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On the road: Backroads (1977), Last Ride (2009)

 


Backroads (1977) and Last Ride (2009) are two Australian road movies with downbeat denouements, both headlined by Australian character actors playing criminals: the former (Bill Hunter) at the outset of his lengthy career, the latter (Hugo Weaving) several decades into his meaty filmography. Backroads, clocking in at an economical 60 minutes, is ostensibly Phillip Noyce’s feature debut, but in tone and style contrasts sharply with his better-known sophomore feature, 1978’s elegantly-made Newsfront. The plot sees vagrants Jack and Gary (Hunter and Gary Foley, a prominent Aboriginal activist of the era) stealing a Pontiac and hitting the open road, collecting other passengers (Zac Martin, Terry Cammileri, Julie McGregor) along the way and running afoul of the law.

Performances are naturalistic, and Hunter’s work as a scum-bum criminal also contrasts with his dignified work in Newsfront and later Gallipoli, not to mention his cantankerous men of influence in Strictly Ballroom and Muriel’s Wedding. His character is coarse and racist towards his Indigenous and Mediterranean travel companions, but genially racist compared to others encountered on the road. The film’s style and 16mm photography—shot by Russell Boyd following The Man from Hong Kong and Picnic at Hanging Rock and before The Last Wave—are similarly blunt but effective. Backroads also utilises Altman-esque overlapping dialogue to good effect, especially in a sequence alternating between conversations in the front and back seats of a moving vehicle. In tackling Australian race relations and injustices, the film foreshadows Noyce's work on Rabbit-Proof Fence a quarter century later. 

 

I’ve reviewed several Australian road movies on DUF—among them Beneath Clouds, Bondi Tsunami, Thunderstruck, Charlie & Boots, and Looking for Grace—and there are many, many more, including Roadgames, Priscilla, Heaven’s Burning, Kiss or Kill, The Goddess of 1967, These Final Hours, and Last Cab to Darwin to name a smattering. Last Ride belongs to this sub-genre, and an even nicher one: the modestly-budgeted humanist drama starring Hugo Weaving as a broken, haunted man or a guardian helping other broken, haunted men (see also Peaches, Little Fish, Healing, and Hearts and Bones). Where Australian road movies are made possible, in large part, by the country’s vast and varied landscapes, the latter genre is made possible, in large part, by Weaving’s participation and clout. In a gnarly turn far removed from his arch work in Reckless Kelly, Weaving portrays Kev, an ex-con travelling to Adelaide with his young son (Tom Russell) after committing a violent act.

There is a familiar rhythm to many Australian dramas of this scale, and indeed Hugo Weaving-led dramas of this scale: dialogue is initially sparse and evasive, characters initially hard, and relationships and motivations initially tentative and tenuous, before layers of the onion are peeled back, crystallising motivations, clarifying plot, and revealing a tender core. While the formula is predictable, these are films about tone and vibe, and director Glendyn Ivin (who later helmed the lovely Penguin Bloom) handles these well and elicits strong turns from Weaving and Russell as father and son. The film also showcases stunning photography by DP Greig Fraser—before his Hollywood ascent with Rogue One, Dune, and The Batman—across South Australia, including the Flinders Ranges, Lake Gairdner, and the Yorke Peninsula.

Ben

 

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