Why is this film so unkown?

[deleted]

I have to admit that I hate this movie, but the main reason it's obscure has nothing to do with its quality. It's because it was made on a tiny budget and never received a wide release. In Australia in the 80's the federal Labour government wanted to build up our film industry so they introduced new tax regulations to encourage investment. Basically, for every $1.00 you invested you would receive $1.50 back from the tax office. This meant that every man and his dog started ploughing cash into the industry because of the awesome returns. In order to qualify for the 150% refund the film had to be shown at an Australian cinema for one week. The funny thing is that in many cases it was more profitable to show the film for a week, without spending money on advertising it, and then dump it onto video! This is why in the 80's & 90's you'd go to rent a video and find all sorts of bizarre movies, often starring quite big Australian names, that you'd never, ever heard of. The tax rules are long gone and most of these 80's movies will never get a DVD release, but WTGAD will always be available in some sort of format because Herzog is so highly regarded internationally.

this film is so unknown because it forces Australians to confront how horrible they have treated Indigenous Australians. i don't think it has anything to do with Herzog's budget. he's an international acclaimed director and would have no problem getting the publicity for this film. think about what was happening during the 80's, the Bicentennial celebrations, Indigenous Australians were only just getting rights to vote, or being counted in the census.

this is a great film and should be recognised as one of Herzog's finest works.

Well, it is pornographic in the recent DVD release.
The chapter menu is scrambled (!) and the film transfer is
appalling. In the courtroom scene, the film quality is so bad, it looks like the figures in the back are wavering in a heat wave.
My ancient French-subtitle copy of it from a VHS is sadly better looking.
The colors are grainy and garish, and the sound transfer terrible. It sounds murky.
Most pornos get better treatment nowadays.

No, it's not Herzog's best at all.
That reserved for his other stuff.
This, like some of his 'lesser' films can be tedious, boring, bombastic, and utterly pointless to many. Perhaps even self indulgent, like Herzog only cares to indulge in a personal mysticism that involves long tracking shots of exotic scenery set to German synth-techo scores, or aboriginal style insturments and voice-work.

But hey, to each their own. ;-)



I got a recipe for that. Fricasee of reptile.
Very good.
Much better than your dogfood.
~Road Warrior~

Why unknown?

Herzog is not as widely known or appreciated as his fans might wish.

There might be some reluctance for the masses to rush to 'serious' cinema shot in Aus, preferring to stick with 'silly but safe' efforts like Croc Dundee.

I haven't seen DVD or VHS versions, but the cinematography - as seen in cinema - was typically exquisite Herzog. Having spent a bit of time 'out there' in South Australia's desert regions, I thought that the sometimes alien feel of the landscape was brilliantly captured, and it is worth watching a good print for that in itself. I've seen Aus outback depicted in many films, and 25 years on, Green Ants still wins out.

Australia doesn't have a well-supported film industry so a lot of low-budget films get made (then again, multi-million $ 'Australia' sounded like one of the worst wank-fests ever made here - I stayed away in droves).

It could be that there is a reputation for more misses than hits in Aussiewood.

re various comments made -

Correction: Australian Aborigines were counted in the census and given the right to vote circa 1960s, not without some local tensions. At the time the film was made, indigenous land rights were beginning to be fought out in court.

re the trivia comment on the main page, Time - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904108,00.html - says (of the Nabarlek uranium mine)

"The ore, buried just beneath the sere landscape in easily accessible formations, is less than 200 yds. from an area known in aboriginal religion as Gabo Djang (the Dreaming Place of the Green Ants). The aborigines believe that if the hallowed ground is desecrated, the insects giving the place its name will turn into man-eating monsters that will ravage the world...The ½-in.-long insects are already more than a picnic annoyance: they abound in the area, living in trees and leaping out to bite intruders. More important, the ants at Gabo Djang are believed by the aborigines to be descendants of the godlike Great Green Ant. They revere the great ant as one of the spiritual beings who established all the patterns of human life and can still influence them for good or ill."

I have stayed in Darwin for long enough to know that the green ants are real enough, but if you ask me they don't have dreams, they have homicidal nightmares.

The court-room scene is allegedly based on a real court-room incident at that time.

Finally, by and large, Australians do not adopt racial terms of abuse for minorities of other countries. If I used the 'N' word here for African Americans (or African Africans for that matter), I would be banned in a split-second.

So unless it is your intent to use terms of racial abuse and denigration, please avoid terms such as 'Abs' and 'Abbos'.

btw I am a fifth generation Anglo-German Australian, but I see no benefit in going round insulting people just because their heritage is not my own, and I make it my business to avoid doing so accidentally.

[deleted]

that´s what I asked when the movie ended...it's a suberb gem!

10/10

Under the Paving Stones, The Beach