THE ODD ANGRY SHOT

Australia, 1979, 90 minutes, Colour.
Graham Kennedy, John Jarratt, John Hargreaves, Graeme Blundell, Bryan Brown, Max Cullen, Richard Moir.
Directed by Tom Jeffrey.

While many Australians died in Vietnam, Australian involvement was supportive of the U.S., comparatively small and the issues and strategies, while clear overall, were not always precisely clear - many odd angry shots. This broad comic view of professional soldiers, bluff and crude, matey and one-upping, joky yet seriously shockable with little knowledge of and sometimes regard for the local people, captures the surface of a year during the war that, for survival, was often mad and lived on the surface. While critical of the war, officials and bloodshed, the film plugs for the soldier with a sense of duty, ignored or frankly praised by those at home. An odd, angry/comic glimpse.

1. The interest and appeal of this Australian comedy/drama? Australian background, involvement in the Vietnam war? The appeal of the ocker comedy? Touches of war drama? Social comment?

2. Colour photography, the use of Queensland for the Vietnam locations and their authenticity? The presentation of Australia? The use of Graham Kennedy and other well-known actors? The Australian atmosphere of the 60s and its authenticity? Vietnam, the techniques for the war film?

3. The significance of the title? The significance of each word and the combination and mood? A comment on Australian involvement in Vietnam?

4. The film as a war film - the presentation of men going to war, patriotic attitudes, training, the participation in the war, missions, waiting? The achievement and the return home? Injuries, suffering and death? Civilians? The film as an anti-war film - the reasons for Australian involvement, America's war, the boring aspects of it, the emphasis on injury, blood and gore? The purposes of being there, futility? The aftermath and the return to Australia?

5. Was the film pro the Vietnam war or anti? The quod aspects of Australian involvement and the issues? The Australian knowledge of the war and its issues? The effect on the ordinary soldier and his presence there?

6. The episodic nature of the film? How much inner logic as the film developed over a year in Vietnam? The presentation of the surface of the men's life? A sufficient picture? Authentic? Humorous, cynical?

7. For what audience was the film made? At what level was it pitched? How seriously? For the response of the popular audience? How valid is this kind of treatment of the war? Its effect on Australia and Australian society?

8. The appeal of ocker comedy? Its nature? That the ordinary Australian with all his foibles is lovable? Language, jokes, drinking, behaviour? The strengths underlying this ocker humour? The critique of Australian attitudes?

9. The attitudes of the Australians in Vietnam? Considering themselves as some kind of hero? How fair were they towards one another, towards the Vietnamese? Their prejudices? The unpleasant attitudes e.g. with the boy robbing them in the city and their handing him over? The callous touches in their treatment of the Vietnamese? A picture of ugly Australians as well as sympathetic ordinary soldiers? How realistic is this?

10. The film's presentation of the war itself - the futility of the immediate objectives and the lack of awareness of the overall strategy, the continued boredom, the jungle atmosphere and the frequent rain showers, the isolation, the masculine community in which they had to live and survive, the sudden eruption of violence and injury and death, the medical work, the isolated way of life with all its limitations? Ingenuity for coping? The mad behaviour to relieve the situation? What insight into the war situation in its day by day style did the film give?

11. The portrait of the group and the focus on the group? Enough detail given? Their backgrounds, training? The unit to which they belonged and our not seeing them in a great deal of action? Professional and not drafted men? Their skills and lack of them? Comradeship, working together, playing together, friendships, clashes?

12. The importance of the incident with the American group, the spider fight and the brawl afterwards? The humour of this, as a symbol of what was going on for the soldiers in Vietnam?

13. The picture of the Vietnamese themselves - generally unseen, infrequently seen, the villagers, the seeming lack of sympathy after massacres, Saigon and the prostitutes, the boys and their thieving, the soldiers and hostilities? A soldier's eye of the Vietnamese with all its limitations?

14. The being on the ground as contrasted with being at headquarters? The importance of the verbal fight and the hostilities between the complacent man at headquarters and the ordinary soldiers?

15. Graham Kennedy's performance as Harry? As a leader, his capacity as a soldier, his jokes and the attention given to these, drinking, his story about his art work, the long story of his wife, how moving? His attitudes towards the war, to the men, keeping them together? The ending and his being with Bill and the rueful reflection on their experience in Vietnam? Could audiences identify with him? Judging the Vietnam situation in him and through him?

16. Bill as the other focus of attention? His place in the opening, the young man going off to the war, younger audiences identifying with him? The party and the great attention to detail of people there, enjoying themselves, the drinking and the dancing, the talk, Bill and his girlfriend and sexuality, her promising to write and the irony of her not doing this? Her presence in his dreams and the significance of the isolated male and his sexual needs as illustrated in the dream? Bill and his future and the importance of the war in that future? His ordinary life? His presence in Vietnam, one of the ordinary men, his successes, his reacting morbidly to the situation, drinking, not receiving letters, the incident with the prostitutes? The importance of his helping Bung in his grief? The fact that he was a survivor?

17. The film opening with the party and the party elements and the reprise at the end with Bill and Harry drinking and reflecting on what had happened in that year?

18. The character of Bung - jokes, dress, talk, the spider fight and the brawl? How moving was the sequence of the news of the death of his wife? The mission and the effect on the others of Bung's own death?

19. The portrait of the other men - Scott and his injuries and dying? The more blase characters, the quiet characters? The details of incident in card-playing, drinking, talking, the showers of rain? Seeing them in their missions especially the final mission at the bridge?

20. The presentation of men in general in Vietnam? the officers, those in charge of administration, giving out equipment, the ordinary soldier and the bets etc.? A glimpse of life in Vietnam?

21. The overall impact of the film - comic, serious? How much was given to the audience? how much had to be supplied by audience knowledge, feeling and experience?