Matt Carroll Movies
- 1974
Director Ken Hamman's breakthrough historical drama was the first Australian film of the 1970s to gain international acclaim, paving the way for the Australian New Wave and the success of movies such as The Last Wave and Breaker Morant. Sunday Too Far Away is a story about the struggles of itinerant sheep shearers in the Outback in the 1950s. Jack Thompson won an Australian Best Actor prize for his role as Foley, a hard-drinking, hard-working shearer who is the best at his profession. When local landowners try to drive away the sheep herders, Foley leads a strike to establish their right to exist and live off the land. The dispute turns violent as the landowners retaliate, and Foley struggles to maintain his supremacy. Many scenes were shot in the same shearing barn used in the 1960 British-Australian hit The Sundowners, which was about an Irish sheepherder who emigrates to Australia. The title comes from a traditional song of complaint sung by sheep shearers' wives. The film became a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Thompson, Max Cullen, (more)
- 1968
Shirley (Jane Harders) has had a close encounter of the "third" kind, and met aliens face-to-face. She's not very happy about it, and nobody believes her anyway. However, she feels obliged to spread the word. She was the Australian equivalent of a juvenile-delinquent, a "widgie, and she and her gang went to a carnival when a wax statue of the Duke of Edinburgh was animated by the aliens and spoke to her. She spent the next ten years trying to spread the word, growing more and more deranged. The story catches up with her at an insane asylum, as she is being interrogated by a psychiatrist. Director Jim Sharman went on to direct The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which has some similarly absurd features. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
