By Brendan Fletcher (writer-director of “Mad Bastards”)
Brendan Fletcher
I spent a lot of time in the “frontier” region of Australia making documentaries and short films over the last 15 years. The people, the landscape and just the harshness of the place — it is just all so cinematic, and I decided fairly early on that I wanted to bring the amazing experiences I’d had and the feeling I’d felt to the big screen.
The northwest of Australia (called the “Kimberley”) is a wide open land on the edge of the desert, and its main industry is cattle. So just like the Wild West in the U.S., it’s basically cowboy country. But right alongside the cowboy thing, the aboriginal culture of tens of thousands of years ago is thriving too. So what you’ve got is a region that feels like you’re walking around in a Western...
Brendan Fletcher
I spent a lot of time in the “frontier” region of Australia making documentaries and short films over the last 15 years. The people, the landscape and just the harshness of the place — it is just all so cinematic, and I decided fairly early on that I wanted to bring the amazing experiences I’d had and the feeling I’d felt to the big screen.
The northwest of Australia (called the “Kimberley”) is a wide open land on the edge of the desert, and its main industry is cattle. So just like the Wild West in the U.S., it’s basically cowboy country. But right alongside the cowboy thing, the aboriginal culture of tens of thousands of years ago is thriving too. So what you’ve got is a region that feels like you’re walking around in a Western...
- 1/26/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
By Brendan Fletcher (writer-director of “Mad Bastards”)
Brendan Fletcher
I spent a lot of time in the “frontier” region of Australia making documentaries and short films over the last 15 years. The people, the landscape and just the harshness of the place — it is just all so cinematic, and I decided fairly early on that I wanted to bring the amazing experiences I’d had and the feeling I’d felt to the big screen.
The northwest of Australia (called the “Kimberley”) is a wide open land on the edge of the desert, and its main industry is cattle. So just like the Wild West in the U.S., it’s basically cowboy country. But right alongside the cowboy thing, the aboriginal culture of tens of thousands of years ago is thriving too. So what you’ve got is a region that feels like you’re walking around in a Western...
Brendan Fletcher
I spent a lot of time in the “frontier” region of Australia making documentaries and short films over the last 15 years. The people, the landscape and just the harshness of the place — it is just all so cinematic, and I decided fairly early on that I wanted to bring the amazing experiences I’d had and the feeling I’d felt to the big screen.
The northwest of Australia (called the “Kimberley”) is a wide open land on the edge of the desert, and its main industry is cattle. So just like the Wild West in the U.S., it’s basically cowboy country. But right alongside the cowboy thing, the aboriginal culture of tens of thousands of years ago is thriving too. So what you’ve got is a region that feels like you’re walking around in a Western...
- 1/26/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Mad Bastards is one of the most average movies I've seen at this year's festival. It's a family drama wrapped in a road trip disguise, following a drifting father who treks across Australia to meet his 13-year-old son for the first time. I felt like the movie had an opportunity to raise an original voice, but the plot points were so tried-and-true that the film was incredibly predictable and felt more like something that had to be endured rather than enjoyed.
Even though the film is set in Australia - one of the most gorgeous landscapes on Earth - the cinematography was average at best, failing to capture the beauty of the area in an original or impressive way. There are plenty of location montages, but they all feel lifeless and uninteresting. The "sense of place" that Michael Rapaport was so brilliantly able to express in his documentary about A Tribe Called Quest...
- 1/25/2011
- by benp
- GeekTyrant
Machine Gun Preacher
Opens: 2011
Cast: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon, Madeline Carroll, Kathy Baker
Director: Marc Forster
Summary: After finding God, drug-dealing biker Sam Childers renounces his outlaw ways and embarks on a spiritual path, becoming a crusader for hundreds of desperate and helpless children who were being forced to become soldiers in war-torn southern Sudan.
Analysis: Despite taking the freshly rejuvenated James Bond franchise and nearly destroying it with the very disappointing "Quantum of Solace", German-Swiss filmmaker Marc Forster still has a decent amount of good will left thanks to strong earlier efforts like "Monster's Ball," "Finding Neverland," "Stranger Than Fiction" and "The Kite Runner".
Now, in his first film since that Bond outing, Forster returns to serious drama with this true story tale of a biker who became a humanitarian crusader for children in the Sudan. The story itself is fascinating, the born again Sam Childers and...
Opens: 2011
Cast: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon, Madeline Carroll, Kathy Baker
Director: Marc Forster
Summary: After finding God, drug-dealing biker Sam Childers renounces his outlaw ways and embarks on a spiritual path, becoming a crusader for hundreds of desperate and helpless children who were being forced to become soldiers in war-torn southern Sudan.
Analysis: Despite taking the freshly rejuvenated James Bond franchise and nearly destroying it with the very disappointing "Quantum of Solace", German-Swiss filmmaker Marc Forster still has a decent amount of good will left thanks to strong earlier efforts like "Monster's Ball," "Finding Neverland," "Stranger Than Fiction" and "The Kite Runner".
Now, in his first film since that Bond outing, Forster returns to serious drama with this true story tale of a biker who became a humanitarian crusader for children in the Sudan. The story itself is fascinating, the born again Sam Childers and...
- 1/17/2011
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
[1] Writer/director Brendan Fletcher debut feature film Mad Bastards is set to premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The Australian film follows the story of "Tj's quest to find the son he's never known." The journey takes him "across the remote and stunning Kimberley landscape." Here is the official plot synopsis: Tj is a mad bastard, and his estranged 13-year-old son Bullet is on the fast track to becoming one, too. After being turned away from his mother's house, Tj sets off across the country to the Kimberly region of northwestern Australia to make things right with his son. Grandpa Tex has lived a tough life, and now, as a local cop, he wants to change things for the men in his community. Crosscutting between three generations, Mad Bastards is a raw look at the journey to becoming a man and the personal transformation one must make. Developed with local...
- 12/28/2010
- by Peter Sciretta
- Slash Film
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.