TWO HANDS

Australia, 1999, 102 minutes, Colour.
Heath Ledger, Bryan Brown, Tom Long, Rosie Byrne, Suzie Porter.
Directed by Gregor Jordan.

Two Hands won the AFI award for best film of 1999. The acting awards were won by Heath Ledger for best actor and Bryan Brown as best supporting actor. Gregor Jordan, who had made award-winning short films, then went on to make an international feature.

Two Hands shows a picture of petty criminals around the King's Cross area of Sydney. However, these criminals are also vicious. Heath Ledger portrays a naive young man (whose brother has already been killed by these criminals) who is a bouncer at a nightclub and accepts a small job carrying money to Bondi Beach. However, a series of coincidences means that he loses the money, the young kids who stole the money go on a spending spree, but one of them is killed in a car accident by the criminals. In the final confrontation, Heath Ledger does not have to shoot the criminals - the young girl who had witnessed the death of her friend and the callous disregard of the criminals, shoots them all.

There is a chorus device used by Jordan, a dead man who utters a mixture of ocker rough language insights into human nature as well as quoting the poetry of William Blake and talking about Ying and Yang - and that there is good in every evil person and some evil in every good person.

The film is an odd mixture of serious gangster settings in Sydney, farcical aspects of a bank robbery and how petty criminals should not be glorified, but seen for the ordinary (and sometimes less than ordinary) people that they are. Heath Ledger was to go on to international success with Ten Things I Hate About You, The Patriot and A Knight's Tale.

1. The film winning the AFI award for best film, director, acting? Its popularity with the Australian public?

2. The Sydney settings, King's Cross, the suburbs, homes, clubs, Bondi Beach, banks? The atmosphere of realism about the setting? The contrast with Michael and his appearing from the dead, his facial appearance, his mystical presence, especially in the train? His language, quoting Blake, talking about Ying and Yang? A ghost helping his brother? Final disappearance as the hands come out of the earth to take him down - to Hell?

3. The title and the focus on working with two hands, the skills of two hands, people needing hands for help? Jimmy and his skill with his hands, the possibility of a future in building boats?

4. The prologue: the lurid and vivid colours and music of the credits sequences? The intimations of flame and fire? The group taking Jimmy to be killed? The ghost watching and his comments?

5. Jimmy as a bouncer, no family, not having been in contact with his mother, his dead brother? Working at the club with Les, urging people into the clubs? Seeing the girl from the country, talking, attracted, the photos? The promise to look at the photos when they were developed? Pando and his promising the job? His trusting in Pando and wanting a job amongst the crooks? His skills at boxing - the glimpse of his winning the round (in prison?)? His flat, talking to the neighbourly woman? A good-hearted person? The job, naive questions, taking the car? The death of the woman in the flat and his not being able to deliver the money? Going to the beach, thinking he saw the girl from the country? The swim, the robbery? His desperation?

6. Jimmy going to Deirdre, her help? Warnings? The happy domestic atmosphere with Deirdre's mother? The children? The irony of the petty crims bringing their kids for Deirdre to look after them? (And Pando's phone calls to his wife, love for his children, the scene where he was working with his son on origami?) The plan to rob the bank, Deirdre and her warnings, giving the basic information about the vulnerability of banks, the two criminals and the plan? The phone call to the girl? Going to see her, the pub, being chased in the street, the monorail? The criminals getting Jimmy - and the repetition of the scene where they're about to kill him? The irony of the laundered bullets and his fight and escape? Impressing Pando and his group - and even offering Jimmy a job?

7. The bank robbery, the plans, the simplicity - but the callousness of urging to kill a policeman because he would shoot you? The robbery, the violence, the farcical aspect with the criminal knocking himself out, their having to drag him out of the bank, the getaway and the police shooting the tyres and wheels? Taking the car - and the irony of the spotters for the radio competition choosing that car? The escape? Jimmy and his going back to his flat, the old woman, the girl being there? The promise of the job on the north coast, building boats, going to the airport and getting the tickets? Happy ending?

8. Pando and his gang, criminals, callous, greedy? Power? Yet their limitations of brain power, muscle? Petty criminals in a small pond? Their brutality, murders? Callous talking about them? The irony of playing Scrabble, Pando and his son? Acko and his concern about his car, pursuing Jimmy, the death of the young man wanting his car at the repairs, killing him in the harbour? The killing of the young boy and the callous attitudes?

9. The kids, pickpocketing, in the streets of King's Cross? Getting the money, the spending spree? The accident and the boy being neglected, the girl not giving information to the police? Her sadness, getting the gun, shooting the gang?

10. The girl from the country, naive, awkward, inexperienced? Attracted to Jimmy, the photos, the hotel, the chase, Pando giving her the money for the taxi? Her going home, her deciding to stay and taking Jimmy to her uncle for the future?

11. Deirdre, Michael's wife, with the kids, her mother, the plan of the robbery, helping Jimmy?

12. The device of the ghost, the blend of realism and fantasy? His appearance, manner? Poetry? His helping his brother, his final disappearance?