THE IRISHMAN

Australia, 1978, 108 minutes, Colour.
Michael Craig, Simon Burke, Bryan Brown, Robyn Nevin, Lou Brown, Gerard Kennedy, Tony Barry.
Directed by Donald Crombie.

The Irishman is a star vehicle for British actor Michael Craig who made his home in Australia from the 1970s. He had a very successful career as a leading man in the 50s and 60s with many British films including some of the Doctor series. In Australia, he was a writer and appeared in a number of films as well as the television series GP. Here he portrays the Irish Queensland patriarch, Paddy Doolan, a drover, a man in charge of a property and having to deal with his relationships with his children.

The film is a portrait of the Australian male of that period, the hard worker, the pioneer, the man who kept his emotions to himself. Robyn Nevin is effective as his wife and Simon Bourke (who had appeared to great effect in The Devil’s Playground) is his son.

There is a very strong supporting cast including Gerard Kennedy and Bryan Brown in an early role.

The film was directed by Donald Crombie who had made a number of documentaries and his first feature film, Caddie. At this time he also made films such as Cathy’s Child and Kitty and the Bagman.

The film is an evocation of pioneering life in Queensland, filmed on location and recreating this historical period in Australia.

1. An enjoyable Australian film? A memory of the past? Queensland in the early 20th. century? The Irish migrants and their place in Australia? Nostalgia, memoir, tribute?

2. The contribution of the colour, the location photography, the atmosphere of the place and the times? The contribution of the musical score, the song?

3. How well did the film re-create an atmosphere of early 20th. century Queensland, the way of life in the '20s, the countryside, families, work, the bullock teams, the changes that were happening in the 1920s? The style of photography with the use of colour, haze, the suggestion of memory and a way of life past?

4. Audience involvement through the structure of the film, its episodic structure, the cumulative effect of the episodes, the strength of the episodes and the way they were linked, an understanding of Pat Doolan, of Michael, of the family?

5. The focus of the title, on Pat Doolan, his background, nationality, Irish qualities? Michael as the next Irishman? The similarity to his father, the contrast, the new generation?

6. The device of the film of focusing on Michael and seeing even his father through him? His place in the family, his capacity for work, his ambitions, skill with animals, an adolescent and his growth, the factors in his growth, his brother, mother, the way of life of his father and his father's going away and dying?

7. The importance of the opening with the long lingering showing of the landscapes, Michael within the landscapes? The film ending in a similar way? What had the audience experienced between the seeing of these two scenes? Pat Doolan coming into this landscape with his teams, Michael’s joy the bond between the two, admiration and the need for growing up?

8. The film's use of the two sons with their similarities and c6ntrasts? The love between the two, strengths and weaknesses of each character, their regard for one another? How did each highlight the other because of behaviour, their place in their father's eye?

9. How well portrayed was the Irishman? The explanation of his Irish origins, his love for his work and his skill at it, the last of the drovers? His capacity for love and his inability to express it well? Drinking? People's expectations of him, his expectations of his wife and his sons? Ills temper and the clashes and the way these were portrayed? His relationship with Jenny and yet his leaving her? His place in the town and his being able to leave it? His realisation that he belonged to the past, that he was becoming out at of date? Was it inevitable that he should die?

10. The portrait of Will - his strong character with his father, his personal weaknesses? Clash, work on the farm, his hand, his wife, Bobo, talk, the peeping, the importance of the incident of the night, his rejection, his hand and the effect of this? A losing character?

11. The effect of the experience on Will and on his father, their fight, jobs, the clash at the end?

12. The contrast with Michael and his love for his work, the mine, his relationship with Dalgleish, the rider, the bets, his being laid off, the fight, the search for his father, the experience of his father's death, its meaning and his starting a new life?

13. The portrait of Jenny as the Australian wife, long-suffering, loving, her patience with her husband and her impatience with him? The love and the lack of love? Her support, telling him the truth, his leaving her? Her love for her sons?

14. The importance of the portrait of the grandparents and their presence in the film, the contrast with the next generation, with the grandchildren - humour, sorrow, old age, death? Old age in the countryside, the vision for the next generation?

15. The sketch of Dalgleish and his role in the town, wealth, his breeding, the place of Michael there? Eric?

16. The rider and his presence in the film, his going from town to town, an idol for Michael, the bond between the two, their sharing the work, the races? A hero type moving around the countryside? How engaging a character?

17. The portrait of men in the 1920s in northern Queensland, their values, style, traditions, their treatment of their women, their place in the town, work, drinking?

18. The importance of the races sequence and the enjoyment of the town, enterprise aid skill, bets, the gossip? The loggers and their work? The bar and the lady there?

19. Themes of change - the way the teams were filmed and showing their work, the trucks and their taking over and the explanation of what the trucks could do? Eric and his role with this change?

20. How well prepared was the audience for Michael's death? Its accidental nature, yet as a fitting end to this man, his wandering, his not being able to settle, his devotion to his style of life? The reminiscences of the past and its meaning, the indications of the future? The return home? Jenny's reaction, his sons, Michael and the future?

21. The importance of the echoes of Australian art and its traditions for helping and Australian audience to appreciate the way of life at the early part of the century? How well did the film echo the traditions of Australian art? The impact on an Australian audience, non-Australian? Nostalgia for the past way of life and its importance? Understanding the growing traditions in the Australian character?