, raze the street, and build high-rise apartments in their wake. When B.C. Simmonds (Alexander Archdale), the leader of the residents' group, dies under mysterious circumstances, his daughter Jessica (Liz Alexander) takes up the residents' cause against the developers, assisted by Elliot (John Hargreaves), the Communist union official with whom Jessica had a brief affair. It turns out that the developers are not just businessmen, but have a malevolent connection with the government. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liz Alexander, John Hargreaves, (more)
- 1956
This Australian trilogy affects the Italian neorealist style. In the first story, a community of miners stage an elaborate funeral for a stranger. The second tale is set during an economic depression and follows a proud but impoverished laborer as he steals wood from an avaricious landowner to keep his mates from freezing during a winter storm. In the final story two young people decide to overcome their fears about money and security and get married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John McCallum, Jerome Levy, (more)
