Luke Doolan: The Films That Changed My Life

by Dov Kornits

Luke Doolan has directed an Oscar nominated short film, Miracle Fish, and edited The Square, Animal Kingdom, The Gift and now Colossal, and now comes his greatest challenge – to name the films that changed his life!

Here’s a pic of Luke goofing around with Colossal director Nacho Vigalondo.

And here’s what he came up with for the films that changed his life.

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I’d have to split this into two categories:

1. Movies I saw in the cinema/drive in.

2. Movies I saw while the VHS revolution was new and hot.

 

CINEMA/DRIVE IN

In high school I was a film critic for a local monthly newspaper at $25 a month for 500 words. It was basically a ruse to get a free movie pass, and it worked. Darwin is a pretty out of the way place – so getting any films that weren’t straight up studio fare was rare. But a small sidebar group called Curzon (I think), and the Deckchair Cinema brought some stray films to town. I used to like seeing these so I could sound cultured to my friends. Little did I know that some of these films would never leave me…

 

MALCOLM (7 years old)

This ingenious and loving film actually coloured a lot of how I see the world today. The small guys who no one takes much notice of seem to have the greatest gifts. Malcolm is a socially awkward savant in need of a house mate – who comes in the form of newly released convict Frank. Sometimes it takes a foul mouthed, denim on denim wearing crook, to find an inspired place for your gifts to come to fruition.

In this case the gift is wildly imaginative ingenuity – used for victimless armed robbery. It kind of shouldn’t work – but it’s a perfect alchemy of brains, balls, and heart when Frank’s lady friend Jude joins the gang.

IMMORTAL BELOVED (15 years old)

The complex, painful and beautiful life of Beethoven. Staggering artistry in every frame and musical note. The misunderstood nature of the guy is wholly relatable once the puzzle is complete. “It is the finest blades that are most easily blunted, bent, or broken.”

Films rarely succeed in expressing the totality of a life – this one shattered me and woke me up to the power of that perspective. I mean a film can’t really cover an entire life, it’s more like a trick to get you to feel that way. But I think I wanted to go into movies to see if there was a way to learn how they did that trick. Still trying.

EMPIRE OF THE SUN (8 years old)

My Mum took me to see this in Alice Springs at a ‘one time only’ screening at the local arts centre.

Lost rich kid who thrives under Japanese rule in wartime China. Epic and intimate in perfect measure. I really identified with the kid growing up alone in an adult world. He’s kind of a prat due to his sheltered and privileged upbringing – but he has a curiosity, compassion, and a huge inner world that serve him in the years he’s about to endure. Kids up to a certain age just have this capacity to get on with stuff – before adulthood kind of robs them of that gift. This was a huge influence on a short film I made called Miracle Fish.

ALIENS (7 years old)

My aboriginal other ‘mother’, Barbera Flick, took me and a bunch of kids to see this at the Alice Springs drive in when it came out. Scary as fuck – and beyond my understanding at the time.

Nightmares for years and years. But with repeated viewings since then – it’s hard to buck how perfectly constructed a nightmare it really is. So it fulfilled its purpose I guess. Also, Ripley is just such a great enduring power. She’s so connected to herself and doesn’t let the bone shattering fear get in the way of what’s important to her.

DANCES WITH WOLVES (11 years old)

I’d read the novel in primary school before the seeing the movie. I’d convinced the teacher it was a historically accurate classic and that I should be allowed to write a paper on it. Total lie.

This was before I became aware that Hollywood can’t make films about indigenous groups without that “special white guy” factor. Despite that I was just so into it.

It was a window into a time and world that was so epic and beautiful. It manages to convincingly portray basic humanity, life change, growth, death and rebirth, passage of time like few outside of David Lean.

KUNDUN (16 years old)

This one gets derided a lot, and I’m not sure why. I saw it while on my first big solo trip away from home while working with Circus Oz in Melbourne. Saw it on a Monday. Was emotionally pulverised and confused. Went back every day until Friday in order to try and grasp what I was experiencing. 5 times in 5 days. The final 15 mins (Philip Glass’s score) are still vexing and deeply cinematic. I think it has something to do with identifying with having a home that you can never go back to.

 

VHS TAPES AND THE POWER OF THE MYSTERY VHS

We won a VHS player in a raffle in Alice Springs in 1985. It was new and exciting to have movies you could watch over and over in your house! I used to wake up hours before my Dad woke on the weekends and I’d dip into a box of ‘mystery tapes’ we’d somehow acquired. No labels, probably pirated from somewhere (he wasn’t the pirate btw).

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN (12 years old)

I had no idea who John Milius and John Huston were at the time. But if ever there were great teachers of the anti-authoritarian spirit, these were your guys. I really identified with it as a kid who wasn’t much into authority.

There’s immense beauty amidst the blood and spit. Such small acts of love in a lawless time. Though he was also a Trumpish megalomaniac – just reinforces that characters who are paradoxical often ring the truest. Times change. Some men don’t. How many films exist where Paul Newman and a live bear get drunk and quarrel like old lovers?

I went to Langtree, TX while working on a film in Austin, TX years later to visit the Judge’s saloon and pay respects. Myth, man, who cares – it’s a top yarn.

TAXI DRIVER & LAURA (10 years old)

Was a double on a mystery 180 minute vhs my folks had. Watched every weekend for 2 years without them knowing. Probably have scars – but gave me good lessons. Everything to say about Taxi Driver has already been said. Though it wasn’t until years later on DVD that I realised there was a ten-minute section that had been cut out of the middle of it on the tape.

Laura is interesting as it’s about a detective who falls in love with a painting of a dead woman he’s investigating. Both are obsessive characters. They’ll always be intertwined for me for existing on the same tape.

THE GODFATHER/GODFATHER II (12 years old)

Me and my best mate Joe shovelled chicken shit for 6 weeks to buy the chronologically edited version made for US TV. It’s totally interesting seeing it this way. But the original structure is just so solid. The story about Godfather II’s post production has served me well. I can’t remember how many back and forth chapters are in the final film – but apparently they were struggling with too many. The audience couldn’t engage with any one time chapter – until they halved the amount of times they cut back and forth. Once they settled on less jumping around – the audience suddenly had something to emotionally engage with. And the fucking photography is off chops.

THE LAST STARFIGHTER (6-7 years old)

Again no idea how this tape came into my life. We certainly weren’t buying these tapes. Coming out of the Amblin era of family movies that still scared the pants off you – this one was made outside of that Spielberg school, but retains/copies a lot of their ethos – and is a bit more low rent.

It’s straight up fantasy/adventure, but has all that longing you have when you feel stuck in a small dead end town. I didn’t know it at the time – but it was I think the first feature to fully embrace the early computer graphics revolution.

Colossal is in cinemas from April 20, 2017.

Read our review of Colossal.