Rebel (1985) User Reviews

Not so bad, not so good.

[pmitsi-1 · 6/10 · 5 February 2009]

Before the films from down under became such a delicacy (Strictly Balroom etc) this movie tries its best and, even though it doesn't accomplish much, still makes an impression that separates it from many other similar with it.

A very very young Matt Dillon and then Pop diva make a bit awkward couple, but Debra Byrnes manages to earn some sympathy from the audience (and an AFI nomination for Best Actress). The story is a bit too much melodramatized and the last scene is a bit too extravagant, given the fact it takes place in a club and not an opera house.

However, the song that Byrnes performs ("Heroes") made quite an impression to me and I still remember its lyrics even after 20 years or so that I have seen it.

Yanking Abroad.

[ptb-8 · 5/10 · 14 February 2005]

Matt Dillon, imported almost directly from The Outsiders (and later Something About Mary) with Australia's one time Pop Queen Debbie Byrne made a rather awkward couple in this 1985 Cabaret musical set in World War 2 Sydney. Produced by local entrepreneur Phillip Emmanuel and taking full advantage of the tax concessions of the time (the infamous 10BA, much rorted here in Oz by unscrupulous 'film makers') REBEL tries very hard to en-ter-tain you whilst clobbering you with 80s kitch 40s style. Most everything in the film is a garish pink or red, with tin icon decor of Sydney and local actors yelling their lines at each other through very broad slang. Matt Dillon plays a soldier AWOL who hides out in Debbie's apartment and apparently falls in love with her. It is all sort of all right. In 1982 a better musical was produced here called STAR STRUCK and REBEL supplants all the OZ kitchery into a 1943 period harborside wharehouse nightclub and adds raucous musical numbers. Only one is really good; most are not. Today it is a curiosity of an attempt at having US stars in Oz pix for overseas sales possibilities. Many films were cast like this like THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER with - believe it or not - Kirk Douglas (!!!!) and Rebel is in this mould. Maybe that should be mold. Dillan looks good, pouts, kisses Debbie and ultimately goes home. It was a reasonable success in its day...but now...all a bit squirm inducing. It would be interesting to see if it is still on Dillon's resume. I think at the time he might have had more fun in real local nightclubs than on the set of REBEL.

Not just a Turkey but a Hen Turkey!!

[yenlo · 1/10 · 30 April 1999]

Is Hell a real place? I don't know but if it's anything like sitting and watching this movie I know I don't want to go there. I experienced just that in a theatre in San Diego with this picture. This film is just plain BAD!!!

High Cost of War

[alicecbr · 8/10 · 3 November 2006]

As more and more of our soldiers come home from Iraq with life-altering head wounds, this is a commentary on what exists for them. Dillon plays the dull-witted Marine who is suffering from concussions and battle fatigue, now called PTSD. He wanders around the nightclubs AWOL, which makes the fact that he is termed 'shell-shocked' make plausible why he would be out in the public like that.

A married nightclub singer, doing a great impression of the Andrews Sisters with her fellow chorines, takes him under her wing. This costs her, as the nosy landlady is continually messing in her business and finally really screws both of them.

There is a lot of "Orpheus Descending", that famous French film, in this movie....as the MPs cycle in and out of the movie, always on the pursuit. Exactly what you ominously see throughout that film: definitely setting a mood.

Matt Dillon does his usual excellent job, as he portrays the 'out-of-it' Marine, desperately needing love and solace...but still savvy enough to use his looks to lure the lady in, still the aggressive male. You wonder how he has enough self-protective instinct to keep driving, as she repels his advances, but he does. (Else you wouldn't have a movie).

This one is not as nuanced as his more recent films, where he has grown as an actor (see "Crash" for an example of how a good actor portrays the bad and good in a person). However, it shows a lot about the atmosphere of that time, when AWOL was one thing, but desertion was a hanging offense. You'll pick up a lot of little-known facts about wartime life in this one.