High Road

TO

Nowhere...

MOVIES

FIGHTING BACK(***) has received rather lukewarm response from the local press but it deserves a better go. However, bleak films about handling problem children, are not the stuff of great commercial success, particularly not in these austere times.

The film is based on the true story of John Embling who has, since his experiences, packed it in with the Education Department and set up a rambling house in Melbourne where he is currently working on the problems of disturbed kids in the area. A measure of his success is that he has a non-recidivist rate of 100 percent.

In the film John (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) has been assigned a new school where he runs up against Tom (Paul Smith) a 13year-old who is disturbed and recalcitrant. John, unlike most of his fellow teachers, does not resort to the strap to punish problem behavior and through a series of clashes manages to win the trust of the boy and his mother (Kris McQuade).

It's unfortunate that Tom is so unrelentingly perverse in his behavior that he loses audience sympathy. The rather late revelation of the reasons behind his behavior seem perfunctory.

But Michael Caulfield has directed superbly and is ably assisted by wonderful performances, particularly from Paul Smith, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Kris McQuade and Robyn Nevin. But there's a lingering feel-

ing that most of the audience will side with the school's deputy in recommending a good beating to kids who disobey the rules.

SMASH PALACE(***) if you missed it is worth tracking down. A superb marital conflict drama from New Zealander Roger Donaldson, it explores the breakdown of a marriage and of the husband who has brought his cosmopolitan French-born wife back to the anonymity of the boondocks of New Zealand.

The wife Jacqui (Anna Jemison) is stifled by small town life while Al (Bruno Lawrence) has a sort of redneck mentality that revels in it. As the marriage disintegrates Al becomes more attached to his daughter, Georgie (Greer Robson). After the family splits, Al's violence begins to flare through a series of unfortunate events.

Al kidnaps his daughter and flees to the hills with her, and the resultant manhunt puts paid to Al's attempts at any sort of reconciliation. Donaldson (who wrote the script) imbues his characters with a human quality which makes it difficult to side with either husband or wife, although the violence with which Al reacts to many situations, while believable and understandable, make him the underdog.

Smash Palace is a great piece of film making which deserves to be seen.

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WHAT can you say about High Road To China? (**) As a movie it's crass, stupid, badly made and enjoyable pap. This enjoyment is due in no small part to the sparks that fly between new macho superstar, Tom Selleck, and his leading actress Bess Armstrong.

She's the spoilt and headstrong young heiress and he's the seedy and drunken owner of two planes for rent in Istanbul in the 1920s. They band together to search China for her father.

The plot is thin and lifeless, the period detail almost non-existent and the whole thing is directed with staggering ordinariness by Brian G. Hutton.

Tom Selleck in High Road To China

But it's impossible not to like the role reversal, Armstrong as the cajoling, badgering, dominant partner and Selleck always trying to score off her and being taught a lesson in feminism before the final clinch. It's another of those old "you can no sooner separate love from hate than you can the two sides of a coin" routine.

Selleck has that cheeky charm that Burt Reynolds possesses and uses to great effect and also has enough macho swagger and braggadocio to capture the imagination of male audience members. Not a great work of art but interesting enough to while away the time.

Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Caroline Gillmer and Paul Smith in Fighting Back

THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER (***) is superior soap opera. Based on a story by Rebecca West, the screenplay was penned by Hugh Whitemore and the direction is by Alan Bridges.

Alan Bates goes off to World War I and comes back with 20 years of his memory erased. His wife, Kitty (Julie Christie) is an upper class snob and is shocked to find Chris (Bates) remembers nothing of her and everything about his affair with dowdy lower class Margaret (Glenda Jackson). And just to throw even angst into the works, Chris is also loved by repressed cousin Jenny (AnnMargret).

The acting is brilliant, particularly from Ann-Margret, Glenda Jackson and Frank Finlay as Jackson's husband. It's what, along with Bridges' steady hand, makes this film worthwhile.

While attempting to come to psychological grips with Chris's memory loss the novel and the film reveal the flimsy understanding of mental disturbance. The climax of the film is done in longshot and without voices. It perhaps makes it more cinematic but it also manages to be unsatisfying and superficial.

However, as a love story of three women who love the same man and for whom memory loss dredges up unpleasant consequences, The Return of the Soldier is poignant and moving. Watch particularly for the interaction between Ann-Margret and Glenda Jackson and their scene in Chris's child's nursery.

Barry Lowe

Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong in High Road To China

52 CAMPAIGN MAY 1983