Newsfront

Newsfront is a film with a great deal of integrity. It's superbly crafted and acted with a real feel for the times it deals with. It's a film made by Australians FOR Australians with a sense of, and love for, Australia's past. It's also funny, honest and moving. I've seen it many times now and it gets better with each viewing. I value Bill Hunter especially and, as an Australian, am proud of his achievements and his contribution to the cinema. I can't think of an Australian film that has affected me in quite the same way Newsfront has. It's a near flawless achievement and to those who think it too long I really think you ought to work on your attention spans.

Noyce's film has a stylish feel for the times, but no real sense of drama. His telling of the post-war history of the decline of the cinema movie reel because of the emergence of the daily news report on television had lots of good historical footage interspersed with his well-filmed and, generally, competently acted story. The problem was that he treated it as an opportunity to squeeze in as many historical references as possible. This left the development of the story to feel almost as though it was also a catalogue of events, each marked by a photo and year. It was a story with a number of tragic events, but no real emotional pull. I was disappointed.

This movie had excellent cinematography, first in black and white, and a great sense of period. And the acting seemed quite good. The problem is, I had no idea what anyone was saying most of the time. I've seen Australian movies before and haven't had any problems with the language, but this movie was full of strange words spoken in the fast cadence that has long been used to represent old-fashioned newsmen. I tried to watch it for a while, because really, it looks like it would be a really good movie if I understood it, but it was just impossible. I once saw an English movie that was subtitled for Americans, because it was a very slangy sort of English, and I wish they'd done the same thing with this one.

The difficulty with a film like "Newsfront" is how it tends to have the same approach to its characters as the characters have to themselves. Which is to say, a lot of emotional distance. The film is especially well directed, but it never really becomes the sum of all its parts. The best bits revolve around the newsroom stuff, so that the relationships seem rather unimportant by comparison. A much more recent film, "Good Night and Good Luck" is more balanced and intense in this respect. Vincent Monton's cinematography is particularly good (He would work with Noyce 4 years later again on "Heatwave"). This is a film that's always fun to look at. The black & white is crisp and clean and the colour footage is warm and vibrant. But, in the end, it's like a pretty picture postcard. Fun to watch, but just too hard to get into.

i saw this film as part of my australian cinema course and i thought it was very good, if a little too long. casting was very good, with bill hunter doing a good job as len mcguire, the quintessential aussie battler who has old fashioned values and a strong commitment to his work. wendy hughes was absolutely GORGEOUS in this film, she puts many hollywood starlets to shame, she was so hot in this movie. the transitions from B&W to colour were inventive and the use of stock newsreel footage gave the film a sense of reality. overall, a good but not excellent aussie film.

If you are interested in Australian Cinema this is a film for you. Although it is long, you will be thankful you sat it through. 'Newsfront' takes us back in time to a different Australia - a country that has no television or other technologies of today. Noyce uses the backdrop of the rivalry between the two newsreel production companies to explore the tensions that exist in the character's lives, set against the historical moments recorded in the Newsreels. With engaging characters and a superb depiction of what life was like in the newsreel industry of the 1950s, Noyce gives us an enjoyable and memorable experience of Australian film and national history.