Based on the stage play by Nick Enright (Lorenzo’s Oil, etc), this provocative and topical film is gut wrenching stuff examining the devastating impact a brutal rape and shocking murder has on a small NSW coastal community. However, it also has a more personal and topical concern that centres on the tense and mutually antagonistic relationship between 17 year old Jared (Laurence Breuls, in his first feature film) and his mother Diane (played by Linda Cropper, a veteran of stage, tv and film).
Jared is a typical adolescent, uncertain of what he wants from life and who desperately needs some guidance through the confusion and choices ahead, and he blames Diane’s shrewish and demanding attitude for driving away his father. Diane is struggling to come to terms with the fact that she has breast cancer, and is unable to discuss her fears and apprehensions with Jared. The incendiary emotional gulf and lack of communication between the pair explodes after a local girl is raped and murdered during a party. Jared is the only witness to the brutal rape, and is torn by his inability to intervene and his later indecision over what to do. To her horror, Diane also comes to suspect that Jared was somehow involved, which puts further strain on their already tense relationship.
The film has been directed by Stephen Vidler, a former actor with extensive film and tv experience, who doesn’t shy away from the controversial and hard hitting nature of the material.
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The film showcases the powerful, harrowing and emotionally draining performance from newcomer Breuls, who is virtually on screen for most of the film and whose character shoulders much of the film’s dramatic moments and confrontations. This was the first film role for Bruels, whose only previous experience involved an anti-alcohol commercial and stints on Home And Away and Spellbinder. The youngster says that his interest in acting probably stemmed from the fact that his own mother was an actress, although he had no real ambition or any idea of what he wanted to do when he left school. He readily agrees that he shares some similar experiences with Jared and could relate to the character’s emotions and confusion, common experiences that inform his assured and complex performance.
Bruels (jarred) went on a holiday to India to help prepare him emotionally for the character.
Also appearing in the film as local surfing legend and Jared’s best friend Ricko is Simon Lyndon, who originally played the role of Jared in the Sydney theatre production. Breuls says that he wanted to draw Lyndon out a little about his experiences of the role. However, Lyndon recognised that it was something that Breuls had to experience for himself, and kept quiet, a decision that Breuls now recognises was probably the right one. “That’s what makes the film, you know,” he acknowledges, “the actor going through the experience.”
Diane is more rooted in the working class, which was unusual and challenging material for Cropper, because it was not the sort of role that had played in her long and varied career.
Diane’s a wonderful character, she’s quite complex and layered.
“With Steve being an actor as well as a director it was particularly great for the actors, because he had that actor’s language. That’s the great advantage of a director that’s come from an acting background. I think a lot of directors are ill at ease around actors, they feel intimidated by them, and they don’t understand the acting process. And rather than admit that they put up these barriers, these pretences. That wasn’t Steve; he was completely accessible, completely open and communicative, which made it a wonderful set to work on.
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“I’m older and I tend to leave it there when I take the dress off and go home,” she explains. “But that’s me, and I just have to because I’ve done it for years, and it just kills you otherwise. Sometimes you just can’t help but let it intrude, especially if it’s very close to you. But Diane was quite a long way from me, so in the end it was easier to divorce myself. The closer the character is to you the harder it is to walk away from it. Laurence would have a different response to that, partly because he was on set virtually every day, and partly because it’s his first role.
Bruels’ character is a lot like himself!
Black Rock is a devastating depiction of how, in the aftermath to the rape, the town’s residents bitterly turn upon each other in their frenzied desire to apportion blame for the savage attack. The rape scene itself is quite a harrowing moment in a tough film, and several minutes have been cut from the film to gain an M rating. The film is clearly aimed at adolescent audiences, and it was imperative that the film get a rating that would enable it to reach its target audience. However, the film retains the integrity – admittedly a rather strange word to use when discussing a brutal rape – of Enright’s script and Vidler’s direction. Cropper, who has also seen the uncut version, concurs. “It’s a tighter film,” she admits. “I think there’s still enough of the rape and the violence in the film to get that effect, but not enough to compromise Nick’s script. It’s shocking, but I think it makes people look at these issues. Nick and Steve did such a tough impression and story about that. It’s not just an Australian movie either. There’s that male thing, we call it mate ship in Australia, but I’m sure the Americans and Europeans have their own version of it.”
“I think the film has an awful lot to offer parents and teenagers on many levels. “I guess the biggest one from my point of view is that it’s really important to try and talk to people that really love you. It’s really hard. I know it was hard for me when I was 17, even though they were great parents and all, but I think that the message here is that people should communicate and express this love and support for one another. We can often get through life’s little crises. I remember as a teenager wanting to do it on my own, and maybe that’s part of growing up, that you have to go through that sort of stuff.”
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Do film makers as artists have a social responsibility? Do parents have to watch what they say while in front of their children? Do singers and performers have to watch their image? Does the President of the United States have to watch his public persona? The answer to these questions and many more is yes. So then the question arises, do film makers as artists have a social responsibility? I ...
1997 Melbourne Greg (Roy) King, one of Australia’s leading film reviewers
