RESCUE (POLICE RESCUE)

Australia, 1988, 90 minutes, Colour.
Gary Sweet, Sonia Todd, Kerry Armstrong, Marshall Napier, Tim Mc Kenzie.
Directed by Peter Fisk.

Rescue is a Sydney-based telemovie about the police rescue squad. It was a successful and award-winning telemovie of 1989. It led to the filming of a series, released in 1991.

The story is by veteran thriller-writer Everett de Roche and directed by Peter Fisk, director of a number of Australian Broadcasting Corporation productions including the mini-series about the Labor party, True Believers.

The film has a strong cast led by Gary Sweet and has a number of Australian character actors and actresses in the cast.

The film uses Sydney locations particularly well and gets the atmosphere of Sydney (and also has very strong rain sequences).

The pattern of the telemovie is American series like Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law - focusing on a number of stories, the cross-section of the staff and their interactions.

1. Entertaining telemovie? Police rescue? Patterning the film on police and law series?

2. The Sydney settings, the headquarters, the streets and the detail of the city, the tunnels under the city? Stunt work? Editing and special effects? Musical score?
3. The title, the role of the police rescue squad? The details of their training (and the scaling of walls, etcetera)? The details of their work from rescuing people, getting the man's arm out of the bullet-proof window, rescuing children in storm-water drains, doorknocking? The spirit of the squad? Doing things for people?

4. The focus on the range of people in the squad, some highlighted, some in the background, the suggestions of several stories and interactions?

5. Steven as the focus of the film: his ability to train people, Georgia and her panic going down the wall, his going down with her? His dedication to his work? Always at work? The strain with Des? Not being present for the children? The sequences of home tension, their not able to speak to each other, love for the boys? The emergencies? The phone calls at all hours? The mistaken phone calls and hanging up? Flowers? His avoiding home? Des wanting the separation? The permanency of the separation? Steven at work, going on the jobs, getting the man out of the window? The arrest? His relationship with Ridgy? The emergency with Ollie? Staying out, becoming involved, the doorknock? With Georgia? Not going home, drinks with Georgia, going to her house, her approach, her handling of the situation, the boyfriend coming home, drinking and singing `Eagle Rock'? The next morning, the continued search, in the tunnels? The final search and heroism with Georgia, rescuing the boy? His not going home to his wife? The uncertainty of the future?

6. Georgia, the woman on the staff and the reaction of the men? In training, freezing going down the wall? Her first assignment? Her first assignment, tension with Fro?, the cigarettes, going to pick tip the fish victim, the practical Joke, her reaction, the reaction of the men, scratching Frog, ? The return to base? Her background in narcotics? Her attitude towards Stephen? Going with him to search for the boy, work., going home, her boyfriends message and walking out, Stephen's phone call, the drink, the return home, her handling of the situation, Brian's return, their singing? covering for Stephen the next morning? At work, in the tunnels, hearing the boy, finding him, holding onto him ? Her seeming disappearance? Her emergence? Accepted by the squad?

7. The boss, his attitude towards the personal? Irascible? On the scene, fearing that Georgia had been killed? Frog, his skills, with the men? The practical joke for Georgia? His skilled work searching for the boy? Going, in for the rescue?

8. The men in the squad, camaraderie, the great range of tall stories and jokes? Reggie, his concern for Stephen and Des, phone calls? Getting Stephen to emergencies?

9. The young boy, the group of skateboarders, their tormenting the old drifter? The drifter scaring Olly? The skate boarders going into the tunnels? Olly, following, the old man calling out to him? The little boy lost, the mounting search? The techniques of the rescue squad, the dogs, the search, house to house? The drifter and his not telling the police, rushing in front of Stephen's car? His calling out, searching for the little boy, his fall and his death? Georgia finding his war medals?

10. The mounting of the search, the thoroughness, the Board of Works, the tunnels? The rats? The water? The growing storm, the flash floods? Stephen and Georgia caught in the floods, finding the boy, the rescue? The anxiety of the mother? Des watching the proceedings on television?

11. The incidental jobs for the squad: the robber with his hands caught in the bullet-proof glass, getting hit? out, the arrest? Car accidents and rescues?

12. How well did the film combine the work of the squad, its moral, personalities, work?