STREET HERO

Australia, 1984, 102 minutes, Colour.
Vince Colosimo, Sigrid Thornton, Sandy Gore, Ray Marshall, Bill Hunter, Amanda Muggleton.
Directed by Michael Pattinson.

Street Hero was directed by Michael Pattinson who had worked in television and made a small-budget film, Moving Out, about Italian migrants making good in Melbourne and moving from Fitzroy to Doncaster. One of the stars of that film was a schoolboy, Vince Colosimo. Pattinson then used him as the hero for this story of a musician – a rock ‘n roll story with a strong soundtrack. However, Colosimo was inexperienced at this time and the film was not such a success. He is teamed with Sigrid Thornton and there is a strong supporting cast including Bill Hunter.

The screenplay was written by the prolific Jan Sardi who was to go on to write Shine.

Vince Colosimo, however, decided to continue acting and this led to a successful career on stage, television and in cinema. He appeared in many films, including Wogboy, and won an AFI best supporting actor award for Lantana.

1. A portrait of youth in an Australian city? The entertainment value? Message? Characters, situations? The importance of the musical background?

2. The portrait of inner city Melbourne: real, artificial? The style of the flashbacks? Home sequences, school, band training, the band on tour? The contrast with the club, the gambling? organised crime? The presentation of the police? An authenticity in locations and feel? A picture of the '80s?

3. The importance of the musical score: music, beat, mood? Songs and the lyrics? The range of musical artists? The lyrics corresponding to characters and situations? The video clip style? The background score by Bruce Smeaton? Editing, pace, movement?

4. The hero of the '80s tradition of film? The Saturday Night Fever, Rocky style? The Italian heroes like Sylvester Stallone and John Travolta? Vince Colosimo presented as this kind of street hero? Anti-hero/hero? The potential of this kind of young man, the background of family, peers? The Italian group and its standing, ethos? Vinnie as hero, victim? His fighting and pattern of his father? The film as a contemporary fairytale? The climb of the young man - and the ending on the top of the world (at least at the top of Melbourne)? The fairy story Vinnie told to his brother and sister? Of the boy who could fly - and Vinnie able to fly? Aggressive, hurt, independent, proving himself, abrasive? The pattern of his father, the love for his mother, the support of his girlfriend, the reaction of the various teachers? A boy wanting to do the right thing? The plausibility of the optimistic ending?

5. The atmosphere of the city streets, the parallel with American images, toughness, poverty, wealth? Violence and greed? Crime? Power? Values, the police, corruption and the law?

6. The opening with the carwash, Vinnie with a clean job, Vinnie later moving through dirty jobs to clean jobs? Taking the car-cleaning job as a hope for the future?

7. The portrait of the underworld: Ciccio and his club, the gambling, the decor, the chandeliers and the Last Supper? Wealth, protection money and its collection, S.P. bookmaking and phone calls, drug movement? Joey, Nino and the henchmen for Ciccio? Loyalties and disloyalties? The contact with Fitzgerald and Richards and the protection of the police? The club, the clients, the prostitutes, the boxing? The Mafia overtone? The comment on aspects of organised crime and Italian connections in Australia of the '80s?

8. Vinnie within this world: his standover tactics, tough? The visualising of the memories of his father and idealising him? His father as a fighter, the cheers? Ciccio's influence? Alternate worlds as possible for Vinnie? The club and George's help, training? The boxing bouts, his runs over the Westgate Bridge etc.? His aggressiveness - but not aggressive enough, his giving up the boxing? George and his reaction, saving him when he was on the run from the police, George telling him the truth? The contrast with Vinnie at home: ordinary adolescent, his love for his brother and sister, telling them stories, tenderness towards his mother, the memories of his father, the reaction against the brutality of the stepfather? Threatening him? The gentleness of the home scenes, meals, the pleasure for Vinnie to be at home?

9. His range of friends, the friends at the club, meeting Gloria there? His suspension from school and his return? The class seeing him as a hero? His proving himself? Miss Reagan and her criticism, his sullenness? Her taunting him? Bonnie Rogers and his rudeness towards her, her friendship, his comments about her being lesbian etc., his later seeing the truth about her when she took him home? Her visit to his mother? The bashings, his being bashed? His decision to go to the band and train with it, the surly attitudes, the change of attitude? The visual impact of the collage of his training to be a drummer, the effect on him, a new life?

10. The rehearsals, the band's performance, achievement? The trophy? The trip, the bashings along the way from the country groups, Freddo and his reaction? The song, cigarette, Gloria and staying?

11. The school background: the staff meeting, the headmaster and the discussion about the toilets, toilet supervision, people being late for the meeting, Miss Reagan, the teacher asleep during the meeting? Miss Reagan and her stiff attitudes? Bonnie and her dedication? Bonnie's challenge and Vinnie's return? A caricature of school? Points being made?

12. Vinnie and the anger of the adolescent? The poses, the tenderness, the sullenness? Bonnie's talk about respect and getting him to earn respect? Her giving him some self-worth, movement to jobs, the search for values?

13. Gloria - Sigrid Thornton's performance as credible? Work, at the club, school? Her delight in playing in the band? Her
mother in France, her independence? Bonnie offering her the place in the band, the tour? The bind with Vinnie, the tour, the tent sequence, her deciding to stay? Her being with Vinnie at the end - at the top of the world? The range of school friends; tough, posing, playing in the band, school comedy style?

14. The background of the police? Fitzgerald and Richards and their contacts? Drug drops, protection, on the take? The visit to Vinnie's? The stepfather and his bashing the mother? Their giving some money to Vinnie to help? The irony of Vinnie then saving their life at the set-up by Ciccio? The ambiguity of the police on the take?

15. Ciccio as the Mafia type, control, using Vinnie, using his father, his henchmen, Joey and Nino and the set-up with Fitzgerald and Richards, Joey's turning, preventing Vinnie from being involved, taking a stance against Ciccio at the end? Loyalty among thieves?

16. The monochrome memories of Vinnie of his father, his father as hero, the contrast with his memory of his father's death? Admitting the reality of his father to himself?

17. Vinnie's mother, her advice, his supporting her, the stepfather and his brutality at the meal, his bashing his wife? The stepfather bashing the mother and shooting her, shooting himself? The significance of Vinnie's talking to his mother genuinely in the hospital (and the nervous laughing response in theatres on the film's release)? His crying? The relationship with his brother and sister? Going to see them at the orphanage, his responsibility as father figure for them?

18. Bonnie and the clash with Vinnie, her support, the gift, hurt and reaching out? The contrast with Miss Reagan, the ugly sequence and her taunting Vinnie in school, slinging off about Gloria, Vinnie's hitting her?

19. A coherent screenplay, episodes and their fragmented style? Reality and memories? A portrait of adolescence and teenage problems? Stylised? The response of Australian audiences of the '80s?