LONG WEEKEND
Australia, 2008, 88 minutes. Colour.
James Caviezel, Claudia Karvan, Robert Taylor, John Brumpton, Roger Ward.
Directed by Jamie Blanks.
Long Weekend is a remake of the 1978 thriller Long Weekend with John Hargreaves and Briony Behets. The film was directed by Colin Eggleston and this remake is dedicated to him and the hotel in the plot is called Eggleston Hotel. The screenplay is based on the original by Everett de Roche (who appears as one of the men in the bar). This film was directed by Jamie Blanks who had a successful career in Melbourne with short films, moved to Hollywood with such films as Urban Legend and Valentine and then returned to Australia.
While the photography of the film is very good, the performances are rather strained. Claudia Karvan is always a strong personality on screen. James Caviezel is less so – a mixture of the weak and the self-indulgent. The dialogue of the screenplay is overly blunt and irritating rather than dramatic. (Caviezel allegedly objected to Mel Gibson swearing on the set of The Passionate of the Christ, but here makes up for it and more.)
The message is about humans and their treatment of the environment and Nature turning on the humans. There are various examples of the carelessness of the humans here, indulging in buying expensive camp gear, not respecting Nature and littering, encountering mysterious creatures in the sea, finding people murdered – and the marriage falling apart.
The film does not have the horror elements of the original – but, for those who have not seen it, it is a contemporary look at humans versus the environment.
1. The impact of the film? As a drama? Relationships? The environment? Respect for Nature? Nature attacking humans?
2. The location photography, the city, the roads, the old hotel, the bush, the beach, the ocean? The musical score?
3. The basic plot, the husband and wife, their clashes, going on the camping holiday, her reluctance, his insistence? The drive through the rain, getting lost in the bush? Nature, fear? The deterioration of the marriage?
4. The characters: Peter, his buying the camping gear, his work, the American background? His relationship with Carla? The years of marriage, the tensions? The reasons? Preparing for the trip? Her reluctance? His eagerness? The plan to meet their friends?
5. The trip, the dark, the tensions in their conversation, memories of the past? The friends? Arriving at the hotel, the reaction of the locals? Peter and his assertion? Giving the message to their friends? Getting directions?
6. Driving in the dark, going around in circles? Finding their spot, setting up the camp? Carla and her reading, wanting mod cons, resenting the camping? Going off on her own? Peter and his going into the water? Her seeing the mysterious creature? Their finding the creature, puzzling over its death? The days passing, the difficulties? Peter and his seeing of the caravan and the people? His later returning and finding them dead? Carla and the bickering, the sleeping arrangements, the tents, the intrusion of Nature? Peter and his wasting things? Littering?
7. The build-up to the climax? The antagonism, the fear? The feeling that Nature was turning on them, the creatures, the attacks?
8. The end of the weekend, the deaths, the return? The future?
9. The message about Nature, respecting Nature, the small details, the environment, consumer attitudes? Animals, creatures? Life and death?
