BACKLASH
Australia, 1985, 90 minutes, Colour.
David Argue, Gia Carides, Lydia Miller.
Directed by Bill Bennett.
Backlash is the work of writer-director Bill Bennett (A Street To Die). He takes a police story, writes a screen treatment of it - and then hands it over to his actors to improvise dialogue and situations. Thus the film is an interesting experiment - perhaps somewhat self-conscious at times, David Argue, good as a serious actor as well as a comedian, gives some intensity as well as some comic touches to Trevor. Gia Carides is good as the policewoman, Nikki. Lydia Miller does very well in the central role of the aboriginal woman, Kath.
The film uses the road genre, the journey to establish its characters and make its points. The film focuses on the double backlash of white feeling against blacks and black feeling against whites. There is a surprising dramatic and bloody ending highlighting the difference between Anglo Saxon law and aboriginal law.
1. The significance of the title, white and black backlash?
2. The colour photography, the Sydney scenes, Quandong, the openness of the New South Wales roads and countryside, bush and desert, old country sheds, country landscapes? Musical score?
3. The style of the film: the contribution of the writer director, the contribution of the actors, and their improvising? Editing and pace? The selfconsciousness of the film's style? Musical score?
4. The focus on Kath, aboriginal, her work, the bar? Don Smith and his harassment, touching and feeling her? The sex sequence? His wife's seeing him? The focus on the garden shears? His death? Mrs Smith, the hundred dollars? Audience assumptions about Kath's responsibility?
5. The Sydney scenes, Kath's arrest, the return to Quandong? The setting up of the journey genre?
6. Kath: the handcuffs, her quiet dignity, being referred to as Boong, the journey in the back seat, running away, the hard treatment, Trevor and Nikki and their comments, abuse? Cuffed to the tap, the executioner setting her free? Caught? The meal in the cafe? Being watched at the toilet? The motel, the sleeping arrangements, the room, tensions? Trevor and Nikki asking identical questions about where she was from, children? Her answering Trevor, not answering Nikki? The length of the
journey? Tensions? Easing of tensions? The short cut, their being stranded, her knowing the old place, the waterhole, fishing with her stocking, the yabbies, the wood and the fire, tracking Nikki, the swim? Talking with Trevor, the death of the aboriginal boy? Sleeping with him? Running away, tracking Nikki? The shearers on the bikes? The return to Quandong, the story, telling the truth? Her being saved? Mrs Smith? Her return to the sheds? Her future? The status of the aboriginal woman, her experience, treatment? Innocent victim?
7. Trevor and the young rough big-mouthed Australian policeman, getting on with the job, the car, the handcuffs, the cuffing of Kath to the tap, the chase? The clashes with Nikki and the bickering? Differing points of view? His attitude towards her being a law student? His own background and being well-known? The motel, the watch with the gun, his attitudes towards himself, the underpants, the mirror? Meals? The short cut and his ineptness? Swimming, fishing? Passing the ute? Tracking Nikki? The story about the drug bust and his being framed? Talking with Kath, sleeping with her? The help? The arrival at Quandong, the interview with Mrs Smith, attacking her? The return? The scales, retrieving the gift? The sudden impact of his death?
8. Nikki and her work in the police force, attitudes towards the law, boyfriend, father, the scales, study? Her experience? Attitudes towards Trevor? Bickering with him? Her humane attitudes towards Kath? The cafe, the fresh fish and the arguments? The motel, the watch, the gun? Stranded? Sharing the experience, the water, the fish? Trevor's story? Her wandering oT Helping Kath? The bonds with Kath and with Trevor?
9. The executioner and his being seen by the audience, the departure and seeing his legs, cutting Kath free from the pipe, tracking the car, finding the shed, the lament, the spearing of Trevor?
10. The Smiths and their treatment of aborigines, Don Smith and his callous attitudes, his death? Mrs Smith and her praising Kath? Kath as scapegoat?
11. Aboriginal traditions, aboriginal sensibility, knowledge, tracking?
12. Justice and Anglo- Saxon law, Nikki's course, rules, pedantic interpretation? The contrast with Payback, the explanation? In the desert? The aboriginal boy and the executioner? The irony of Trevor's death? His not having killed the boy and his helping of Kath?
13. The contrast between the country and the city, the country bars, the police station, the cars, the cafes? Breakdown? The hot and dry desert? Nature, the birds and their flight?
14. The challenge to the audience? Raising of consciousness about aboriginal questions?
