BACKSLIDING

Australia, 1992, 88 minutes, Colour.
Tim Roth, Jim Holt, Odile le Clezio.
Directed by Simon Target.

Backsliding is a first feature film by co-writer/director Simon Target (with Ross Wilson writing his first feature) and Target's brother Charles financing. It was made on a small budget with help from Britain's Channel 4 as well as the Australian Film Commission.

British-born director and documentary film-maker Target had an experience in the Outback, menaced by a religious fanatic who played Hunt the Pom. Fascinated also by the born-again Christians and their increasing numbers, especially in Queensland in the early '90s, he fashioned this screenplay.

Filmed in South Australia, the film utilises the gas pipeline and the station isolated in the desert. It provides an excellent Australian isolated location for the interactions. Odile Le Clezio (Young Einstein, For Love Alone) is the enthusiastic born-again wife who believes that she can rehabilitate the husband she met in prison who has a violent past (Jim Holt). Tim Roth (The Hit, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover) is the wandering mechanic who claims to be an expert but isn't, and who triggers the backsliding in Jim's character, moving him into violent madness.

The film throws light on born-again Christian theology, its enthusiasm, its forgetting of the past, blocking it out as if another person had committed evil - and that belief in God would overcome all human difficulties.

The film is uneven in its presentation of the characters and the action. However, the idea behind it is strong, the performances by Holt and Le Clezio persuasive - which make the film an offbeat Australian thriller.

1.The title, the religious overtones, good, evil, sin and responsibility? Conversion and backsliding?

2.The South Australian locations, the dry desert, the gas pipeline, the buildings, the huts, the water tank? The technology and the isolation? The need for maintenance? The theme of water - and the scenes with the pastor at the ocean? The musical score, the songs - and the religious themes?

3.The prologue, the baptisms by immersion, the religious enthusiasm, the group, talking in tongues, prayer, the pastor? The baptisms, Jack and his being maniacal, the police, the baptisms and the experience of breathing under water? Audience reaction to fundamentalist Christians, baptism by immersion, the enthusiasm, the charismatic prayer? The sermons?

4.Jack and Alison and their new life, in the desert, the work, the responsibility, the bonds between them, Alison pregnant, the hopes? The overlooking of the past? The story of Alison and her communication with Jack, visits and letters, the baptism, marrying him? Keeping him reformed? Jack and his putting the violent past behind him, the story of his competitiveness, rivalry, the blowtorch and the young boy who was his rival? His life in institutions, prison?

5.The born-again theology, the blind faith, the role of God, the role of Jesus, prayer, religious hymns? The way Jack and Alison prayed? Their understanding of their spirituality (and not understanding it)? The responsibility of the past, sins committed by another person, no responsibility for the past? The complete transformation by God?

6.Tom and his arrival, flying in with the pastor, chatting with him, his religious indifference? His reaction to their religion. At work, his lack of experience, his lies, lies about the violence and breaking it? His wanting the money? The collapse of power? His interactions with Jack, Jack's anger with him? Alison's anger? His indifference, lying on the bed, trapped for the fortnight, the picture of his alleged wife? His being curious about Jack's past? The growing danger - and his being locked in the shed with the goat? Alison's reaction - the blowtorch, his eventually getting out? His shrewdness in the siege against Jack? Saving Alison, trying to persuade her about the truth? Going out to get the water - and the fight with Jack in the tank (and the overtones of the baptismal water)? His being saved - and his walking away?

7.Jack and his ideals, his spirituality, the violent past, the relationship with Alison? His fear about backsliding? Welcoming Tom,his work, anger at Tom's lies and inefficiency? The bond with Alison and her dominance of him? His reaction, going out to the desert, stripping, the hallucinations with the pastor, with the young boy? Sunburnt, his return? The language of the clash with the Devil? His change, his advances on Alison? Her realisation of the truth and his turning violent? Locking the property, locking Tom in the shed? The pursuit of Alison with the flame? Setting the gas alight - and the death of the pastor? Getting dressed in the suit, as a pastor, the fight with Tom - the light in the waterhole breaking? The vision of going towards God - his death?

8.Alison, young, her sensuality and enthusiasm, her making their life at the outpost civilised, contacts with the outside world, exercise bike, cooking? Her pregnancy? Friendship with Tom, the violin episode and disillusionment? Anger? Love for Jack, telling him what to do? The care about Jack and his sunburn, his change? Concern about Tom, her growing bewilderment? Jack locking the property, pursuing her, with the torch in his face? In the house with Tom, the siege? Her beginnings of doubt, the effect of Tom and the truth? Her going out, discovering her husband dead? Tom walking out into the desert? Her love for the goat, having it on the property - the reasons? Her freeing the goat - but the goat's death?

9.The presence of the goat, the biblical overtones of the scapegoat? Jack's tying it up, in the shed with Tom and dying?

10.The pastor, his religious enthusiasm, believing in Jack? Sermon? Flying in Tom? His concern - at the ocean? The decision to fly in, the dangers, his ignoring them? His faith? His death?

11.The people at the immersion ceremony? The radio contacts in the Outback? The flight supervisors? The pastor and the tapes and his religious message?

12.The overall impact of the film as drama, thriller, Australian religious themes of the '90s?