Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation

2008

 

What a great documentary this is!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have generally had my fill of documentaries. Most of them are just made by some opinionated blowhard doing everything possible to make it seem that complex, gray issues are either black or white. Just about every documentary is guilty of the selective presentation of facts. If they wanted to make Albert Schweitzer seem like a bad dude, they'd focus the entire film on the one time when he borrowed his neighbor's tools without permission, and ignore his lifetime of altruism. Some documentarians do worse things, often basing their "conclusions" on staged incidents, deliberate misinterpretations, or even outright lies. For the most part, the guys who make documentaries are the same kinds of guys who write letters to the editor, except that they have enough money to buy a camera. In many cases, the documentaries are actually harmful in that they allow a completely false idea to take hold and become common wisdom.

Given that I'm going to have to sit for 90 minutes and listen to the opinion of one or more windbags, the only way you can get me to watch a documentary is if it meets these criteria:

1) It is about a subject I'm interested in.

2) The subject matter is something better presented on screen than on paper.

3) The subject is presented by genuine experts in their field, who offer their insights with intelligence and humor, and present various contrasting points of view.

Check, check, and check.

NQH is the story of Aussie exploitation cinema from 1970-85, and it reflects the similarities and differences between the way B-movies were made in Australia and in the USA. It mixes familiar films with lost cultural artifacts. Because it consists of plenty of actual footage from the films, it is a topic ideally suited to be covered in another film rather than in an essay or on a web page. Intercut with the clips are the reminiscences and insights of the creators and actors looking back at that era, all of whom seem to be filled with charm, self-deprecating wit and funny insider stories. In addition, there are droll comments from film critics, and bubbling enthusiasm from the ultimate genius of the exploitation film world, Mr. Quentin Tarantino himself, who can recite these films frame-by-frame as easily as Kenneth Branagh can recite Shakespearian monologues.

Oh, yeah, and it's filled with nudity. In fact, the first third of the film is basically non-stop nudity, since it's about sex films. The middle third is about horror films, and the final act is dedicated to specialty action pictures featuring Kung Fu, cars, and bikes.

Of course if you were to see the actual films being discussed, you would not share Tarantino's passion for them because almost every one of those 90-minute films probably contains 89 minutes worth of unwatchable dreck, but Tarantino is absolutely right in that they all seem to include a few spectacular and/or memorable moments. Of course, the documentary only shows those moments, so the difference between watching those mediocre movies and watching this documentary is precisely the same as the difference between watching all 13 major league baseball games in a day and watching Sports Center. In fact Sports Center is a perfect analogy, because Not Quite Hollywood is the highlight reel for Aussie B-movies of that era, spiced with funny commentary.

And, unlike Sports Center, it has the additional advantage of tits.

Given that it's informative, sexy and funny, I'd have to say I'd recommend this one to anyone who would be reading this page in the first place.

Here are the clips, commentary and all:

• Susannah York and others in Eliza Fraser
• Sigrid Thornton in Snapshot. (Sigrid looks just as good today, a quarter of a century later.)
• Rebecca Gilling in The Man From Hong Kong
• Nina Landis in Nightmares
• Imogen Annesley in Howling III - (Insider Trivia: this role almost went to Nicole Kidman.)
• Glory Annen in Felicity
• The women of Fantasm (not to mention the legendary John Holmes)
• The women of Fantasm Comes Again
• Cassandra Delaney in Fair Game
• The women of Australia After Dark
• Arna-Maria Winchester in The Chain Reaction
• The women of the Alvin Purple movies.
• "Abigail" in Eskimo Nell.
• The women of ABC of Love and Sex
• The women of 96.