THE NUGGET
Australia, 2002, 95 minutes, Colour.
Eric Bana, Stephen Currie, Dave O' Neill, Peter Moon, Vince Colosimo, Belinda Emmet, Chris Hayward, Jean Kittson, Max Cullen.
Directed by Bill Bennett.
The Nugget is really a shaggy dog story. It is told by Wally, an old-timer out in the bush, played by Max Cullen. He appears and winks at the audience as he tells this unbelievable story about three ordinary men who work on the roads finding an enormous nugget, with the repercussions on their lives.
The film is in the vein of The Castle and The Dish. Eric Bana brings a gentle charm to his role as the leader of the group. Bana, after appearing in stand-up comedy and films such as The Castle, achieved some fame and notoriety by playing Chopper. He was then employed in American movies such as Black Hawk Down and The Incredible Hulk. Stephen Currie (The Castle) plays Wookie, so names because he thought he saw one of the Star Wars characters near his house. Dave O' Neill is Sue, a big and genial but lazy man. Peter Moon is the villain, Vince Colosimo is Dimitri, the entrepreneur of Mudgee.
The film was written and directed by Bill Bennett. Bennett started by making docu-dramas such as Malpractice and then moved into small-budget feature films such as Jilted, Backlash. When he moved into bigger-budget feature films, he also went to America and made Two If By Sea with Sandra Bullock. He won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Director for Kiss or Kill. Other films include In a Savage Land and the American-made __..
1. The film as a shaggy dog story for an Australian audience? The particular Australian tone, the bush, Wally's introduction and commentary, themes of mateship and fair go for others? The idiom? The impact for a non-Australian audience?
2. The background of the town of Mudgee, the homes, the shops, the streets? The roads and the countryside outside Mudgee? The road workers? The bush huts? The land lots and the possibility of finding gold?
3. The title and the focus on the nugget, finding it, its size, the effect on the men's lives and their families?
4. Wally and his commentary, the realism and the magic realism? The presence of the bush and its beauty? The singing galah? The flash flood, the storm, the light from the heavens, the finger of God? The nugget? The film as a story of the Australian bush?
5. The three men and their friendship, their different personalities and style, Lotto as the ordinary man, love for Cheryl, love for his son, providing a home, the simplicities of life? The humorous stories that Wally told about Lotto's bad luck, especially the 'scratchy' going down the drain and his friends' help to find it? Sue and his laziness, eating the pie with the finger in it, his tabloid notoriety and getting some money? His marrying the Chinese doctor unable to practise, the happy life at home? His sitting round preferring to do nothing? Wookie and his eccentricity, his ambitious wife, his conspiracy theories, reading the National Enquirer and other odd papers, suspecting aliens everywhere? The three of them at work on the roads? Their going on weekends together, always having a beer, prospecting for gold? The irony of Sue finding the traces of gold and getting the nugget? Their putting it on the back of the ute, taking it into town, wanting to have something to eat, covering it with the jackets, the comedy about Wookie and his conspiracy theory about it being taken, yet its still being there? Their decisions about buying up the plots of their friends, going to Ratner and Jurgen?
6. Ratner and Jurgen, out in the bush, suspicious of the three, the story of burying the dog? Their stealing the nugget? Burying the dead dogs in the backyard? Ratner and his dealership, sleazy? His fiancee at the massage parlour, in love with her? His wanting to do a deal with Dimitri?
7. Dimitri, migrant, people's attitudes towards him, owning all the shops, people being sick from his food, the jeweller's shop, wanting to do a deal with the nugget?
8. Jurgen, sympathetic, sorry about the dogs, thinking that God was punishing him, taking the nugget, melting it down - and its flowing towards Sue's house?
9. The plans for using the money from the nugget: the couples buying things and stocking up, cars, television sets, facials and make-up? Wookie's wife finding the contract and forcing her husband to be selfish? The group's falling out? The later reconciliation?
10. The decision to try to get the nugget back? The Chinese doctor pretending to be from Hong Kong, the phone call, the meal with Ratner, the phone calls, his becoming suspicious? The men borrowing the gear to load the nugget? Its having disappeared?
11. Wally telling the story, the flashbacks of explanation about Ratner's and Jurgen's behaviour, Dimitri's behaviour? Ratner falling out with Dimitri and their fight?
12. Jurgen doing his good deed, the men digging up the nugget, being able to profit by it? Yet going back to work (after being abusive to their boss when they didn't want to work any more)? The happy family, satisfied with what they had, Wookie and his wife being pregnant? The doctor getting her licence? The glimpse of the next-door neighbours who were watching everything - even videoing what was happening in their neighbours' yard?
13. The happy blend of naturalism and magic realism for an Australian joke?
