The early to mid 1980s was an age of plenty for Australian filmmaking. The generous 10BA tax concessions meant that it had never been easier to finance a film and the result was a flood of projects being given the green light.
It’s a situation that’s looked upon with envy by modern filmmakers, but while 10BA was responsible for a boom in the local industry, like any generous government-sponsored industry incentive it also often led to a lessening in quality of the final output.
The 1983 film “Buddies” is a great example, with a clever and simple setup being hampered by an underdeveloped script.
Set in the sapphire fields outside of Emerald, Queensland, “Buddies” tells the rollicking tale of Mike (Colin Friels) and Johnny (Harold Hopkins), two dinkum, small-scale miners in simple search of their fortune. Unfortunately, the likeable pair comes into conflict with a mining company over their latest and most promising claim, and the conglomerate isn’t afraid to move onto their turf using bulldozers, guns and calculated intimidation.
With the help of their friends, Ted (Bruce Spence) and Stella (Kris McQuade), plus a holidaying doctor (Norman Kaye) and his family, the two mates devise a scheme to beat the big company at its own game, securing their long-awaited fortune in the process.
Plot wise, this is a pretty straightforward and robust variation on the American western, so it’s disappointing that John Dingwall’s script went to shooting about two drafts too soon. “Buddies” is stacked with fat, being populated by a raft of dispensable minor characters and lacking the focus to follow through with Mike and Johnny’s battle against the big mining company, the central plot arc going missing for large, meandering tracts of the film.
It’s a shame because Dingwall was certainly in the ballpark, and the solid nature of his central narrative premise still shines through some of the more unnecessary elements. The forceful, ambitious Mike and thoughtful, sensitive Johnny make for an engaging pair, and Friels and Hopkins are skilled enough to play off the characters’ subtle differences, creating an endearing odd couple who share tiffs as freely as they share laughs. Their relationship is the spine of “Buddies”, and in that respect Dingwall managed to nail the most important part of his script.
Indeed, the entire film is spritely enough to leap a number of its own hurdles. Arch Nicholson’s direction keeps the players all on the same caper-laden page, while David Eggby’s photography is top notch, his classy frames linking beautifully with Martyn Down’s efficiency in the editing room. The supporting cast too is loaded with talent, making their often-superfluous characters stick as much as they can.
Ultimately, “Buddies” works almost as a review of the giddy 10BA years: if such a premise emerged now it almost certainly wouldn’t be developed into a comedy. In that sense “Buddies” is worth a revisit, a harmless romp across the screen as carefree as the filmmaking era that produced it.
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