FAIR GAME

Australia, 1985, 90 minutes, Colour.
Cassandra Delaney.
Directed by Mario Andreacchio.

Fair Came is a well-made exploitation film, with a theme similar to that of many violent exploitation films and so-called 'video nasties'. The film focuses on a young woman who maintains a wild life area in the backblocks of South Australia. She encounters three ocker kangaroo-hunters and their redesigned van 'The Beast'. What begins as a sadistic kind of game turns into violence and a fight for survival. Needless to say, the heroine wins and the three kangaroo-hunters are disposed of rather violently. Cassandra Delaney (One Night Stand) is very attractive as the beleaguered heroine. The film makes very good use of its South Australian locations. There are good special effects and stunt work. However, there is a gruesome and nasty aspect to entertainment from this kind of nightmare story.

1. Interesting film? Enjoyment? Exploitation?

2. South Australian locations: outback, the paddocks, the animals, the dry, the desert, the heat, the homestead, the country town?

3. Stunt work, editing, pace, musical score?

4. Horror style: nightmare, the so-called splatter movies and video nasty themes? For popular audiences? Male audiences? Feminine audiences?

5. The title and the meaning of each word: the focus on playing games, game being hunted? Fair and unfair? The woman as beautiful and fair?

6. The male response to the film: identification with the hunters, the masculine stereotypes, sexist attitudes, brutality, aggression, sexuality, (though surprisingly restrained), vengeance? For the female audience: identification, the victim, stereotypes, violence, self-reliance, responsibility, defence, survival?

7. Jessie and her job, the animals, her humanitarian sense, taking care of the joey, the law? Her absent male companion - talking to him by phone, trying to contact him? The encounter with ‘The Beast? The driving, her being pressured by the two vehicles, the shattering of the windscreen? The basic hostile situation? The policeman and his lack of help? The ordinariness of the town, shopping? Jessie and her paintings, selling them at the shop, the hunter buying it, the price and then her reaction? Going home, resting (and the effect of the nude sequence) - the photo on the refrigerator? The discovery of the photo, her anger, using her wits? Destroying the hunter, property? The threat to herself? The chases, hiding from the hunters? The devices for the mutual pursuit? The film and the game becoming more serious? The night, returning home, the final set-up for destroying each of the hunters, her luring then, their becoming her victims, their deaths? The portrait of the woman in the Outback, the Australian woman and males?

8. The gamble and the games: the male motives, the female reaction? Jokes, turning violent, the hunter and anger, the photo, the chase and the detection, the destruction of the house, the rifles and Jessie welding them, the crashes, the shooting, the cave and her trapping them, the final set-up - games to the death?

9. The three men: as personalities? Sunny and his driving, dark glasses, suave, the leader, ruthless, dying - and his being consumed by the fire? Ringo as the yahoo, the stunts, on the roof, electrocuted? Sparks and his being fat, menace, hurt, the vehicle, crashing, the accidental death, giving the final fright to Jessie? The ugly pictures of the kangaroo-hunters, the human hunters? Male, tough, sadistic, vindictive?

10. The Beast and the focus on the vehicles: look, animal suggestions, symbolism, smashes and crashing through the house? The role of guns?

11. Action sequences: chasing, hiding, the destruction of the house, the vehicle smashes, the shooting, animals, the horse-riding ... ?

12. The atmosphere of menace and violence? The effect of watching this kind of game, this kind of male-female contest, victory in death?