WELCOME TO WOOP WOOP

Australia, 1997, 98 minutes, Colour.
Johnathon Schaech, Rod Taylor, Susie Porter, Dee Smart, Richard Moir, Maggie Kirkpatrick, Barrie Humphries, Paul Mercurio, Bob Oxenbould.
Directed by Stephan Elliott.

The new film from Stephan Elliott, director of Priscilla. He goes back into the outback, but the Woop Woop he reveals is a tasteless and comic version of Wake in Fright. It is a broad lampoon of vulgar Australia (with, even, Barry Humphries on hand for a cameo as a blind petrol pumper) rather than a clever spoof of outback oddity.

The Northern Territory scenery is sometimes magnificent. Woop Woop, on the other hand, is a rubbish pile plus. There is a fair amount of politically correct dialogue and humour. Rogers and Hammerstein must be turning in their graves because the inhabitants of Woop Woop are musical devotees and sound track and film clips abound. It's the comedy of crassness.

1. The work of the director? Priscilla and its acclaim? His being booed for this film? His ambitions, Australian film, the mocking of Australia? The mocking of music and musical comedies? The American background, the American in Australia?

2. The US, the conman, New York City, his cons, the Australian flora and fauna? Real and unreal?

3. The contrast with Australia, ordinary Australia, the difference with the outback, the desert, the roads, the diners, the petrol pumps, lifts? Woop Woop and its look?

4. Woop Woop, history, the mines, the change, abandoned, forgotten?

5. The Rodgers and Hammerstein music, the songs, performance, the clips from the movies, the effect? The camp style?

6. Teddy and his deals in New York, the sales, the galahs, Sylvia and her friend, the little boy, the gangsters, his having to go to Australia? His driving in Australia, the diner? Barry Humphries and the satire of the petrol pump? The shower, in the open, Angie and her watching? Driving with Angie, her being sex-mad?

7. Woop Woop society, Daddy -O, Rod Taylor and his appearance? Control, yet the private screening room, drinks, the football? Daddy- O’s character?

8. The different types, the men, Moose, Reggie? The shops, the drinking? The women, relationships? Ordinary and odd society?

9. Teddy, the marriage, their showing him the marriage, his being unconscious, in love with Angie or not? Her pregnancy? Daddy- O, Krystal? The attraction, her help, falling in love, the escape?

10. The inhabitants watching the movies, singalong, the lulls?

11. The build-up to the confrontation, Teddy and the fight with Daddy- O?

12. The escape, going back to New York, the years passing?

13. The effect, for Australian audiences, non-Australian audiences? Humour, crass?