REDBALL

Australia, 1999, 91 minutes, Colour.
Belinda Mc Clory, John Brumpton.
Directed by Jon Hewitt.

Redball is a small-budget police thriller set in Melbourne. It is presented in chapters, focusing on a police investigator, Detective J.J. Wilson (Belinda Mc Clory) and her partner Detective Robbie Walsh (John Brumpton).

The title refers to a police breakthrough and the successful resolving of a case. The case in point in this film is a series of murders of children, by a murderer called Mr Creep.

While the investigation is important, the film’s focus is also on the range of police corruption in the Melbourne ranks. Small examples are given of bribes, deals, setting prostitutes free in exchange of sexual favours. The older police are corrupt – but the younger men are drawn into this kind of ethos.

The investigation and the police corruption take its toll on Detective Wilson, who is caught up in the behaviour herself, threatening witnesses... Eventually, the case is solved. However, the film is more a portrait of police rather than the investigation.

The Melbourne settings are well used – and the director uses some stylistic flair in his photography. Jon Hewitt wrote and directed other films including Bloodlust, Acolytes, X. He is married to Belinda Mc Clory who collaborated on the films with him.

1. The impact of the film? Visual? Aural? Realistic? Stylised?

2. The structure of the film: chapters, self-contained, pieces of a jigsaw?

3. The colour photography? The city of Melbourne? The river? Police precincts? The atmosphere? Dark? The musical score?

4. The portrait of the police, for and against? Those who did their job, with devotion and sense of duty? The presentation of temptations? Exercise of power and abuse? Corruption? The chain of command? Cover-ups? The cutting of budgets? The nature of surveillance, deals, prostitutes, sexual favours?

5. The title, the series of corpses? The success of an investigation? The presentation of the corpse floating in the river – and the police missing it?

6. Ethical issues, J.J., the introduction, the interrogation, the psychologist? A good detective, trying to do the right thing? Her age, experience? Her perspective, job and duty? The quest to find Mr Creep? Her experiences, leading to a breakdown? Her wanting to be free with the investigation? Her partner, working with him? The women? The clues? Uncovering the chain of command? Confronting Brown? Robert and his being shot?

7. The character of Robert, suave, pleasant, working, with J.J., supporting her? His death?

8. The media, the cases? The response of the public? Media pandering to the public?

9. The killer, the investigation, the sadism of the murders? Interrogation? Finale?

10. American police thrillers and audience familiarity? The detectives, the cases, their methods? The Australian variation on these themes?