1 (2013), The Beatles: Eight Days a Week -- The Touring Years (2016), The Castle (1997), Vera Drake (2004), So Proudly We Hail (1943), Animal Kingdom (2010), Candy (2006), Phar Lap (1983) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Melbourne Australia movies.
Storyline: Set in the golden era of Grand Prix Racing '1' tells the story of a generation of charismatic drivers who raced on the edge, risking their lives during Formula 1's deadliest period, and the men who stood up and changed the sport forever.
Plot Keywords: car fire, sponsor, rocket launching, year 1971, speed, jet pack, car race ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In the 1960s, the Beatles exploded on to the public scene, seemingly out of nowhere as the band's formative years of constant performing at home and in Hamburg, and Brian Epstein's grooming, finally paid off beyond their wildest dreams. Accompanying new interviews of the remaining Beatles, their associates and fans as well as archival interviews of the late ones, this film features footage of the heady concert years of 1963 to 66 when the band became a worldwide cultural phenomena topping them all. Furthermore, it also follows how the Fab Four began to change and grow while the excitement of Beatlemania began to sour their lives into an intolerable slog they needed to escape from to become more than what their fans wanted.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
Plot Keywords: the beatles, price of fame, protest, buckingham palace, reference to elvis presley, marijuana, miami florida ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A Melbourne family is very happy living where they do, near the Melbourne airport (according to Jane Kennedy, it's "practically their back yard"). However, they are forced to leave their beloved home, by the Government and airport authorities. 'The Castle' is the story of how they fight to remain in their house, taking their case as far as the High Court.
Plot Keywords: justice, father son relationship, father in law son in law relationship, father daughter relationship, drink, drinking, dog ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Vera Drake is a selfless woman who is completely devoted to, and loved by, her working class family. She spends her days doting on them and caring for her sick neighbor and elderly mother. However, she also secretly visits women and helps them induce miscarriages for unwanted pregnancies. While the practice itself was illegal in 1950s England, Vera sees herself as simply helping women in need, and always does so with a smile and kind words of encouragement. When the authorities finally find her out, Vera's world and family life rapidly unravel.
Plot Keywords: pregnancy, abortion, birth control, double standard, rape, injustice, adultery ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A group of U.S. Army nurses leaves San Francisco for their tour of duty in Hawaii in December 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor changes their destination, and their lives. Sent to Bataan, in the Philippines, the nurses are led by Lt. Janet Davidson. She is faced with untested nurses who expected an easy time in Honolulu, but who quickly become battle-weary veterans dealing with daily bombardments by the Japanese, overwhelmed by the numbers of wounded, and dwindling supplies. Some of "Davey's" unit also have to deal with romantic entanglements with men they met onboard ship. When Bataan falls, the American forces flee to the offshore island of Corregidor, where they find the Japanese assault just as intense.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>
Plot Keywords: nurse, philippines, evacuation, military, female protagonist, giving birth, birth ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Despite being no saint herself, Julia Cody has shielded her seventeen year old son, Joshua "J" Cody, from her Melbourne-based criminal relatives who they have not seen in years. After Julia dies in front of J's eyes from a self-inflicted heroin overdose, J, who is slightly detached from life, feels he has no choice but to contact his maternal grandmother, Janine "Smurf" Cody, the family matriarch, for a place to live. Smurf rules the family with a borderline incestuous love over her three sons, the quietly menacing Andrew "Pope" Cody, the hyperactive Craig Cody, and the barely of age Darren Cody. Pope and his best friend, Barry "Baz" Brown, are armed robbers, with Darren their up and coming apprentice, while Craig is a mid level drug dealer. Melbourne's Armed Robbery Squad is after specifically Pope, who is hiding out. But when the standoff between the Codys and the Armed Robbery Squad is brought up a notch, an all out war ensues, with some casualties and J caught in the middle. The ...
Plot Keywords: matriarch, australia, melbourne australia, interrogation, cocaine, watching tv, psychopath ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: This story is a narration from an Australian man who falls in love with two kinds of Candy: a woman of the same name and heroin. The narrator changes from a smart-aleck to someone trying to find a vein to inject, while Candy changes from an actress, call girl, streetwalker, and then a madwoman. Starting in Sydney, the two eventually end up in Melbourne to go clean, but they fail. This leads them to turn to finding money and heroin, while other posessions and attachments become unimportant.
Plot Keywords: surprise ending, scantily clad female, pregnant wife, prostitution, female frontal nudity, female removes her clothes, cleavage ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Phar Lap, the legendary Australian racing horse, is as well-known today for his mysterious death as for his fabulous accomplishments in life. Beginning at the end, the film flashes back to the day that Phar Lap, despite his lack of pedigree, is purchased on impulse by trainer Harry Telford. Phar Lap loses his first races, but Telford's faith in the animal is unshakable. Suddenly the horse becomes a winner, thanks to the love and diligence of stableboy Tommy Woodcock. American-promoter Dave Davis arranges for Phar Lap to be entered in several top races, where his "long shot" status results in heavy losses for the professional gamblers. Just after winning an important race in Mexico, Phar Lap collapses and dies; though the film never comes out and says as much, it is assumed that the horse was "murdered" by the gambling interests.—Hal Erickson
Plot Keywords: rain, climbing stairs, scene during opening credits, lantern, train, wristwatch, steam bath ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Rose, a Shanhainese songstress singing at nightclubs in HongKong during the 60's, marries an Australian sailor and migrates with her young son and daughter to Melbourne. Her past filled with lost innocence, she begins a cycle of dependence and desperation to create a family for herself and her children, culminating with her affair with Qi, an illegal immigrant from HongKong. Watched through the eyes of her young son, the mother's journey reveals painful truths about the human condition, the love of family and self, and the price we pay for growing up.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: single mother, brother sister relationship, mother son relationship, mother daughter relationship, unfaithful wife, traumatic childhood, suicide ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In 1964, atomic war wipes out humanity in the northern hemisphere; one American submarine finds temporary safe haven in Australia, where life-as-usual covers growing despair. In denial about the loss of his wife and children in the holocaust, American Captain Towers meets careworn but gorgeous Moira Davidson, who begins to fall for him. The sub returns after reconnaissance a month (or less) before the end; will Towers and Moira find comfort with each other?—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: mass killing, fast car, 1960s, post apocalypse, apocalypse, end of the world, based on novel ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: 1968 was the year that changed the world. And for four young Aboriginal sisters from a remote mission this is the year that would change their lives forever. Around the globe, there was protest and revolution in the streets. Indigenous Australians finally secured the right to vote. There were drugs and the shock of a brutal assassination. And there was Vietnam. The sisters, Cynthia, Gail, Julie and Kay are discovered by Dave, a talent scout with a kind heart, very little rhythm but a great knowledge of soul music. Billed as Australia's answer to 'The Supremes', Dave secures the sisters their first true gig, and flies them to Vietnam to sing for the American troops. Based on a true story, THE SAPPHIRES is a triumphant celebration of youthful emotion, family and music.
Plot Keywords: soul music, based on true story, singer, female singer, singing, vietnam war, audition ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: An imaginative and somewhat disturbed young girl fantasizes about evil creatures and other oddities to mask her insecurities while growing up in rural Australia.
Plot Keywords: australia, independent film, 1950s, mother daughter relationship, death of grandmother, 9 year old, animal cruelty ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running. A woman who is prone to epileptic seizures joins the skins' merry band, and helps them on their run from justice, but is her affliction also a sign of impurity?
Plot Keywords: skinhead, shot in the forehead, neo nazi, robbery, racial slur, pot smoking, medication ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: An earthquake, a flash flood, an avalanche, a volcano, alligators, jaguars, mutineers, and a man-eating Maoris dog the steps of a shipping company owner, a scientist, and the two children of a lost sea Captain as they circle the Earth along the 37th parallel per instructions in a bottled note the scientist has recovered from a shark's stomach. Only certain facts are discerned from the stained note, especially the words "37 parallel". Teenage Mary Grant (Hayley Mills), her younger brother, Robert (Keith Hamshere), and the scientist, French Professor Jacques Paganel (Maurice Chevalier), trick their way aboard the grand yacht, "Persevero II", during a bon voyage party to see the owner of the shipping company, Lord Edward Glenarvan (Wilfrid Hyde-White), the epitome of British aloofness. With the urging of his own son, John (Michael Anderson, Jr.), Glenarvan's luxurious side-wheeler sets sail for the coastal town of Concepcion, Chile in the search for the missing Captain Grant (Jack Gwillim).—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: singer, shaving, glasgow scotland, sneezing, horse and carriage, father son relationship, magnifying glass ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Movie detailing ABBA's mega-successful tour of Australia during mid-1977. While it mostly contains back-stage footage and as well as ABBA's famous songs such as "Dancing Queen", "Tiger", "Name Of The Game" and "Eagle" among others sung filmed during their concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, it has the sub-plot of young country and western radio disc-jockey, Ashley, whose boss orders him to have a deep interview with ABBA and the problems he has trying to reach them as he forgets his press pass and ABBA's main bodyguard, (Tom Oliver) is determined to stop him...—Lee Horton <Leeh@tcp.co.uk>
Plot Keywords: man wears eyeglasses, lying on bed, taxi, taxi driver, blonde, redheaded woman, cigarette smoking ...
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