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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Full Frame
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • Warlpiri: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • Featurette - Making of

Bush Mechanics - The Series

ABC/Roadshow Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 102 mins . PG . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Here was I thinking, ‘Oh yeah, this’ll be cool. Like some Bush Tucker Man or something, but with cars. Way off, but still kinda right.

This is a fantastically warming, funny, moving and even maddening series of four shows produced in 2001. After the runaway success of the original documentary Bush Mechanics, this short series was created at the bequest of Film Australia. It follows the same themes of ingenuity in the wild, the humour of indigenous Australians and life in the outback as we follow the original Bush Mechanics through some of their crazier adventures in the desert.

Our stories are unscripted and interspersed with real life reflections by Aboriginal elders as they recall cars of the past, homemade toys, quick tips and ingenious car repair when the nearest car club is about a billion miles away. Mostly shot direct to DV Minicam, we get some haphazard action scenes throughout as our intrepid cameraman and director David Batty follows the make-it-up-as-we-go attitude of these fun loving fellas from the outback.

However, not all of these episodes are firmly entrenched in humour. Episode Two: Payback deals with incarceration of Aborigines and how they must pay for crime twice; once under white law, the other under their own. There is no glossed over sugar-coating here, though there is no self-pity or anger either. Life just is for these guys, and that’s pretty cool in my book.

"Hop in, you mob..."

What I found the funniest thing though, is in the Aborigines’ ability to laugh at the silliest thing and even to have their own brand of naïve humour. The show isn’t scripted, as noted. What happened in production is they film a sequence, edit it and run it together at perhaps a different speed and then just dub in whatever comments are made while watching. On the surface that might not seem to work, but somehow here it is really funny and so charmingly endearing I couldn’t help but smile and even have a good laugh occasionally. Sure it’s not Benny Hill, but there are speeded up segments that reminded me a lot of his work. If only they had a little bald guy to slap on the head.

All four episodes are included here and these go a little something like this:

  • Episode One: Motorcar Ngutju 24:48.
    The guys get offered a paying gig for their band and they must trek across country to get there. They hastily build a car from decaying parts and with the help of the magic mechanic genie Francis, they soon put a semblance of car together. Along the way they encounter numerous pitfalls and several hasty and ingenious repairs must be employed if they’re to make it in time.
  • Episode Two: Payback 25:58.
    When Simeon’s cousin calls from prison for him to come and pick him up, the boys sling together a car and head off to get him. Unfortunately, the boys pass through a police checkpoint and a few outstanding warrants are called in, depleting their numbers for the trip home.
  • Episode Three: The Chase 24:54.
    After watching the local team play football, the Mechanics are headed home when they are asked to find the coach’s car. Four stranded members of the opposite team have taken it to get home and the boys give pursuit, tracking the car by its ever increasing parts found littering the desert roads.
  • Episode Four: The Rainmakers 26:18.
    With the drought never-ending, the elders send the boys to trade their ‘Rain-dreaming Car’ for some mother-of-pearl shells they can use to bring rain. Naturally, the boys do everything they can, trekking thousands of kilometres to Broome trading artworks for fuel and catching their food along the way.

This final episode was my highlight, with an awesomely painted old Falcon and a long road trip full of strange trades and practices. The whole series is great and well worth the look, if only to see how different the people of the Red Centre live compared to the majority of us who cling to the shoreline.

  Video
Contract

The picture quality here is as sharp as you like. Again, being shot to digital DV this looks great when utilising daylight. The only time the picture quality diminishes is in the night shots seated about a campfire. This never makes up much of the story though, so it isn’t very often. Colours are sensational and realistic, as are the flesh tones and shadows. Shadow detail isn’t bad either, although shadows don’t make much of an appearance in this mostly outdoors, mostly daylit series. Blacks are natural here too, and overall, while only delivered in 4:3, the visuals look pretty kickarse.

  Audio
Contract

Naturally it’s TV so it’s Dolby Digital stereo. That’s cool, there’s nothing here that requires anything incredibly surround fuelled or anything anyways. Dialogue is all spoken in the native language of the Mechanics, Warlpiri. There are hasty English subtitles that follow the action closely enough, even lending humour with their simplified cropping occasionally.

The dubbed sound effects are humourous, although there are recordings made during the majority of the action, particularly dialogue. Music has been scored mostly by the Mechanics themselves or folks they know. All has an indigenous theme and just further heightens the flavour of the show.

  Extras
Contract

There is but the Making of featurette as an extra, but while this only runs for 5:51, it holds many factual jewels regarding the making of the series and the follow up to the original doco. Plus, there are insights into the humour, the writing process and the actual mechanical know-how of the series. A worthy extra.

  Overall  
Contract

If you liked the original documentary, this is more along the same vein and progresses our knowledge of the boys and their lifestyles. It’s witty, it’s irreverent and it’s just overall charming. It portrays a different side of the indigenous population to the average Australian, and one I don’t recall having seen anywhere before. I had a couple of really good laughs at the silliness of the show and was genuinely surprised by the simplicity and slapstick style of it.

I liked it. It’s fun and while touching on some of the more serious issues of our indigenous population, it still manages to see the positive side of life in a very simple manner.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=3390
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      And I quote...
    "This fun, short series brings to light a previously unseen humour from the Aboriginal population of the Red Centre."
    - Jules Faber
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Teac DVD-990
    • TV:
          Sony 51cm
    • Speakers:
          Teac PLS-60 Home Theatre System
    • Centre Speaker:
          Teac PLS-60 Home Theatre System
    • Surrounds:
          Teac PLS-60 Home Theatre System
    • Subwoofer:
          Akai
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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