DEAD-END DRIVE-IN

Australia, 1986, 88 minutes, Colour.
Ned Manning, Natalie Mc Curry, Peter Whitford.
Directed by Brian Trenchard Smith.

Dead- End Drive -In was a strong commercial success, focusing on a strange future (in the vein of Escape From New York, The Ultimate Warrior etc). It is geared to the youth audience with some social comment. However, the style is of the road exploitation film: slam-bang action, one-dimensional comic strip presentations, smart dialogue, the use of sex and violence for popular appeal.

It was put together by director Brian Trenchard -Smith, an expert in spectacular stunt work from The Man From Hong Kong, Death Cheaters, Stunt Rock, Turkey Shoot, Frog Dreaming. (The Man From Hong Kong, and Turkey Shoot are among films screening at the Dead- End Drive- In!)

The film opens with a prologue about the disasters of the late 80s and shows a totalitarian state with many youth unemployed in the early '90s. The drive-in is a compound for occupying youth - and possibly eliminating them.

The film has expert stunt work, relies on its sets and decor for the grimy future - all filmed around Sydney's Bunnerong Powerhouse and the suburbs around Botany and Matraville.

The film was based on a short story by Booker Prize-winner, Peter Carey.

1. The popularity of the film? The exploitation and themes? For a young audience? Australian? worldwide?

2. Panavision photography, Sydney and Botany locations? The roads? Night? The drive-in's squalor (and the films being shown)? Expert stunts, styles, effects? Musical score and songs?

3. The situation in Australia: the prologue, the catastrophes with the Bicentenary, South Africa, energy crisis? The squalor of the city? Role of Government? Police? Detention camps? The material for a pop fable?

4. The fable and story-telling: in broad strokes, broad situations, one-dimensional characters, striking incidents? The comic style and pictures painted in primary colours? A way of communicating themes at a popular level?

5. The cars, crashes, ambulanc2, TV and media, the police, tow trucks, pay-off? The Can Boys and their scavenging? Suggestions of a collapsed society? The glimpses of ordinary society with shops, streets?

6. The Car Eels and their appearance, gangs, scavenging? Unemployment, boredom? A violent and ugly city?

7. Frank and his size, his big car, truck? in action? With the police, the pay-offs? A code for Jimmy?

8. The focus on the drive-in? The focus on its title and the emblem of the star? Style? Jimmy and Carmen daring to go, in Frank's car? The encounter with Thompson? The film (Turkey Shoot? The irony of the film seen commenting on the action? Drive-in behaviour, youth, sex? The stealing of the wheels and Tom's pursuit, the irony of the police taking them? Reporting to Thompson, discovering the truth, being trapped? Settling in to live in the drive-in, sleep, meals, tickets? The crowd? Jimmy reacting while Carmen was absorbed? Looking after his car, stealing, the car smashed? Flaunting independence? Alienation? The gang and their types, using dirty tactics to beat Haza? The Asian? His stance? Thompson and his offering to help, the clash? , His plan to leave, watching, driving, stealing the truck, the crash? The shoot-out and Thompson's death? Carmen not wanting to go? The bid for freedom and the spectacular stunt? Driving along the highway? Character, type, symbol?

9. The contrast with Carmen? Her not wanting her parents to know where she was? The drive-in, sex? Her reaction to the situation, conformist, meeting the girls, joining with them, getting her hair done? alienation, sexual repercussions? planning to eat? Wanting to stay? Her discussion about her lack of a future? Her going to the meeting about the white group? Her not being able to leave?

10. The gang: Dave and his size, leadership, tough, the two-up games, swagger? Haza and his ugliness, the dirt, Don and his stammer? Their acting tough, contempt for others? The arrival of the Asians and their bigotry? The urinal sequence? Mouthing White Australia cliches? Their attitudes towards the girls? The girls' group, girl talk, hair and fashions etc.? Beth and her helping Carmen to settle in?

11. Thompson as the manager, at the gate, pleasant, his computer, sinister reaction to people and the rules of the drive-in, his contact with government and police, the computer lists and the drive-in's filling up? Wanting to help Jimmy? Telling his story? Giving Jimmy away? The shoot-out and his death?

12. The police, the government, cars, the Asians being brought in?

13. The Asians and White Australia Policy - the satiric presentation of the bigotry and platitudes?

14. Themes of youth, unemployment, future? The drive-in as a Microcosm? Exploitation? Action? A film for youth, '80s style?