Don's Party Film Analysis

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Don’s Party takes us back to 1969 to the night of the Labor Party’s victory as John Gorton was announced the new Prime Minister of Australia. This 1976 ‘ocker’ comedy was adapted from the play of the same title and filmed in Sydney. Philip Adams and Bruce Beresford joined forces to put one of the most evocative plays onto the big screen. These ocker films were introduced in the early 1970s and riddled with “swearing and course language, drunkenness, an obsession with bodily functions, beery mateship and the accompanying derision of women, anti-intellectualism and a violation of custom and ethnic/religious beliefs” (Murray, 1994). Don’s Party includes all of these elements, placing it up there as one of the cult Australian films simply for representing Australian’s as they were. When 11 unconventional middle-class Australian’s come together for a night of drinking and…show more content…
The Australian Film Institute (AFI) played a prominent part in reviving the Australian film industry and Don’s Party was taken to the big screen in a more profane version, including full frontal nudity and sex scenes. With discussion over the events of the story being updated to the 1975 election, it was settled that the story would remain true to the original play as it was “widely believed that Labor would lose in 1975 – which was not the case in 1969” when the story is set. Prime Minister John Gorton even makes a guest cameo in the film as a tribute to his contribution in re-establishing the Australian Film Industry. The first televised AFI awards took place the same year Don’s Party was released and took home six awards from the night including two acting awards, sound, editing, screenplay and best direction. The film grossed $871,000 in the box office with a budget of $270,000 which producer Philip Adams had raised from the Australian Film Commission as well as private

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