Resistance (1992)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Hugh Keays-Byrne

Writer:

Macau Collective (writer)

Release Date:

4 April 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Action

Plot Keywords:

Migrant Worker | Australia | State Of Emergency | Australian Outback | Australian Army

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Lorna Lesley	...	Jean Skilling
Jennifer Claire	...	Ruby
Bob Noble	...	Jackal (as Bobby Noble)
Allan Penney	...	Cy
Mirabai Peart	...	Loretta
Bill Radford	...	Windy
Alastair Buchanan
Helen Jones	...	Natalie
Arianthe Galani	...	Mother
Maya Sheridan	...	Sister
Doris Younane	...	Rosa
Stephen Leeder	...	Col. Webber
Harold Hopkins	...	Peach
Ralph Cotterill	...	Sgt. Maj. Hopwood
Vincent Gil	...	Bull

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Australian Film Commission, The

Effective, but is it accurate?

I know next to nothing about the political and economic situations in Australia but let's hope that 'Resistance' is exaggerating things. Actually, since I haven't heard about the collapse of civilization Down Under in the seven years since this film was made, I suspect that it does. The "time is now," says the introduction, and the Aussie countryside is depicted as a place where hoards of itinerant harvest workers try to eke out a subsistence living while being squeezed by the agribusiness concerns. The situation has gotten so bad that the government has declared martial law and a state of emergency to combat what it calls terrorism by the workers, the majority of whom we see are women. The environment isn't quite as bad as in the 'Mad Max' films, but it's getting there.

There's lots of exciting action in this movie, which is grim but entertaining, and the filmmakers certainly do bludgeon their message home successfully, if forcefully. It's an effective film, yes, but so was John Milius' paranoid right-wing fantasy from 1984, 'Red Dawn.' Does 'Resistance' have any real currency or is it as bankrupt as the country it depicts? Someone closer to the situation will have to answer that one. All I can say is that as a film I thought it had positive merits.

I was surprised to see that the Australian Film Commission had a hand in this movie since the government's armed forces are for the most part depicted as men who have no qualms about fighting and killing their own countrymen (and women), and in some cases they're made out to be little better than psychotic killers.