Backroads (film)

Backroads
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Produced by Phillip Noyce
Written by John Emery
Phillip Noyce
Starring Bill Hunter
Gary Foley
Music by Robert Murphy
Cinematography Russell Boyd
Edited by David Huggett
Production
company
Backraods Productions
Distributed by Home Cinema Group
Release dates
  • 27 June 1977 (1977-06-27)
Running time
 60 minutes
Country Australia
Language English
Budget AU$30,000[1]

Backroads is a 1977 Australian film directed by Phillip Noyce. Two strangers – one white (Jack), one black (Gary) – steal a car in western New South Wales and drive around the coast. The original characters came from a story by Adelaide writer John Emery, with whom Noyce had worked on a short film. Australian reviews of the film were mixed, and it opened commercially in only one cinema.[2]

Plot

Jack and Gary steal a car and head off around the back roads of Western New South Wales. They pickup a trio of fellow travellers - Gary's uncle Joe, a French hitchhiker and an embittered woman. Joe drunkenly shoots a stranger and they are chased by police. The police arrest Joe and Jack and shoot Gary.

Cast

Production

John Emery had written once of Noyce's short films at film school, Caravan Park and pitched him another story, The First Day of Spring about a young aboriginal. They developed the script together.[3]

The film was shot on location near Bourke and Brewarrina in western New South Wales and was funded in part by a $25,000 grant from the Creative Development Branch of the Australian Film Commission.[1] Shooting finished in April 1977.[3]

Reception

The film received mixed reviews in Australia but achieved a better response overseas.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p 313
  2. ↑ "Backroads (1977) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online". Australianscreen.com.au. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson, 1980 p204-205

External links

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