THURSDAY FILM CLUB

2nd December

Room 005

Screening begins 2 p.m.

This week I have a treat for you: Red Hill has just premiered in the USA and it opens in Australia this weekend – so it’s a rare chance for you to preview this unique film.

Here’s the trailer:



Red Hill is about a young police officer Shane Cooper (Ryan Kwanten) who relocates to the small country town of Red Hill with his pregnant wife Alice to start a family. But when news of a prison break sends the local law enforcement officers – led by the town’s ruling presence, Old Bill – into a panic, Shane’s first day on duty rapidly turns into a nightmare.

Enter Jimmy Conway, a convicted murderer serving life behind bars, who has returned to the isolated outpost seeking revenge. Now caught in the middle of what will become a terrifying and bloody confrontation, Shane will be forced to take the law into his own hands if he is to survive.

A taut thriller which unfolds over the course of a single day and night, and told with explosive action and chilling violence, Red Hill is a modern-day western played out against the extraordinary landscapes of high-country Australia.

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Trivia time - director Patrick Hughes talks about the real town where he shot the film:

Hughes: We shot the movie in a town called Omeo. That was the biggest gold rush town in Australia. Back in 1890 its population matched Melbourne with forty thousand people. You know when you watch a show like Deadwood that’s exactly what this place is like. Beautiful old photographs and drawings and sketches of that bygone era are hanging on the walls of the pub there, because they found one of the biggest gold nuggets in Australia was found in this small town, Omeo where we shot it. And that’s where the National Australia Bank started, because some guy found this huge gold nugget and said, “Can someone look out for this for me?” And some guy put up his hand and said, “I’m going to be called the National Australia Bank.” I was drawn to this town, because (Red Hill) is about old and new. It’s about the changing of the guard. And it’s about a town that is, at its core, is rotting, and it’s dying.

(...)

You know, that town has all those old western frontages, and, you know, because it used to have a population of over 40,000 people, there’s all of these empty houses everywhere. I guess I was looking at all of these small towns and there’s something really creepy about them, because on a Saturday night you could hear a pin drop. You know what I mean? Because everyone lives on these farms outside of the town, and you’ve just got empty Main Street. We had this beautiful sort of Western town.

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(This screening is recommended for Australia class students)