Set in the Australian outback you might have thought this movie would have had more in common to the directors previous movie Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The (1994). At the London Film Festical screening director Stephan Elliot started off before the screening that this definitely wasn't the case, and telling us it was about the more obnoxious of his country folk.
This shows a side of Australia that is being rather swept under the carpet. Although raucous and rude in the first half of the movie the mood turns darker towards the end.
And don't forget to wait till after the credits end for an amusing extra.
There are some very funny scenes including Barry Humphries as a blind petrol pump attendant - which so outraged the US lead that he had to spend time recovering in his trailer - it was done fortunately in one take with Humphries ad libbing the scene. And an excellent performance by Rod Taylor as the leader of the community.
Shot in the height of the summer, due to Stephan Elliot becoming ill just before the original start date, the crew needed 36,000 gallons of water per day to survive and in one scene they had to fit the dogs in the scene with shoes to allow them to run across the set.
