Blackrock (film)

Blackrock is a 1997 Australian teen drama thriller film produced by David Elfick and Catherine Knapman, directed by Steven Vidler with the screenplay by Nick Enright.Jared returns home one day to collect his belongings; after arguing with Diane, he confesses that he witnessed Tracy's rape and could have saved her life if he had intervened or helped her afterwards.Writing in the journal Antipodes, academics Felicity Holland and Jane O'Sullivan credit the film with exploring the themes of Australian masculinity, mateship, violence and sexuality.The film's portrayal of a rape and murder at a teenage party suggests that serious crime can arise from drinking and fun simply getting out of hand.Vidler defended the choice to give the rape victim a minor role, stating, "It was important to show that this could have happened to anyone."[6] Producer David Elfick said that the film was about contemporary Australia; about "kids who have all their life to enjoy, then a deadly mixture of drugs, alcohol, sexual tension, and desire add up to a tragedy.[9] Titled A Property of the Clan, the 45-minute play premiered at the Freewheels Theatre in 1992 and was performed at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1993.Blackrock retained the original four characters from A Property of the Clan,[11] and added nine others; it was considered a more fictionalised version of Leigh's murder.Vidler said he considered directing the film Blackrock after having watched and been moved by the theatrical version, saying the play was "absolutely what it was like [for him] growing up in the Western Suburbs ...[2] The community of Stockton opposed filming in the area, as memories of Leigh's murder were still fresh and the details of the script were "too close for comfort".[18] During production in September 1996, Elfick told The Newcastle Herald that he was "getting a bit bored" of people mentioning Leigh's murder.[19] Leigh's family were vehemently opposed to the film, saying that the filmmakers were "feasting on an unfortunate situation",[9] insensitively trivialising and exploiting her death, and portraying her negatively while doing so.[26] 15-year-old Bojana Novakovic was given the role of Tracy partly because she was a competitive gymnast and was considered mentally and physically strong enough to film the rape scene.Novakovic said the experience was traumatic and she began to tremble uncontrollably once the shoot ended, though recovered shortly afterwards, concluding, "In a way, I feel lucky to have had such a role at the beginning of my career.The boys involved in the scene showed up at her door the following day and gave her a bunch of flowers and a T-shirt that said "shit happens".Vidler subsequently cut about 10 minutes of footage out of the film so it could receive an MA15+ rating and reach its target audience of 15- to 18-year-olds.[31] Premiere also gave a negative review of the film's debut,[9] commenting that audiences had been expecting to see another Shine, though left the screening disappointed."[34] Associate professor Donna Lee Brien of Central Queensland University said that when shown outside Australia, the film lacks the "poignant and powerful narrative support of Leigh's tragedy" and was deemed by critics to be "shallow and clichéd".[9] Australian novelist and critic Robert Drewe gave a positive review, praising the performance of Breuls, the cinematography by Martin McGrath, and director Steven Vidler's choice of such a controversial subject for a first film.Upon noting that the filmmakers deliberately insisted that their characters be portrayed as different from the actual people involved in the Leigh Leigh murder as possible, Drewe said the film is "asking a lot of Australian audiences to expunge reality from their memories", though he concluded that the film should be "compulsory viewing for all Australian teenagers.She praised it for dispelling "the myth" that sexual violence is confined to one social class, for illustrating how boys model their sexual conduct on their fathers' treatment of women, and how the culture of sex segregation in workplaces can carry over into the public life of a town, exacerbating sexist beliefs and behaviours.[9] The film's credits state that it is a work of fiction and that resemblance to "actual events or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental".[9] Conflation between the two subjects was high; the film was described by Miriam Davis on radio station FM 91.5 as being the true story of "the murder of Leigh Warner at Blackrock Beach near Newcastle."[37] Donna Lee Brien stated that every review of both the film and the play it was based on at least mentioned Leigh, with some going into great detail on the subject.