BACKYARD ASHES
Australia, 2013, 90 minutes, Colour.
Andrew S.Gilbert, Felix Williamson, Lex Marinos, Rebecca Massey, John Wood.
Directed by Mark Grentell.
So this is what life in the city of Wagga is like!
This is a small independent film which, unfortunately, had a very limited release. Audiences would enjoy it very much. It is not often that one sees a city council investing in a film but this is what the city of Wagga Wagga has done, and playing with words, it is a Crow Crow production!
The title tells all, or mostly all. A group of men who work in a local factory enjoy playing backyard cricket, especially in the house of Doug Waters (Andrew S. Gilbert). His friends are all rather Ocker types, pleasingly so, with a capacity for some droll one-liners. They include a friend with Japanese origins, and another with Indian origins and his wife. And not to leave anyone out, there is a Kiwi with a very prominent accent and pronunciation a real target as always.
Then there are retrenchments at the factory, one of the cricketers going off with his wife to find work in Broken Hill. And who should buy his house but the very Pommy official who did the sacking? Doug and family can’t believe that Mr Edward Lords is there next-door neighbour. He is come with his wife and, especially his cat, who plays a significant role in the high drama of neighbourliness and grudge matches – and provides ashes. In fact, Mr Lords is particularly British, pomposity personified, prefers to keep to himself, has no sense of humour, and when goaded into the backyard Ashes, finds that he has an intense drive to win.
Most audiences would enjoy the talk amongst the friends, the barbecues in the backyard, the cricket practice, even for Doug’s young daughter. Meanwhile his wife and Mrs Lords become good friends.
When a feline tragedy ensues, what else can rivals do to compensate and make peace but organise a cricket match, local Ashes?
By the time the match actually comes round, the audience will have been chuckling most of the time, at the recognisable characters, at their interactions, at the local dialogue. This means that by the time of the match itself, we are ready to chuckle all the way through and the match provides plenty of opportunity with its rules, the boasting of one of the players, Spock, who also does a cricket commentary parodying Richie Benaud. Mr Lord’s has found a British team – and the screenplay enjoys itself mocking Pommy manners, Pommy attitudes, Pommy b…
2012 saw another cricket film, Save Your Legs, about a Melbourne team which toured India. It was enjoyable but Backyard Ashes should prove itself even more entertaining, taking cricket seriously, but not taking ourselves seriously.
1. Australia and its love the cricket? The UK? Rivalry?
2. Comedy, serious, competition? The audience and knowledge of the ashes? Ashes?
3. A Wagga Wagga film? Country New South Wales, country Australia, the overview of the city, the streets, homes, factory? Low-budget, limited sets? The musical score?
4. The Australian flavour, mateship, family life, people sticking together, drinking, playing cricket, yarning? The ethnic element with Japanese and Indian origin people? Characters?
5. Introduction to the characters, Doug, the central character, his wife, the children, his daughter playing cricket, his son with the camera? Spock, brash and loud, hiding his New Zealand girlfriend? The New Zealand friend, Toby, accent, people ribbing him all the time? The old man, enjoying cricket, retrenched, selling his house, going with his wife to Broken Hill? The Japanese man? The Indian man and his wife? The jokes about bad language? All of the backyard, forming a community?
6. The factory, the community of the workers, playing cricket in their spare time?
7. Edward Lords, his arrival, pompous, meeting the men, his retrenching the men instantly? No compunction?
8. The irony of the sale of the house, Lord’s buying the house, his wife, his precious cat? Snob, solitary? His wife genial, making friends with Doug’s wife? In an out of the house?
9. The barbecues in the yard, the cat – and the barbecue? The Ashes?
10. The reaction, the decision to have the cricket match with the cat’s Ashes? Lords and his accepting? His team and their very British manner and style?
11. Everybody practising for the match, Doug with his daughter?
12. The build-up to the match, sense of anticipation, rivalry?
13. The match, the teams, the Brits and their problems, the rules and scoring, the dismissals? The comedy and cricket-knowledgeable audiences enjoying
the play? Comedy intentions? The build-up to the score and the win? Doug’s daughter and her role? At the end everybody good sports, shaking hands, a drink together, talk, suggesting that Lords lighten up, the effect of cricket and reconciliation?
14. The new cat and the enjoyably joking ending? A genial film for general entertainment?
