Starstruck (1982)

[rlr]

Hi there

just wondering if there were any fellow fans here of this rather quirky classic of Australian cinema?

Starstruck on imdb

good story, excellent music and great fun. i have an ex-rental VHS of it from Australia, and eventually tracked down a lavish 2 DVD set of it from the USA.

the soundtrack was quite work to get too - never been out on CD (which is a shame as there are some amazing songs), at least managed to get an original tape and the vinyl of it, also from the States.

i would be thrilled if just so much as one other person here has even heard of it!

[TheRoadWarrior]

rlr, I'm watching quite a lot of Aussie cinema at the moment, and looking for any recommendations. This sounds interesting, can you give us a brief write-up?

[TheRoadWarrior]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toKqHnumjog

Youtube appear to have a few clips, interestingly, so it can't be completely unknown.

[rlr]

Hi

sure - a talented young singer called Jackie Mullins is trying to free herself from the family pub by gaining a singing career. she is aided by her young cousin, Angus, who writes songs and promotes her big time, and well beyond his 14 years.

a series of publicity stunts and trying to exploit one or two in the industry eventually leads them to trying to crack a big Sydney talent show at the Opera House. as the pub is in dire financial straits, there's double reason to try and get in and win.

the funny story and wonderful acting are matched by an astonishing soundtrack. the clip you posted, Road Warrior, is my 2nd favourite off the film, the number one song from it though is the Neil Finn (Crowded House / Split Enz) penned Body and Soul

Body and Soul from Starstruck

part Cinderella, part kitchen sink drama, part somehow anticipating the likes of Pop Idols, it's an ambitious film that delivers 100 minutes of sheer fun.

as an aside, as far as anyone can work out this film is the debut of one Geoffrey Rush - a blink and you will miss appearance as a technician on the stage at the Opera House.

[rlr]

TheRoadWarrior, as an aside i was living in Aus when this and Mad Max 2 came out. both were pretty much compulsory viewing for everyone in the country at the time, so i got to see the film that i would imagine you took your name from at around the age of 10!

i can't really think if any other "big" Aussie films that came out beyond those two. i would imagine you've seen it, but a quirky one called Dead End Drive In is worth a mention.

[TheRoadWarrior]

Yes, I borrowed the name from Mad Max II, which I think played as The Road Warrior in Australia, but in the USA, or so a citizen and fan over there informed me once, Mel Gibson's voice was dubbed, because of fears that it wouldn't play so well in front of American audiences.

You're lucky catching it on the big screen, I watched the third instalment at the flicks, and the two earlier films on VHS. By the time Tina Turner appears you can see that HW big money is being pumped in. There have been mixed receptions to Mad Max III, it could have been far worse, but then again, some say it's the best of the bunch. I quite like it. The music is powerful, one of its virtues.

Personally, as with many other films I try not to always apply the Donnie Darko test, remember that one, you get to feel 'love' or 'fear' and that's it! All other emotions are suspect! Ha ha. Or reviews.

But, anyway, I felt the humour and gags in III, that sort of 'knowing' wink to the audience that we're all in on the joke began with Mad Max III, as cinema seemed to go that way afterwards in action films, perhaps that sort of dumbing-down was going on consecutively elsewhere?

However, your film, sounds interesting. Did you like Strictly Ballroom, 1992, I saw that recently and it was a blast, full of humour and life and grotesque characters and nutballs, but a genuinely fresh romcom?

I don't know Dead End Drive, actually, so thanks -- I'll be sure to look that one up!

That's the strength of forums, there are so many films out there that you find hidden gems, occasionally.

ps - I noticed you said that prior to SA you were from 'Borough? I think they call it that, had an Art School friend who studied up there and called it 'Borough!', but it was a bit of a culture shock for him, the 'hard' north or something like that! Ha ha.

[rlr]

Hi

Mel's voice was dubbed for the first Mad Max internationally, but they didn't bother for all 26 words he spoke in Mad Max 2! it was Mad Max 2 in everywhere in the rest of the world, but The Road Warrior in the USA as they felt that the first film was not well known enough. oddly and somewhat infuriatingly all the DVD releases are of The Road Warrior, which is the cut to ribbons R rated version, yet the Blu Ray is the full uncut version with Mad Max 2 as the name. why not put that on DVD too?

as for Mad Max III, if i recall it was just before Lethal Weapon and Mel was being touted as "the next big action star", rightly so as it turned out. i think the idea was to throw big money at it but tone it all down to get him to a wider audience and yet still make money off the "cult" following. i recall Barry Norman suggesting it should rather be called "Slightly Cheesed Off Max" as he was nowhere near as Mad as in the first two!

yeah, Middlesbrough gets called Boro or The Boro! for me it will always be home, of course, but quite a few of us have moved away when the chance arose

must confess to having not seen Strictly Ballroom, i take it as the advice is to check it out?

good luck with Dead End Drive In - the trailer promises one thing and the film is rather different, but for a low budget attempt to try and cash in on "more Australian films like Mad Max" it does not carry the "cheap cash in feel" that it perhaps should, if that makes sense?

now that i think, another Aussie 80s film comes to mind - Razorback. i am pretty sure it was the first film from Russell Mulcahy (spelling, sorry), a couple of years before he went on to make Highlander.

[drterror666]

now that i think, another Aussie 80s film comes to mind - Razorback. i am pretty sure it was the first film from Russell Mulcahy (spelling, sorry), a couple of years before he went on to make Highlander.

That's one pig you don't want to mess with!

[TheRoadWarrior]

Interesting, I probably watched it as Mad Max II on VHS, but bought the Universal boxset when it was going on offer? As you do!

Razorback, haven't watched it yet rlr, wasn't sure if it was my cup of tea, wasn't that Russell Crowe's debut film?

That Barry Norman quote rings a bell.

Mr Norman though, very funny, I still remember his review of Platoon to this day, he gave it quite a drubbing, he kept mentioning the "I've got a bad feeling" which is said by several of the characters leading up to the final battle. It's like everybody is saying over half an hour or so, "I've got a bad feeling!" and we think, 'they've all got a bad feeling, this battle is not going to go well'.

I liked Platoon, around fifteen of us went to watch it and my one mate who was joining the Royal Marines was giving me updates on techncal errors throughout, ha ha...
shut up, watch the film.

[rlr]

i quite like how this thread has panned out - perhaps one day anyone who has actually seen Starstruck will find this thread and comment away too!

in the mean time, i don't recall if Russell Crowe was in Razorback, i certainly don't remember him but it will be a good 20+ years since i saw the film last! how's this for nostalgia - the Razorback i saw was a Thorn-EMI video release, one of those ones that had a massive essay on the back instead of pictures and that! the film probably isn't for all tastes, but it was one that i remember as being "above average" and so you may want to add it to the list of Aussie cinema.

the Warner rental tape of Max Max 2 (probably pre-cert) certainly had the proper name on it. i bought the WB Classics tape and that came up cut with the Road Warrior name instead.

Barry Norman was king for me!

as for Platoon, i wouldn't know the first thing on any technical errors and to say one "enjoyed" it is not the right word. if i can get the wording right, the image and the idea of the film tend to stick with me more than anything in the actual film itself? when it comes to Vietnam films, not being expert on the actual subject, i would cite Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter and indeed First Blood as the ones to watch, Platoon coming in after those.

since we're diverting away, First Blood forms a big part of a parallell universe thing i've got going on. say Peter Finch didn't die and Stallone got the Best Actor Oscar he should rightly have done so for the first Rocky. how would his career have gone? i am pretty sure they would have allowed First Blood to end like it did in the book for a start. but then we would not have got some of the ace action films we did, i suppose?

[TheRoadWarrior]

With Crowe, Romper Stomper was the film I was confusing Razorback with, I know of Razorback now... it comes back, distantly...ha ha.

Yeah, Barry Norman is very good, he still writes in the Radio Times.

Yeah, we went off-track some, but film fans do, I find, we digress and compare, if somebody has seen Starstruck, they'll jump in I'm sure.

I went through a Vietnam War film phase in the 1990s, watching them all, I've probably seen Apoc-Now too many times, but largely because of Vittorio Stararo's cinematography, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Storaro and the music of the Doors. Spellbinding when it's all together, 70s films were great of course from all directions.

Yes, re First Blood, by chance I've also read the book in recent years and have an interesting guide to writing by David Morrell, inside he discusses Rambo in asides or as an example of a point, he also produced novelisatons of how he felt the other films should run, and these were very diferent to the results. They were largely ignored, I believe.

I spoke to David Morrell around that time bizarrely, he provided some background info on his writing and we may have discussed Rambo briefly, I'm not sure. It's a few years ago, nice guy. I may have mentioned that in here somewhere.

I've also read Testament, by Morrell. Similar stuff, a manhunt/pursuit story.

http://www.amazon.com/Testament-Davi...4496546&sr=1-1

[rlr]

i am unfamiliar with that book you mention there by David Morrell, will have to add that to my list to read thanks!

i've got the paperback editions of First Blood and Rambo that came out around the time of Rambo First Blood Part II being released - i seem to recall there's a bit of an essay or introduction in Rambo that explains the book exists "because of the film changes". your other comments are interesting because i am almost certain the Rambo novelization has him as the author and i am sure it was very close to the finished film?

as for Apocalypse Now, absolutely everything all together makes it one of the greats.

[Kel E]

Oh I see your Mad Max post here now Road Warrior. Might as well continue here then...Yeah I remember the dubbing in the first Mad Max. On the sequel and how it was more action oriented, I wonder if Humungus was meant to be a jokey reference to Darth Vader--he's kind of a low rent version-in some ways a parody figure, and at the time Darth Vader was quite iconic in the media (also portrayed by a bodybuilder with a similarly bald and deformed head). Coincidence maybe but...and you know this was before Conan the Barbarian as well and yet the most muscular speaking character-- a throwback to sword and sandal as well perhaps...

I saw Platoon in the theater-though wasnt really into the war genre. Seen Apocalypse Now a couple of times but found it boring beyond the most famous sequences. The documentary on it was interesting but I was put off by the animal cruelty and have never really cared for Coppola's non-Godfather movies that I have seen.
I have one version on dvd unopened just never got around to watching it. Overall war movies are way down my list except for the cartoony types like Rambo or Predator.

[TheRoadWarrior]

I remember now, we were discussing MM earlier in films watched, I didn't go far enough back, sometimes a good idea to copy in the post you're responding to, as we bottom feeders get lost at times naviagating.

You'll also have to forgive us boys and the Vietnam films, I think they appealed to males, strangely, the war genre when it's WWII is damn relaxing to watch, I have a friend who uses the old b&w war films just to switch off to after a hard week.


back on Max, yeah, there does seem to be a lot of influences in MMII from westerns, and that Conan feel, i wondered if it referenced T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland, you know, the great post-modern poem, and the defenders of the oil refinery man those battlements like angels, in white, a bit Milton there, the tribe on the outside are a bit like Satan's followers, cast out and down onto the burning lake, and they want back into heaven, or just some oil !

It did so much as a film, one review said something like 'this is a noisy film.... ' That's the thing, it's a mythic flim, I like the way, via the narrator, that these are old memories, the little boys, and Max is long gone, a bit of pathos, he's probalby dead by the time the film starts, or an old man, out there in the wasteland, or so it seems.

But no, he turns up in III, and Tina Turner wants him to overturn Bartertown! Ha Ha.

My last para is probably nonsense, and idiosyncratic, but I like to try out a few curve balls now and then on thinking about or interp. films.

[Kel E]

I remember now, we were discussing MM earlier in films watched, I didn't go far enough back, sometimes a good idea to copy in the post you're responding to, as we bottom feeders get lost at times naviagating.

Took me a while to figure out where you were talking about Mad Max! Plus my written articulation skills seem to be taking a nosedive this week-loss of brain cells maybe.

Re: War movies. Well in Canada since we were never really participating in any leadership capacity in wartime perhaps it wasnt the sort of thing that resonated culturally. I completely forgot about it until I remembered seeing the Navarone movies a long time ago and wanted to watch them again. There was however some interesting WW2 propaganda radio out of Canada-- a sci-fi type series imagining an Axis powers takeover of Canada-- one where "Canadian" Vincent Price throws his Japanese overlord into a rock grinder is quite amusing. And another where Orson Welles was late for the show and the producer had to do an imitation of his voice until he came on the air! But I digress dont I..

[drterror666]

Yes, you do!

Meanwhile, about a film called Starstruck...

[thehamish]

...and here was me thinking twas a scifi road movie (groans....hey, i love puns....)

[rlr]

Yes, you do!

Meanwhile, about a film called Starstruck...

i think it's safe to say i be the only one here to have seen all of the film!

[MarcMorris]

I've seen it, I also have the Blue Underground DVD.

[rlr]

I've seen it, I also have the Blue Underground DVD.

yay, i am not alone! if it is of any interest to collectors, the DVD features a song and scene - It's Not Enough - that was only in the theatrical cut. the Australian video tape I have has it removed, presumably for time reasons to get it on a 90 minute cassette?

I assume that as you have the DVD of it you too are a fan?