GALLAGHER'S TRAVELS

Australia, 1986, 90 minutes, Colour.
Ivar Kants, Joanne Samuel.
Directed by Michael Caulfield.

Gallagher's Travels is a somewhat corny Australian telemovie, written and directed by Michael Caulfield (Fighting Back), based on a short story by Kenneth Cook (Wake in Fright). It has colourful Asian as well as north Australian settings. However, the ocker larrikin types, the sinister Chinese triads, the Nazi-like Germans, the stuffy Poms - all presented as familiar and corny stereotypes.

Ivar Kants is Gallagher and Joanne Samuel overacts as a feisty photographer. In fact, all the cast overact. The film makes a point about the smuggling of fauna out of Australia and the rings from Europe and Asia who clash with each other. The main advantage of the film are the sequences of the Australian Outback and northern waters.

1. Popular entertainment telemovie? For the Australian audience, overseas?

2. Asian locations, northern Australia, the Outback? The musical score?

3. The title (and echoes of Gulliver's Travels - any other similarity?).

4. Gallagher in Indonesia, his work for the magazine, the encounter with Goltz in the elevator, in the room with his snakes? On the plane - and causing the panic? With Maggie and her commissioning him to find the story? Going back to Australia, the initial encounter with Sally? Sally and her liveliness? The plan, his not understanding Australia and its distances? The Mini Moke and going north? The encounter with the Chinese? Goltz and his island, chasing him, going out into the desert, on the track, the breakdown of the Mini Moke? Finding Goltz, taking his truck? Being arrested for stealing, the case? Going back, finding the boat, the set-up, bluffing the Chinese, bluffing Goltz, the final fight - and his escape? The phone calls to Maggie? Ivar Kants as a credible British journalist? Credible adventures? Cowardice and heroism?

5. The contrast with Sally, her toughness in standing up to the taxi driver, in standing up to men? Fiddling her accounts? Love of adventure, challenge to Gallagher, slinging off at him? Sharing the adventures and the dangers? Driving through the desert? The encounter with the drinkers - and saving the day against the Chinese attackers? Stealing the truck, wandering in the desert? The arrest, the final attack on Goltz - with the snakes let loose? The happy ending?

6. Goltz, stereotypical German? His rudeness in Indonesia, the clashes with the Chinese, wounding them, saving the snakes and freezing them, on the plane? On his island, his henchmen, the deals, rounding up the animals? The clash with the Chinese - and the final letting loose of the snakes? The stereotype of the Nazi German?

7. The Chinese, well dressed, criminals, the triads? Sinister Asians? The deals, the clash with Goltz?

8. Maggie and the caricature of the pushy, ambitious British editor?

9. The picture of the laid-back police, the men working for Goltz, the drinkers in the bar, Ivan and the drinking competition and his strength? Ockers and larrikins?

10. The overall impact of this kind of telemovie? Its understanding of and portrayal of the Australian ethos?