Is this the best we can do?

You sound like you took my thread as a personal insult to you, which is why you feel the need to attack me personally. Maybe you've got something to do with the making of this film so you feel the need to defend it in such a rude manner. Relax champ.

But anyway, I'm sure we have commercial banks in Australia. And the only place I've seen this film advertised was on satellite TV (and only a few days before release date too). Made for America.

Nelson, cant wait to see the film, looks good and Margaret and David seemed to love it. I understand your wanting to set people straight about the facts re: financing etc but probably no need to be quite to defensive. I have a feeling word of mouth praise and critical success will do a better job of defending the film and putting bums in seats that arguing on internet forums :) Congrats on what looks like a great Aussie film!

Mayhem777 - It looks like I was right about you all along. You obviously have a bias because you were somehow involved in making this film. You should probably learn to take a hit if you're going to be in this business, even though I said nothing about you personally.

GREAT reply MH777. Good information followed by correct statements. Its funny how the detractors when quietened all start to say "ohh are we offended are we - don't take it so hard". For my penny's worth; I was sitting in the start of the film thinking "oh no - not another American trying to do Aussie"; but when it became clear that he was meant to be American, it added a great deal to the film rather than detracted. This was no pandering to the US audience; it was appropriate and in place. I liked the fact the outsider, an American, became central. Its actually in keeping with true Aussie spirit, that outsiders are welcomed and totally accepted. People my generation and older know this. What a great film, true to Australia, no pandering to anyone; accepting of everyone without bigotry or b*llSh*t. The story is said to be true; quite a bit of it must be. Any movie embellishes a bit; they have to. But the main part of this was believable and struck chord with real Australia. An excellent film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803061/board/thread/187134264

Depressing movies can be great, and most movies about drug addicts are also depressing, and involve criminals obviously. Those movies are infinitely more relatable than fairies and rainbows and hero dogs. They show the real world - not some kind of caricature of outback life.

If you haven't led an extremely sheltered life then there is a good chance you have been affected by drug addiction (whether it was you or someone you knew) and crime, but I don't know anyone who has been affected by a magical dog.

I don't know which Australian movies you're talking about exactly. Most of them are just badly done. It isn't the subject matter that is bad; it is the poor execution and reuse of the same old actors in every movie. If I had to make a list of 5 good Australian movies I would struggle to do so. We don't take chances, because nobody has the money to do it, because none of the movies they made were successful enough.

Advech: Mate, we ARE like this, or lots of us anyway. And it's not just some burden that the Pilbara has to bear - come to the Bowen Basin, the camps are full of exactly the same sorts of blikes. Out for the dollar and the isolation.
As for the sleepy machinist - how CAN a thread extend so far on trivia like he/she writes, having not even seen the film> One of the tragedies of misuse of the internet.

"You're" - it is a contraction of "you are". Learn it - use it.

I will even use it in a sentence for you: If you're old enough to get married then you're old enough to grasp the basic elements of the English language.