The Slim Dusty Movie

I find it incredible that over the years, NO-ONE has sought to write a review of this particular movie, not so much because it offers stunning cinematography, dialog to stun the senses, or even because of the awards it never picked up - simply because of who Slim Dusty IS and what he means to this country...and HELL, I ain't even Australian myself!!

A simple biography of a simple man but one loved and cherished beyond most others on the Continent. A survivor without peer and an entertainer in the truest and most selfless sense of the word. One had only to see Slim Dusty's rendition of WALTZING MATILDA at the 2000 Sydney Olympics to feel the patriotism his voice and presence commands.

The film simply charts the gentle balladeer's rise from small town C & W singer (under his birth name of David Gordon Kirkpatrick) to the most famous and beloved of C & W singers Australia has yet produced or is ever likely to. Jon Blake plays the young Slim in the late 40's early 50's and Dusty plays himself later in the film.

I wouldn't rate country and western as my preferred musical taste, in fact I have only seen Slim Dusty once live - at the Sydney Opera House of all venues in the mid seventies, but I have the greatest respect for the man and this film is a fitting epitaph.

It has been voiced the THE SLIM DUSTY MOVIE (not a great choice of titles I have to go along with) is for devotees only. Perhaps so, but hell, there's a lot of them!