Rewatching classic Australian films
In this retrospective series we rewatch Australian films that have stood the test of time.
The Story of the Kelly Gang rewatched – the world's first feature-length film
Our final edition of Rewatching classic Australian films takes us back to where feature-length dramas began: an hour-long, silent, outlaw epic shot in 1906
Babe: Pig in the City rewatched – talking pig returns in grossly underrated sequel
Director and co-writer George Miller has said of his 1998 Babe sequel that like Pinnochio, ‘these stories are for the adult in the child and the child in the adult’
The Piano rewatched – re-examining the erotic via sexually charged music lessons
Jane Campion became the first female director to win the Cannes’ prestigious Palme d’Or with her extraordinary brooding drama of a mute piano player
Emerald City rewatched – Melbourne-Sydney rivalry in a screwball dramedy
Anyone wanting ammunition for either side of the two cities’ longtime argy-bargy will find plenty of zingers in this screen version of David Williamson’s play
The Magic Riddle rewatched – a fairytale mishmash told with chaotic energy
Animator Yoram Gross, the closest Australian cinema has come to a Walt Disney, pilfers from classic children’s tales in a film constantly hopscotching between divergent plot lines
Evil Angels rewatched – harrowing Meryl Streep triumph still packs a punch
Listening to Streep deliver the iconic line – ‘the dingo took my baby’ – will send shivers down your spine all over again
Australia rewatched – a bulky, berserk bush turkey lathered with stereotypes
Baz Luhrmann’s campy, Frankensteinien beast of a film is indistinguishable from the effect of having a crater-sized parcel of glitter dropped on your head
The Man from Hong Kong rewatched – chopsocky fun at a cracking pace
Starring Jimmy Wang Yu and George Lazenby, Australia’s first martial arts movie holds up well
The Silver Brumby rewatched – a natural beauty that doesn't age
It may have been one of Russell Crowe’s first films, but the focus of John Tatoulis’s classic adaptation remains equine over man
Ten Canoes rewatched – ethnographic document meets high-spirited whimsy
Rolf de Heer’s curious mixture of entertainment and anthropology represented the first full-length Australian feature spoken entirely in Indigenous language
Careful, He Might Hear You rewatched – striking visuals in high-voltage drama
An Australian melodrama is lifted by the work of its cinematographer, John Seale, who would later shoot the first Harry Potter film and Mad Max: Fury Road
Journey Among Women rewatched – savagery in racy revenge drama
The making of a period piece about nine female convicts who escape brutal conditions in an Australian penal colony was mired in behind-the-scenes chaos
The Overlanders rewatched – Ealing Studios-produced Australian western
What started as a wartime propaganda film became a large-scale, punchy adventure story – no wonder it’s one of Ridley Scott’s favourite Aussie movies
Turkey Shoot rewatched – video-game carnage in a dystopian future
Before The Hunger Games there was this world-gone-wrong story of a chaotic tournament of death, directed by Ozploitation maverick Brian Trenchard-Smith
The Dish rewatched – heart-on-sleeve drama with a splash of saucer-erotica
If satellite dish porn were a thing, this sentimental account of Australia’s role in broadcasting the Apollo 11 moon landing would be the genre’s pièce de résistance
Love and Other Catastrophes rewatched: a spritzy comedy full of chutzpah
Emma-Kate Croghan’s indie flick has the verbal ping pong of a Kevin Smith joint crossed with the good-natured repartee of a Nora Ephron movie
Phar Lap rewatched – the mystery demise of Australia's finest race horse
Free Willy director Simon Wincer and writer David Williamson produced a captivating if cynical drama that one critic called ‘Rocky with hoofs’
In the Winter Dark rewatched: a psychologically itchy work
The film adaption of Tim Winton’s novel In the Winter Dark blurs the line between drama and thriller and creeps towards a gut-busting crescendo
Lucky Miles rewatched: a smuggler and two asylum seekers walk into the desert
The story of would-be refugees who wash up on Australian shores hardly rings of non-stop hilarity but this is a surprisingly effective comedy
Les Patterson Saves the World rewatched: a spectactular turkey
Australian cinema is not without its jaw-dropping flops and this messy, misjudged Barry Humphries vehicle was one of them – even with Dame Edna
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