by Julian Wood
Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie, Martin Rotsey
Intro:
A film like this needs to strike a balance between telling the full story (usually chronologically) and letting us really see the band play for extended sequences. Clarke errs on the side of the former.
The lasting and important rock bands usually combine good music with some resonance with the zeitgeist (interestingly, this long-in-the-making documentary is released at a time when nuclear power is in the headlines, an issue that Peter Garrett cared deeply about when he represented the Nuclear Disarmament Party in the ‘80s). In an industry predicated on youth tastes, there is the obvious challenge in longevity, as you get to be older than your audience. Alas, many a band has unwittingly morphed into a sort of tribute act to themselves. These and other issues are explored in this long, talky documentary of Midnight Oil.
The film was a slightly odd choice for the opening night of the recent Sydney Film Festival, but it showed quite clearly why ‘The Oils’ will always have a loyal fan base. Many of the people who could sing along to their songs would have probably seen the band in some noisy, sweaty, overstuffed pub venue decades before. Most of that audience would be middle class people in their late middle age. Now, perhaps the band can also claim young fans from the offspring of these original followers.
As implied, it has been a long journey. Writer and director Paul Clarke’s doco brings home how many eras and types of audience the band has played for. Over 45 years, you accrue quite a few memories, and filmed ones at that.
A film like this needs to strike a balance between telling the full story (usually chronologically) and letting us really see the band play for extended sequences. Clarke errs on the side of the former. This is partly because the early gigs in those aforementioned sweaty clubs weren’t actually filmed, or were filmed by one fan holding a shaky camera. Only snatches remain.
Of course, the band does make it to ‘the big time’. Those stadium rock POV shots from the stage out towards a sea of tens of thousands of people always convey a heady sense of power and communion. What must it be like to have such a huge mass of humanity sway to your rhythms and repeat your songs? In fact, the film seems to suggest that the band was only briefly happy to be in that mode. Here, the film’s chronology shows us an interesting arc in the fact that they go back to smaller venues as they mature.
The other factor that makes them real heroes of rock is that Midnight Oil reached out to Aboriginal causes and to Aboriginal artists. The part of the doco covering their mid-1980s trip to remote country and their collaboration with the Warumpi Band are among the most emotional parts of the film. It was a clearly a spiritual and healing journey for the band and they showed cultural awareness early by tapping into what is still the great fault line of Australian history.
The other way in which they were a ’political’ band was in their publicly stated identification with green issues. From Midnight Oil to Stop Oil as it were. There is great footage of a pop-up concert they did in New York. They played opposite the Exxon oil company headquarters with a banner saying, ‘Midnight Oil makes you dance, Exxon Oil makes us sick’. The police stood back, and the crowd grew. It does make you wish you were there. One member of the band still calls it their finest moment.
The Oils would not have been half as memorable without the big stage presence of Peter Garrett, and he is front and centre of this film. Whether he is jerking around on stage like a gone-wrong puppet or donning a suit and tie to become (briefly) a real politician, there is always the sense of someone who is larger than life. He is also articulate and knows what he cares about. For fans, that sense of purpose and commitment is what makes the band such an iconic part of the Australian rock scene.
