- The Guardian
- Issue #2152
Newsfront: Australian newsreel cameramen chase the news around Australia from just after WW2 until 1956 when television is introduced to Australia, and everyone goes off newsreels. The immensely likeable Bill Hunter heads a cast that includes Judy Davis, Chris Haywood, and Bryan Brown. The film takes in anti-communist hysteria in the mid-fifties, the attempt to ban the Communist Party by referendum, postwar immigration, and the 1956 Olympics, all in a very naturalistic way. Watch for when the voiceover guy spits the dummy on something political, still in his voiceover guy voice, and what Bill Hunter says to a priest who won’t stop badgering him about voting Yes in the referendum.
Do you have a favourite Australian film? Write in and tell us if the Guardian should profile it.
