Newsfront
The DVD release ofNewsfrontis cause for celebration, as it finally brings one of Australia's most celebrated films to a worldwide audience. The film earned high praise on the festival circuit, and was hailed by many influential critics as one of the best films of 1978, but it remained largely unseen in the U.S. and Europe, even as the Australian film renaissance began to attract international acclaim. With its clever combination of actual newsreel footage and a quintessentially Australian social drama,Newsfrontis a valentine to a passing era, spanning the years 1948-58 when newsreel cameramen were chroniclers of truth Down Under, capturing personal interest stories, natural disasters, political rallies, sports events, and other notable occasions for moviegoers in Australia's pre-television era. Len McGuire (Bill Hunter) and his brother Frank (Gerard Kennedy) are cameramen for competing newsreel companies, CineTone and Newsco, and their professional exploits (both mundane and exciting) are played against a domestic backdrop of complex relationships, such as Len's strained and sexless Catholic marriage, or the erratic affair between Frank's neglected girlfriend Amy (Wendy Hughes) and the politically opinionated editor Geoff (Bryan Brown).As Australia undergoes a series of social and political upheavals and historic events--including a spectacular re-creation of the devastating Maitland flood of 1955--the newsreel creators face the increasingly difficult challenge of defending their own political and ethical boundaries, andNewsfrontachieves unexpected depths of incident and character, both sobering and humorous. As directed by Phillip Noyce (who later enjoyed great success withDead Calm,Patriot Games, andRabbit Proof Fence), the film brilliantly matches form to content, changing its visual style and soundtrack to reflect the evolution of filmmaking that occurred during the time-frame of the drama (for example, transitioning from black-and-white to color and adapting its cinematography to approximate subtle advancements in filmmaking technique). The efforts of Noyce and his collaborators paid off handsomely:Newsfrontwon nearly every major Australian film award, and its remarkable production history is fully explored in an exceptional DVD commentary by virtually every member of the film's primary cast and crew. Other DVD extras include "The Last Newsreel" (a featurette about preservation and restoration of Australian newsreels) and extensive DVD-ROM study materials including an in-depth production history, a generous archive of reviews, and a detailed account ofNewsfront's DVD restoration.--Jeff Shannon