COME OUT FIGHTING

Australia, 1972, 50 minutes, Colour.
Michael Kaparney.
Directed by Nigel Buesst.

Come Out Fighting is a short Australian feature that is worth seeing for several reasons. Director Nigel Buesst, a lecturer at Swinburne Technical College, Melbourne, has made several features including a film about Squizzy Taylor and a film on Melbourne, Bonjour Balwyn. Come Out Fighting was shown to small groups in 1972, but Village/Roadshow screened it commercially with Clint Eastwood's Magnum Force during the 1973/4 holiday period which meant that the film was much more widely seen. It is a good example of local film-making and the quality that can be achieved.

The subject of the film is also of great interest: the loser-aboriginal in the cities. The film's presentation of Al 'The Bomb' Dawson is compassionate as well as critical of the conditions in Australia which produce such a waste of energy and people's lives. The film thus has a documentary tone, some good dramatic sequences, some boxing action footage and some telling satire on the press and T.V. ballyhoo about sport and the exploitation of causes by some University students.

1. This was a short film. How did it quickly create its atmosphere, mood, introduce its themes?

2. How real did you think this world was? The Melbourne world, the boxing, the world of the Aborigine, the world of the University student? Was realism one of the major techniques in this film? What features showed this realism best?

3. Al Dawson - was he presented as an interesting personality? What were his main motivations in life? Why was he in the fight game? How much was his life influenced by the fight world? Was he consciously an Aboriginal? How did he relate to the fight people? Did they relate to him differently because he was an Aboriginal? His drinking? His home life?

4. The atmosphere of the fight world. The promotion, the style, the violence, the brutality, the promotion by T.V. quizzes, etc.?

5. It is said that life is decided quickly for a boxer. He knows during a fight if he has any future or not in this sphere. How was this illustrated in the film?

6. What were the pressures on Al Dawson, as a person, as a person in the city, as an Aboriginal?

7. The girl - was she sincere, was she attractive? Why was
she interested in Al Dawson?

8. The party - what did this add to the film? The type of people there, the comments, the remarks about "Future Shock”? Why did Al go? Did he enjoy the party? Was he being used by the University students? Should he have been involved in their demonstrations? Did they understand him?

9. Comment on the boxing audience. The way that they were filmed.

10. Why was Al a failure? Why did he drink on the important night? Was he a born loser? Did society and the boxing world force him to be a born loser? (The impact of the press interview with him?).

11. What future was there for Al Dawson? The significance of him going on to the highway, trying to move on? The significance of his companion (the friend who had called him up in the middle of the night for a drink)?

12. Was this a good Australian film? Why? Did it offer insight into part of the Australian world?