Before the late 1960s American film makers had to work in a tightly regulated system as to what they could portray on screen . The Motion Picture Production Code commonly known as " The Hayes Code " stopped film makers in America portraying sex and violence in cinema . It became more and more difficult to enforce as both cultural and social revolution was sweeping the world and with the coming of " The New Hollywood " in the late 1960s the production code was scrapped . This led to much more graphic films whilst retaining artistic imagination and perhaps no one personified this more than Sam Peckinpah the director of THE WILD BUNCH a film so radically different from other Westerns seen effectively destroyed the genre forever . It was round about the same time feminist social critics described war as " menstrual envy " and this theory of films geared towards men where the male protagonists graphically bleed to death gained credibility in metaphysical film criticism
Regardless of your views of this provocative theory there's no doubt that MONEY MOVERS certainly ties in with line of thinking . Despite being an Australian movie Bruce Beresford seems to taken a blood soaked page out of the Peckinpah book of film making . Very few of the characters have morals or are in any way likable just like you'd get in a film by " Bloody Sam " . The violence is brutal and is summed up by the tagline : " The lucky ones only lost their toes " and this is a film that lives up to its tagline. The brutality is also far more matter of fact seen in a Tarantino or Scorsese picture
It's a film that does play up to the Aussie stereotypes . Men drink beer all the time , are butch and believe that poetry is the sole preserve of " pooftas "but what makes this a memorable thriller is the heart stopping heist at the end with the type of graphic violence which is genuinely shocking . In some ways it's dated ( One of the gang wants to emigrate in Iran if the plan is successful !) and it's a film that is never shown on British TV but along with BREAKER MORANT another film directed by Beresford it's amongst the very best films to come out of Australia
Regardless of your views of this provocative theory there's no doubt that MONEY MOVERS certainly ties in with line of thinking . Despite being an Australian movie Bruce Beresford seems to taken a blood soaked page out of the Peckinpah book of film making . Very few of the characters have morals or are in any way likable just like you'd get in a film by " Bloody Sam " . The violence is brutal and is summed up by the tagline : " The lucky ones only lost their toes " and this is a film that lives up to its tagline. The brutality is also far more matter of fact seen in a Tarantino or Scorsese picture
It's a film that does play up to the Aussie stereotypes . Men drink beer all the time , are butch and believe that poetry is the sole preserve of " pooftas "but what makes this a memorable thriller is the heart stopping heist at the end with the type of graphic violence which is genuinely shocking . In some ways it's dated ( One of the gang wants to emigrate in Iran if the plan is successful !) and it's a film that is never shown on British TV but along with BREAKER MORANT another film directed by Beresford it's amongst the very best films to come out of Australia