WINDRIDER
Australia, 1986, 92 minutes, Colour.
Tom Burlinson, Nicole Kidman, Jill Perryman, Bud Tingwall, Simon Chilvers.
Directed by Vincent Monton.
Windrider is an entertaining youth film: predictable, glossy, complete fantasy. It was written by Everett de Roche (many thrillers including Razorback, Frog Dreaming) and Bonnie Harris. The director is Vincent Monton, cinematographer on a number of successful Australian features. The setting is Perth and its beaches.
The hero is the Man from Snowy River himself, Tom Burlinson. Though short in stature (shorter than heroine, Nicole Kidman), he is full of self-confidence and charm and carries the film along. Nicole Kidman is a pop singer (she starred in many features including Bush Christmas, BMX Bandits, Wills and Burke). The supporting cast has some substance with Bud Tingwell, Jill Perryman and Simon Childers.
The film works well as a synthetic commercial adventure for young audiences.
1. Impact for young audiences? Youth? Sport? Enterprise? Relationships? Success?
2. The Western Australian locations: city, homes, beaches? An Australian setting?
3. The beaches, the surf, the action sequences, stunts? The musical score, songs, (echoes of the theme from Jaws)?
4. Tom Burlinson's style as P.C.? Height, blond and tanned? Affluent? Fantasy hero? His gifts, house and regularity in the morning, accurate timing? His relationship with his father's secretary, and her sternness? His job, efficiency? Meetings and talking out - and audiences discovering the Chairman was his father? His engineering skills and ideas, creativity of his associate? Their use of computers for inventions and perfecting surfboards? In the water, the waves, the 360 degree turn? Glimpsing Jade? Friends, rivalries? At the bar, seeing Jade, pursuing her: flowers, the tow-away truck? The episode with the shark? Their falling in love with each other, the affair (and the fashionable style for the sex scenes)? The break between the two, moods? Not doing well at his work? The secretary and her sternness, giving him a good talking-to? The wisdom of her criticism? Jade's criticism of his selfishness? Not understanding his father, not reaching out - the visit to his father, the discussion about the car? His hurting his engineering associate? The new techniques (and the glue)? The championship, the dirty tricks and getting him to go to the wrong beach, his adventures in getting there (sheep, into the water, onto the board)? The success in the championship? Type, personality, opportunities, selfishness, relationships? His future?
5. The windriders: the group, friendships, life on the beach? Coyate and rivalry? The dirty tricks, the phone calls, the hands stuck by the glue?
6. Jade and her work with the band, her hard work, long recording sessions, seeing P.C. turn, being pestered by him, response, the shark incident, the affair and its effect on her, her being hurt by his selfishness, not seeing him, the phone call, present at the championship?
7. The sketch of P.C.'s father: on the Board, head of the firm, the satiric touches - yet a friendly man, reaching out to his son, the sequence at home with the car, watching the television?
8. The secretary and her toughness, giving P.C. a good talking-to? Motherly advice? The sketches of the other members of the staff?
9. The inventor, computers, ingenuity?
10. Contemporary, breezy, popular and contrived - with the human touch? The impact of this kind of contemporary fantasy?
