Sundance 2011 Review: Mad Bastards
Sundance 2011 Review: Mad Bastards
A tale of hard men seeking redemption from their violent ways in the Australian Outback
Australia has had a strong tradition of intriguing cinema going all the way back to the Seventies, when Peter Weir, Fred Schepsi, George Miller, Gilliam Armstrong, and various other Ozploitation directors took advantage of their surroundings and came up with fun and provocative films. Alas, Crocodile Dundee, The Crocodile Hunter, and nearly all the original talent being bought out by Hollywood put a damper on our public perception of that country. I’m pleased to say though that Mad Bastards, screening at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival while simultaneously premiering nationwide on VOD, is a fresh, sometimes brutal, but powerful exploration of life at the edge of Australia’s Outback and the Aboriginal people left at the margins to fend for themselves.
Set in the Kimberley region of northwest Australia, Mad Bastards cross weaves the lives of two men and one boy, TJ (Dean Daley-Jones), Texas (Greg Tait), and Bullet (Lucas Yeeda). Immediately setting the tone, the film opens in the dead of night as Bullet, a 13 yr-old kid, throws a lit Molotov cocktail at an abandoned house instantly setting it ablaze and shocking his friends. He is summarily picked up by Texas, the local sheriff and the boy’s hard but sympathetic grandfather; Texas’ beat is a small town within the Kimberley – a large, mud flat covered territory in the Northwest that is nearly inhospitable. Texas loves his grandson and is fearful of his increasingly defiant behavior as well as his alcoholic mother Nella (Ngaire Pigram). Meanwhile, down in Perth, we are introduced to TJ (short for Thomas), as he visits his brother in jail, agreeing to take a wooded toy to his nephew despite knowing the troubles it will cause.
Tall, squarely-built, and showing little emotion, TJ has lived a hard life with plenty of drinking, carousing, and any number of criminal activities. More importantly, he is driven by an intense anger that he refers to as “little man with an axe” living inside of him, causing him to lash out at others. Case in point, a friendly pool game between ex-con friends quickly escalates into an all-out brawl with only TJ standing in the end, bleeding and stumbling out. Looking to make a change in his life and let go of all this anger, he decides to travel up north to Kimberley to reconnect with Bullet, the son he abandoned thirteen years ago. Hitchhiking across the country, he deals with a varied assortment of Aboriginals like himself, scraping by for work and living in desolation. As TJ makes his journey north, Texas enters Bullet into a special camp for troubled youth. Ran by an old friend, Texas believes that rather than putting his grandson in lock up and turning him into a young criminal, this experience will calm and center the boy enough to reflect on what he has done.
The camp leader proceeds to teach Bullet and the other kids deep into the wilderness without supplies, teaching them to hunt, fish, and fend for themselves. In the process, the vast open spaces of nature settle these youths as they slowly learn to become men. After finally arriving in Kimberley, TJ immediately meets Texas and tension begins building. Fearing for his grandson’s safety, Texas keeps a wary eye on this “mad bastard”. Like Bullet, TJ finds that being within nature is calming; he reconnects with Nella, herself dried out from drinking after constant sickness and domestic abuse, and comes face to face with his son. Complications ensue of course, leading to a direct conflict between grandfather and father for the boy’s future.
Directed by music video maker Brendan Fletcher, Mad Bastards hearkens back to Australian cinema of the Seventies, with its wide-open, Fordian landscapes, and simple tale of hard men looking for second chances. Shot using a non-professional cast, the film is actually a documentary wrapped within a fictional narrative as nearly all the major characters are thinly veiled versions of their actors. Fletcher and his team scoured the Kimberley, listening to local stories, trying to create a story that reflected this place as accurately and honestly as possible. Their tale of once-wild men attempting to change their self-destructive ways rang true for Tait and Jones, since both men were former drinkers and fighters in real life. Their on-screen battle is a matchup of grizzlies battering each other down, deep in the desert.
The film also documents Aboriginal life that divorces it from any patronizing tribal depictions and shows them as regular folks trying to make do in a harsh landscape with little economic opportunity available. They come across as proud and normal, not seeking much fuss but unwilling to back down to others. Acting as a Greek chorus are famed Aussie musicians and co-producers The Pigram Brothers, whose reggae-affected folk songs provide a boisterous energy strong enough to lift one out of the dark emotional swirl while also obliquely commenting on the story.
In terms of tone, Mad Bastards feels very much like an Aussie western as directed by Sam Peckinpah (without the guns), focusing on outcasts trying to survive and stay true to themselves as they fight against self-destruction. For the keen viewer, there may certainly be subtler layers to explore in relation to the depictions of Aboriginals; at the very least, the honest character portrayals and wrenching emotions easily qualify this film for multiple viewings.
To learn more, go to www.sundanceselects.com
