The Coca-Cola Kid (1985)

Director:

Dusan Makavejev

Writers:

Frank Moorhouse (screenplay)
Denny Lawrence (additional dialogue)
(more)

Release Date:

14 July 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

A movie felt never so refreshing!

Plot:

An eccentric marketing guru visits a Coca-Cola subsidiary in Australia to try and increase market penetration...

Plot Keywords:

Coca Cola | Australia | Love | Secretary | Work Ethic

Awards:

8 nominations

Cast

Eric Roberts	...	Becker
Greta Scacchi	...	Terri
Bill Kerr	...	T. George McDowell
Chris Haywood	...	Kim
Kris McQuade	...	Juliana
Max Gillies	...	Frank Hunter
Tony Barry	...	Bushman
Paul Chubb	...	Fred
David Slingsby	...	Waiter
Tim Finn	...	Philip
Colleen Clifford	...	Mrs. Haversham
Rebecca Smart	...	DMZ
Esben Storm	...	Country Hotel Manager
Steve Dodd	...	Mr. Joe
Ian Gilmour	...	Marjorie
David Argue	...	Newspaper Vendor
Linda Nagle	...	Marching Girl
Julie Nihill	...	Marching Girl
Fiona Hallett	...	Marching Girl
Ricky Fataar	...	Rock Musician
Mark Moffatt	...	Rock Musician
Paul Hester	...	Rock Musician
Rex Goh	...	Rock Musician
Jane Markey	...	Doris
Mick Conway	...	Country Band
Palz Vaughan	...	Country Band
Kim Cook	...	Country Band
Jim Niven	...	Country Band
Kim Constable	...	Country Band
Angelo D'Angelo	...	Projectionist
Gia Carides	...	Chambermaid
David Bracks	...	Santa
Ian Nimmo	...	Santa
Scott J. Ateah	...	Santa (as Scott Ateah)
Bernard Ledger	...	Santa
Chris Hession	...	Santa
Peter Armstrong	...	Security Guard
David Roe	...	Quarantine Officer
Pola	...	Shirley
Deborah Conway	...	Girl with Camera (as Debbie Conway)
Adam Bowen	...	Flight Steward
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul Dowsey-Magog	...	Smoking Man (uncredited)

Directed by
Dusan Makavejev

Writing credits
Frank Moorhouse		(screenplay)
Denny Lawrence		(additional dialogue)
Frank Moorhouse		(short stories "The Americans, Baby" and "The Electrical Experience")

Produced by
Sylvie Le Clezio	....	co-producer (as Sylvia Le Clézio)
Les Lithgow	....	executive producer
David Roe	....	producer
Djordje Zecevic	....	producer

Original Music by
William Motzing

Cinematography by
Dean Semler

Film Editing by
John Scott

Production Design by
Graham 'Grace' Walker

Art Direction by
Anni Browning

Set Decoration by
Martin O'Neill		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Terry Ryan

Makeup Department
Lesley Vanderwalt	....	makeup artist
Jan Zeigenbein	....	hair stylist

Production Management
George Mannix	....	unit manager
Sue Wild	....	production supervisor (as Susan Wild)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Stephan Elliott	....	third assistant director (as Stephan Elliot)
Bojana Marijan	....	assistant director
Ian Page	....	second assistant director
Phil Rich	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Toby Churchill-Brown	....	art department runner
Alison Goodwin	....	art department assistant
Brian Hamill	....	set painter
Keron Hansen	....	set construction
Tony Hunt	....	props buyer
Karan Monkhouse	....	stand-by props
Martin O'Neill	....	set dresser
Dennis Smith	....	construction manager
Dick Weight	....	set construction

Sound Department
Greg Bell	....	additional sound editor
Helen Brown	....	sound editor
Gethin Creagh	....	sound re-recording mixer
Dean Gawen	....	sound editor
Philippa Harvey	....	assistant sound editor (as Phillippa Harvey)
Paul Huntingford	....	assistant sound editor
Mark Lewis	....	sound recordist
Martin Oswin	....	sound re-recording mixer

Special Effects by
Bob McLeod	....	steam wizard

Camera and Electrical Department
Dean Bryan	....	electrician
Colin Deane	....	camera operator: second unit
Alan Dunstan	....	best boy electric
Tex Foote	....	generator operator
Darren McLaughlin	....	electrician
Irvine G. McLaughlin	....	key grip
Andrew McLean	....	camera operator: second unit
Richard Merryman	....	focus puller
John Morton	....	gaffer
Patrick Nash	....	assistant grip
Jim Sheldon	....	still photographer
Mark Sullivan	....	clapper loader

Casting Department
Jo Hardie	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Heather McLaren	....	stand-by wardrobe
Judith Parker	....	wardrobe assistant
Cheyne Phillips	....	costume coordinator

Editorial Department
Philippa Harvey	....	assistant film editor (as Phillippa Harvey)
David Malacari	....	post-production coordinator
Frans Vandenburg	....	assistant film editor

Music Department
Gerry Nixon	....	music recording engineer

Other crew
Scott J. Ateah	....	unit security officer (as Scott Ateah)
Dixie Betts	....	production assistant
Fran Burke	....	title designer
Kylie Burke	....	assistant to director
Marguerite Grey	....	assistant location manager
Evanne Harris	....	camel wrangler
John Horton	....	wrangler: kangaroo
Peter Imaru	....	assistant to producer
Denny Lawrence	....	additional ideas
Denny Lawrence	....	shadow director
Bernard Ledger	....	security officer
Grant Lee	....	production assistant
Alan Marco	....	production assistant
Robina Osborne	....	production assistant
Hendrik Prins	....	production assistant
David Voight	....	pilot: Tiger Moth
Carol Walsh	....	secretary: producer
Jo Weeks	....	continuity (as Joanna Weeks)
Peter Willard	....	liaison: laboratory
Tony Winley	....	location manager

Production Companies

• Australian Film Commission, The
• Cinema Enterprises
• Grand Bay Films International Pty.
• Smart Egg Pictures

Distributors

• Palace Pictures (1985) (UK) (theatrical)
• Palace Video (1985) (UK) (VHS)
• Vestron Video (1986) (USA) (VHS) (Pan and Scan)
• Aquarius TV (1995) (Greece) (TV)
• Aurora (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2009) (Australia) (DVD)
• Cinecom Pictures
• Film Gallery
• Front Row Entertainment (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Hollydan Works (1998) (Yugoslavia) (DVD)
• Pole Vídeo Comunicações Ltda. (198?) (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Blue Mountains City Council  thanks
• Cinesure Underwriting Agencies  insurance
• Clark Film Services  transportation
• Colorfilm Pty. Ltd.  sound mixing
• Film Finance  completion guarantee
• Forcast  casting
• Kaos Catering  catering

Also Known As:

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:15 | Australia:M | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Sweden:7 | USA:R | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Australian Film Commission, The

Trivia:

This film was produced without the knowledge or consent of the international offices of the Coca-Cola Company. However, since both the company and its product were depicted so favorably in the film (as well as the film being free advertising), they took no legal action against the parties involved.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Terri is getting dressed, she has the pants pulled up and is starting to pull up the suspenders. The shot shifts and she is just pulling up the pants.

Quotes:

Terri:If we got sex out of the way, we could relax.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Brows Held High: Sweet Movie (#1.8)" (2011)

Soundtrack:

Home For My Heart

About Two-Thirds of a Really Fine Movie and Then an Awful Mess of a Last Act

The opening titles for The Coca-Cola Kid make it clear that the film is in no way sponsored by Coca-Cola or the Coca-Cola bottling company. Obviously the company felt comfortable enough with the final product to let the film use their name, but it's hardly a glowing picture of the soft drink giant. In The Coca-Cola Kid, Coca-Cola is the face of American Imperialism. When company trouble shooter Becker (Eric Roberts) declares, "The world will not be truly free until Coke is available everywhere," he's speaking without irony. This film, then, is about Becker's attempts to help Coca-Cola colonize Australia, but what starts off as a film of comic promise and originality becomes bogged down in convention and cliché to the point that it's difficult by the final reel to remember what was so appealing at the beginning.

The Coca-Cola Kid fits nicely in the genre of American Corporate Fish Out Of Water tales. If you've seen the delightful Local Hero, for example, you'll know that no matter what kind of tough American goes off to the rural wasteland, he'll change, enlightened by the small town quirks and wisdom he was meant to subvert. That's not really giving anything away in this film, because the last act doesn't play out as you expect. In fact, it hardly plays out at all.

Becker arrives in Australia to help boost lagging sales. It turns out that there's a whole region of the country where no Coke is sold at all. Becker, a former marine with the proverbial "unorthodox way of doing business," discovers that that region is ruled over by T. George McDowell (Bill Kerr) a gruff man of homespun wisdom, but more importantly, homemade soft drinks, made from real fruit. Even though their first encounter is rough, Becker is determined to fight off the advances of his secretary-with-a-secret (Greta Scacchi) and the hotel waiter who mistakes him for an arms dealer to do the job he was sent to do.

Directed by Dusan Makavejev, The Coca-Cola Kid develops a wonderful momentum early on. In fact, the first hour of the film is an absolute gem. Eric Roberts's performance to that point is perfect. His presentation to the bemused Coke officials is comic gold, as he waxes poetic about the fizzy beverage, even holding it up to the light bathing the room in its brown glow. Roberts's early scenes with Scacchi have a nice screwball touch and his interactions with Scacchi's moppet daughter provide a nice depth for the character, hinting at something beyond his intensity. There's a nifty sequence where Becker enlists a studio band to try to come up with the "sound of Australia" where they go through several absurd suggestions before coming up with a truly catchy jingle.

I'm not sure how far it is into the movie, but for me things begin to go south immediately after that recording session. For reasons completely unclear to me, the secretary has Becker invited to a party to catch him in an awkward position. This involves completely random intimations of homosexuality and ends of feeling both forced and pointless. The scene is so clumsy that it leaves a bad taste that begins to spread.

It rapidly becomes clear that The Coca-Cola Kid isn't going to omit a single convention of Australian culture. You want an old bushman with a diggerydoo (inevitably misspelled, but my dictionary is letting me down)? You've got it. An adorable wounded Kangaroo? Bingo! And a slightly inbred man singing a rousing chorus of "Walzing Matilda?" Yup-Yup. In fact, the vision of Australia put forth by the film is so cookie-cutter that it's hard to feel bad about the culture being overrun by American interests. You support Coke because you figure they're at least putting forth a good product.

Eric Roberts's performance finally ends up being a little infuriating because he's not given any opportunity or reason to be anything other than amusingly scary. The film falls apart at just the point you wish Roberts would go through the obligatory character alteration, but there's just no chance. He's stranded. Ditto Scacchi. She adorable and makes the sexiest Santa in the history of cinema, but her character's payoff is weak. Bill Kerr is excellent for the most part, but you can't help but feel that his cagey old Outback Vet is a character we've seen a thousand times.

The Coca-Cola Kid's best and most consistent feature is its cinematography by Dean Semler. The Oscar winner (for Dances With Wolves) does what the script and director can't do -- he creates the ironic counterpoint between the Outback, the big city, and Eric Roberts. The film has a dynamic look which, unlike the narrative, doesn't fall apart at the end.

I do feel bad about only giving this movie a 6/10, but I guess I should have just turned it off early. Off to drink a Coke...