Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Midnight Oil
Intro:
...a striking portrait of a time, a place, and a band.
Charting a landmark year in the career of one of Australia’s most important rock outfits, Midnight Oil 1984 combines retrospective interviews with 16mm footage captured by filmmaker Ray Argall back in the day to create a striking portrait of a time, a place, and a band.
It’s incredible stuff. That year not only saw the release of Red Sails in the Sunset, their first number one album, but also future Labor MP and lead singer Peter Garrett’s first foray into politics, running for the Senate as part of the Nuclear Disarmament Party. As the film progresses we see the Oils, always a staunchly political group, grapple with the possibility that their principles might lead to the band’s dissolution should Garrett actually win.
Spoiler: he didn’t. The film traces both Garrett’s time on the stump and the band’s national tour in support of Red Sails, with both effectively galvanising his young fanbase into a potent political movement that saw the orthodox parties all but panic (Labor and the Liberal Party traded preferences in an attempt to shut out the nascent NDP). The political climate of 1984 might seem distant, but in the broad strokes the concerns are all too familiar, giving the film a timeless quality.
Of course, for punters with little interest in Cold War era Australian nuclear politics there’s always the music, and the Oils absolutely deliver in that regard. For all their lefty credentials, Midnight Oil as a band are firmly rooted in the Aussie pub rock tradition, albeit leavened by an artier, almost literary attitude to songwriting. Live, they’re simply incredible, and Argall manages to capture all the electrifying intensity of a live Oils gig not just once, but over and over again on the tour.
If it was simply an account of a moment in time, Midnight Oil 1984 would be worth the price of admission. However, Argall does more than that, telling a story about the crossover between celebrity and politics, and grassroots activism battling entrenched political power, that is still relevant today. We’ve had a run of great Australian music documentaries over the last 12 months, including Meal Tickets and Descent into the Maelstrom – Midnight Oil 1984 is the best yet.
