The Dish (2000)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Rob Sitch

Writers:

Santo Cilauro (conceived and written by) &
Tom Gleisner (conceived and written by) ...

Release Date:

27 April 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Man's first step on the moon nearly stumbled on earth

Plot:

A remote Australian antenna, populated by quirky characters, plays a key role in the first Apollo moon landing.

Plot Keywords:

NASA | Satellite Dish | Australia | Moon Walk | Space

Awards:

3 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Sam Neill	...	Cliff Buxton
Billy Mitchell	...	Cameron
Roz Hammond	...	Miss Nolan
Christopher-Robin Street	...	Damien
Luke Keltie	...	Graeme
Naomi Wright	...	Melanie
Ben Wright-Smith	...	Nicholas
Beverley Dunn	...	Secretary (voice)
Grant Thompson	...	Mr. Callen
Bille Brown	...	Prime Minister
Bernard Curry	...	Newspaper Reporter
Kevin Harrington	...	Ross 'Mitch' Mitchell
Tom Long	...	Glenn Latham
Patrick Warburton	...	Al Burnett
Roy Billing	...	Mayor Robert 'Bob' McIntyre

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Runtime:

101 min | France:97 min (DVD)

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Netherlands:12 | Italy:T | Australia:M | Chile:TE | France:U | Germany:6 | Spain:T | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Crawford Productions, Box Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Company:

Working Dog

Trivia:

The film is set in the town of Parkes, in New South Wales, Aus., but was actually filmed in Forbes, which is a neighboring town a few miles down the road. The reason for the re-filming is because Parkes has changed over the last 30 years, but Forbes hasn't changed as much - Forbes still looked like a 1960s town, like Parkes did 30 years before.

Goofs:

Factual errors: 40 minutes into the film, Mayor Bob McIntyre puts a record on and dances with his wife to Blood Sweat & Tears 'You Made Me So Very Happy'. But BS&T recorded exclusively for CBS/Columbia at the time and the record on the turntable is clearly a red label Decca pressing.

Quotes:

Rudi Kellerman: What's with the alarm?
Ross 'Mitch' Mitchell: Lets us know it's windy.
Rudi Kellerman: Oh, well I could'a told you that, it's blowin' a bloody gale out there!

Movie Connections:

References "Hawaii Five-O" (1968)

Soundtrack:

Fly Me High

A great feel-good comedy.

This film was extremely hard for me to get into, but once I got interested, I couldn't turn away. The performances were great the story was pleasantly refreshing. After I had seen the small town Irish comedy WAKING NED DEVINE, I was in the mood for feel-good comedies. THE DISH was the next best thing. But, as it turns out, I liked THE DISH far better.

It is a small town comedy set in a rural Australian town during the days preceeding the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, it brought everyone on the Earth together. This film gives an idea as to what it must have been like to see that experience.

The film was a greatly pleasant movie and I was totally delighted to have a film as heartwarming and truly great as this. Sam Neill (JURASSIC PARK) and Patrick Warburton (SCREAM 3, BIG TROUBLE) who I feel are both very good actors take the leading roles of this delightful movie experience. Surely a film that you will want to watch over and over again. I recommend OCTOBER SKY and WAKING NED DEVINE.

THE DISH: 5/5.