REWIND REVIEW: The Castle (1997)

(PG) ★★★★★

Director: Rob Sitch.

Cast: Michael Caton, Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Anthony Simcoe, Sophie Lee, Wayne Hope, Tiriel Mora, Eric Bana, Costas Kilias, Charles 'Bud' Tingwell.

Blackface on Hey Hey, It's Saturday - always hilarious.

I was invited recently on to Jono Pech's excellent podcast Comedy Rewind, which re-examines funny films from a bygone era and looks at whether they're still funny, and whether they've aged well. Our topic was that great Aussie comedy The Castle. Here are some links where you can listen to us dissect the film in great depth.

Listen via Apple Podcasts

Listen via Spotify

Or you can read this blog. Or both.

An argument can be made (and which I make in the podcast) that The Castle is the greatest Australian film of all time. Sure, it's direction and production values sometimes mirror those of a very competent student film. There is nothing flashy about it and there's not a single shot that isn't covered in the first 10 minutes of an introduction to shot composition.

But The Castle captures the essence of our nation and its people in a manner unlike any other Aussie-made movie. It looks to the edges of its capital cities (and theoretically beyond) and shows us what makes our little Aussie battlers so fair dinkum, true blue and dinky-di, without a crocodile or a can of Fosters in sight.

For those of you who haven't seen it and have stumbled in here by accident, The Castle is the story of the Kerrigan family, who live on Melbourne's fringe next to an airport on contaminated soil in a house that is perpetually under renovation. To others, their home seems like nothing special (or worse), but to the eternally optimistic Kerrigans, it is their castle. And when the airport attempts to compulsorily acquire the Kerrigan house (and the houses of their neighbours) to build a new runway, the Kerrigans decide to fight back.

Made on the cheap (AU$750,000 in 1997), The Castle was the debut film from ABC Late Show comedians Rob Sitch, Jane Kennedy, Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner. They had already moved on to "more serious" endeavours after their two-season cult breakthrough sketch show, notably classic satire Frontline. And while The Castle is also a "serious" production, its simplicity and quick gestation make it seem like a summer holiday project, which is part of its charm. The screenplay reportedly took just two weeks to go from concept to completed screenplay, filming lasted 11 days, and editing took another two weeks. Done. Print it.

The Castle works so well because it understands Australians. It's also hilarious (even 23 years on), but its humour comes from this understanding of what makes Aussie suburbia tick. Its characters are caricatures, but they're on message and not too far over-the-top. Everyone is subtly overacting in a beautifully broad and ocker way (especially the never-better Michael Caton), which heightens the hilarity because it still feels real - despite the overacting, most Aussies, especially those out in the country, knows people like the Kerrigans. These "dialled up" performances are most noticeable when legendary actor Charles "Bud" Tingwell turns up. His naturalistic performance highlights the lower-middle class nature of the Kerrigans, making them even funnier, but showing the great Aussie divide between the inner-city and everywhere else.

The Castle's key message is the beauty of those who live in the "everywhere else". The script portrays them as cultureless but passionate, casually racist but caring and compassionate. They're uneducated doers and dreamers, with simple tastes, living lives of simple means. Most importantly, they are trusting, neighbourly, fun-loving, encouraging, big-hearted, and aspirational. They rate family above of all things. with the ability to own their own slice of Australia a close second.

For all the perceived negatives in that big pile of adjectives, The Castle never looks down on the Kerrigans. The only people who do that are the villains, AKA the airport lawyers, and they get their comeuppance. The Kerrigans' flaws (their culturelessness, their casual racism, their small-thinking) are merely part of their make-up and even their charm.

Here's the opening scene:

Their casual racism, in particular, comes with a complete lack of malice. Indeed, it's coupled with a heartwarming level of acceptance of the non-Anglos in their life, including their son-in-law Con (a scene-stealing Eric Bana, in his film debut) and their neighbour Farouk (Costas Kilias, who has since become a magistrate). It also helps to magnify the significance of patriarch Darryl Kerrigan's realisation that "this country's got to stop stealing other people's land" - a beautifully profound moment hidden among the jokes about the Trading Post and Dale digging holes.

For a film that is probably the greatest Aussie movie of all time, it's amazing to think The Castle wasn't even nominated for best film at the AACTA Awards (then the AFI Awards). All it won was a very deserving best original screenplay gong. The actually-quite-good Kiss Or Kill cleaned up that year but when was the last time you heard anyone mention that film?

By comparison, The Castle lives on. In fact, its greatest legacy is its contributions to the Aussie vernacular. Mention that something is "going straight to the pool room", tell someone they're dreamin', say something is about the vibe or Mabo, or admonish someone with a "suffer in your jocks", and everyone knows exactly what you mean, thanks to The Castle.

No other Aussie film has impacted our lingo as much as this. And no other film summed up our people as simply or as beautifully. The equally quotable Crocodile Dundee had as much of a lasting impact, but it traded in stereotypes that failed to speak as eloquently about Australia. The Castle said what it needed to say with wry humour, a big heart, a nicely exaggerated level of observation, and the greatest gag ever written about jousting sticks.