IDIOT BOX
Australia, 1997, 82 minutes, Colour.
Ben Mendelssohn, Jeremy Sims, Robyn Loau, Amanda Muggleton, John Polson, Graeme Blundell, Deborah Kennedy.
Directed by David Caesar.
At first glance Idiot Box seems a violent film. It has received an MA classification, especially for its continual coarse language. But David Caesar has made a confrontational film about violence, especially about the violence and violent attitudes to be seen on television day by day, on the `idiot box', and how they can affect us. The setting is a working-class suburb of Sydney. The central characters are two young men, friends, unemployed, drinkers and fascinated by the crime and action shows on TV. They have absorbed a hooligan ethos which they think is the way that the Aussie male should carry on. There have been several bank robberies in the area, which gives them the idea that they too should rob a bank. They have seen plenty of ways of doing it on TV. Of course, it doesn't quite work out as they hoped.
Caesar's film is in the style of such confronting suburban films like Geoffrey Wright's Romper Stomper and Metalskin. He does not want to preach to the converted about violence in our society. Documentaries and reports on television tend to remind us of what we know (and fear). Often they keep us at a distance from the topic being examined. We are observers.
Caesar wants to make a film that might be watched by the kind of audience that it portrays so that they might see themselves and learn something about the futility of violence. Hence the rough language, the `in-your-face' attitudes and behaviour of the characters that picture an actual world whether we like it or not.
David Caesar's skill is in making Idiot Box a raw, keenly observed, challenging story which runs for under 90 minutes. He is contributing to the crusade against violence in our world by showing a rough and ready picture of its futility.
1. A film of the '90s - for the '90s audience? The impact on older audiences? Younger audiences - and the contemporaries of Kevin and Mick? The '90s visual style of the film? Music and sound? The background of unemployment and the suburbs? Social issues?
2. The use of Panavision photography, the landscapes of Sydney - the opening from the sky (and the similar shots of Los Angeles in many films)? The freeways and streets? The suburbs, the park? The range of suburban landscapes? Homes, pubs, sheds? The atmosphere of suburbia: real/stylised?
3. The fast pace of the film, the style of editing? The plot strands and their being intersected? The technique of the tracking advance shots into the homes and the garages? The brisk cuts, interconnections?
4. The soundtrack, the use of music, songs, musical themes from films and television shows, noise, the buzz of the television set? The importance of continued sound and music?
5. The title: the television set, the programs screened, the people watching, the situations in which they watch it? The effect of the television on them - just watching it irrespective of shows? The shows themselves? The influence of the television, television styles becoming patterns for life? Hiring and watching videos? The emphasis on the word `idiot' in relationship to people who watch television?
6. The naturalism of many of the sequences? Heightened realism? Kevin and key sequences in slow motion - his joy, his being shot? The effect of the stylised sequences being interpolated with the realism?
7. The introduction to the city? Audience knowledge of the city and Sydney? Audiences identifying with the city? With the characters? The moral values - and lack of them? Social values - and lack of them? Empathy with the young people, understanding them? The portrait of the parents - empathy and understanding them? The police? The two inspectors and their attitude towards Kevin and Mick? The woman and her severity? The man and his softer attitude - hoping that they would wake up to themselves, letting them go?
8. Kevin and Mick and Ben Mendelssohn's and Jeremy Sims' performances? Their age, background, their homes, Kevin's mother, Mick's brother? The absent members of the family? Their going on the dole, the dole cheques and the use of the money, the interviews and their not going to job interviews? Their experience of work? Australian mates, the blokey atmosphere between the two? Friendship, intimacy - and the reference to sexual relationship in passing? Their playing games, wrestling? The opening with Kevin playing chicken on the road and Mick dragging him away? Mick continually saving Kevin? Kevin and whether he wanted to be saved or not? The bonds between the two, the particularly male style, their dependence on each other, influencing each other?
9. Australian males as articulate and inarticulate? The use of Australian cliches? Smart talk? Swearing? Raw jokes? The importance of Mick and his poems - anything being a poem if he said it was: the one told to Betty about her and her being a bitch, his one-word poems, his final poem about noise and quiet? His discussions with various people about what poetry was - the woman in the hotel, the men at the bar, the drug dealer and his wanting a poem, Kevin and his attitudes towards poems?
10. Kevin and his character, his relationship with his mother, her work, watching TV (The Young and the Useless, talk shows about violence in society)? His getting the television set for her and her refusal to have it, presupposing that he had stolen it, likening him to his father, his crying, anger, trying to sell the TV, ultimately kicking it to bits? His relationship with Betty, his macho attitude towards sexuality, his being speedy in performance? His taking her for granted, the touch of violence, yet telling her about the robbery (and breaking the rules for successful robberies)? Drinking, watching TV and videos? His attitude towards the robbery, learning the methods from the TV, his rehearsing jumping the counter and beating the grille coming down? The encounter with the dog, his anger and barking at it, violent reaction, his saying that he enjoyed being angry and that it was his hobby? The story of his shooting the dog, wounding it, killing it? His racist attitudes? Mick and his relationship with Lani? His laughing at him? Lani's brother and using him for the getaway car, referring to him as Coconut? Wanting the guns, bashing the gun dealer in his anger? The practising of the shooting, taking the guns - having the bullets? The robbery and its going wrong? His decision to go out, raise the gun - a death wish? The ending and his asking was he dead yet? The meaning of his life?
11. Mick and the contrast with Kevin, how similar, how different? Sharing experiences with him, being on his wavelength? His macho attitudes, living with his brother? Lani and the attraction, buying the beer, owing the 30 cents, promising to pay? Asking for the date - and Kevin's reaction? Her going to his home, their talking, going for the walk, imagining the stories of the people travelling in the cars? The sexual encounter, his brother's condom? His learning sexual prowess from the video? Her period and his reaction to the sexual encounter, the crude commentary on it afterwards? His arguing with Betty? The robbery, the practice with the guns, Lani's brother and persuading him to come with them? The irony of the owner of the car taking it back from them? His wanting to save Lani, his not being able to save Kevin?
12. Betty, her work, friendship with Kevin, watching videos, attitude towards his mother, the sexual encounters and their brevity? His telling her the secret about the robbery? Her writing down the information for Lani?
13. Lani, the Polynesian background, her brother looking after her, her attitude towards her father? Selling the beer? Attracted to Mick, letting him off with the money, agreeing to go on the date, his trying to stir her imagination about stories of people in the cars? The sexual encounter, her period, Mick's attitude? Her concern, about her brother and Mick, the bank and her trying to intervene?
14. Kevin's mother, tough attitudes towards life, disappointment with her husband, taking it out on Kevin, the refusal of the gift, not seeing him cry?
15. Mick's brother, his work, the condom sequence, his support of Mick?
16. Colin and his drug and gun dealing, his age and experience, his mother waiting on him in the shed and bringing the tea? Picked up by the police, their verballing him, using tactics for interrogation, his shrewdness in understanding what they were doing? The drug addict and his giving the guns to Kevin, his angry reaction? Bashing him? His decision to ring the police and give them the information about Kevin and Mick and the robbery?
17. The young drug dealer, the go-between for the guns, bringing the burger with pineapple to Colin and his angry reaction? His drug dependency, wanting Mick to recite a poem, bringing the guns, his being brutally bashed by Kevin? His being bashed by Colin?
18. The picture of the police, detective work, their map on the wall and the places of the robberies, their strategies, going to the locations? Their attitudes, the woman and her wanting to do police work? The man and his concern about the young people? Surveillance, the deal with Colin, the interrogations and their techniques? Watching at the end, the team coming to cover the robbery with its guns, the shooting of Kevin, their reaction? The local police and their collaboration?
19. The drug addict's story and its being interwoven with the story of Kevin and Mick: the nurse coming home, the intimate encounter with the husband, her wanting the drugs, his injecting the needle? Desperate for money? The meal and her inability to eat it, his supporting her, cooking for her? Her selling the TV and taking only $50? The man and his love and dependence on her, his discussion at the pool table, wanting to go away but coming back? The robberies - and it being revealed that he was the thief? The strong bond between the two, the strength of love - yet the addiction and the dependency?
20. The TV news about the robberies, the information given, the collage of aerials telling the information everywhere, the police and their investigations, the TV shows and their patterns for how to do a robbery, Mick and his five rules? The reality at the end?
21. The television shows, the Couchman show and the discussion about violence in society and on the media? Raising issues that the film dramatised?
22. The picture of Australian society in the '90s, the unemployed, the dole, interviews about jobs, the treatment of young people, support and lack of support, family life, absent members of family? No prospects for people like Kevin and Mick? The anger, the potential for violence? Their own personal inabilities, lack of intelligence, lack of experience, lack of moral sense? The potential for good?
23. The title, TV as the centre of people's lives and influence for good or for ill?
24. The film as a morality play about Australian society, the media, violence - in the contemporary style influenced by TV and MTV and Quentin Tarantino comic violence movies?
