Spotswood (1992)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Mark Joffe

Writers:

Max Dann (written by) and
Andrew Knight (written by)

Release Date:

July 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

An everyday story about loyalty, betrayal, lust and footwear.

Plot:

An expert on productivity shows wacky workers in 1966 Australia how to run their moccasin factory like clockwork, despite laying off more than half the workforce.

Plot Keywords:

Factory | Moccasin | Efficiency Expert | Efficiency | Australia

Awards:

3 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Anthony Hopkins	...	Errol Wallace
Ben Mendelsohn	...	Carey
Alwyn Kurts	...	Mr. Ball
Bruno Lawrence	...	Robert, Carey's Father
John Walton	...	Jerry Finn
Rebecca Rigg	...	Cheryl Ball
Toni Collette	...	Wendy Robinson
Russell Crowe	...	Kim Barry
Angela Punch McGregor	...	Caroline Wallace
Daniel Wyllie	...	Frank Fletcher
John Flaus	...	Gordon
Gary Adams	...	Kevin
Jeff Truman	...	Ron
Toni Lamond	...	Mrs. Lorna Ball
Jillian Murray	...	Ophelia, Carey's Mom (as Jillian Murray)

Also Known As:

The Efficiency Expert (USA)

Runtime:

Argentina:97 min | UK:95 min | USA:85 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Sweden:7 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Company:

Australian Film Commission, The

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Carey walks past two railway carriages with the word 'VLine' on them. VLine is the trading name of the State Transport Authority. It was formed in 1983 when the Victorian Railways was split into two organisations. However the film is set in the 1960s and Vline did not exist at this time.

Quotes:

[Carey's little brother sees him writing a poem.]
Carey's Brother: Hee-hee-hee. Who's Cheryl?
Carey: No one you'd know. A model.
Carey's Brother: "I wake up with the sun, bright and new. I listen to the sun, and the early morning dew." Dew doesn't make any noise.
Carey: What? Look, it's my poem, I can write what I like.
Carey's Brother: Just trying to help. If I was you I'd stick to drawing.

Movie Connections:

Features "My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?" (1967)

Soundtrack:

Deep In the Heart of Texas

Film captures the working and management class cultures

As an American who lived in Australia for about 3 years, I found that this film captured a lot of "Australianisms" that are hard to pinpoint, but are definitely from the Australian culture and different than the US culture. Probably the most noticeable to me was the worker vs management mentality that is so much more exaggerated in Oz. One of the most ironic things I found about their culture was how much they protested that, unlike England, there was no class system down under. But, to me as an outsider it seemed very class driven but instead of upper and lower classes they were blue collar and white collar.

Overall a touching film which I always wonder how much is going right over the heads of Americans.