TURKEY SHOOT

Australia, 1981, 83 minutes, Colour.
Steve Railsback, Olivia Hussey, Michael Craig, Carmen Duncan, Noel Ferrier, Gus Mercurio.
Directed by Brian Trenchard Smith.

Turkey Shoot is one of Anthony Ginnane's international thrillers: Patrick, Thirst, Harlequin, Race for the Yankee Zephyr. As regards technical and production qualities, the film is excellently made with fine Queensland location Panavision photography and Brian May's atmospheric score. The film also has an excellent cast ~ some hamming their performances as Noel Ferrier, Gus Mercurio, Roger Ward. Michael Craig plays his part straight. International hero and heroine Steve Railsback and Olivia Hussey are competent.

The film is action science fiction of the comic strip variety. It is in the vein of Soylent Green, Escape from New York - with the contrast of the tropical Queensland setting from destroyed cities. In a fascist totalitarian regime, deviants in rehabilitation prisons are sent out into the bush to be pursued by authorities for a lethal Turkey Shoot. The film becomes quiet violent - but not in the effective Mad Max mythical way, rather and emphasis on the contrivances and the gory skills of the special effects. Director is Brian Trenchard- Smith, who directed The Man From Hong Kong, Death Cheaters, Stunt Rock and documentaries on stunt work. The film works on comic strip level - but draws attention to itself rather than to its themes.

1. The impact of the film as popular entertainment: the blend of serious, comic? Cinematic traditions - the chase film like The Hounds of Zaroff and its derivatives? Futuristic science fiction? For what audience was the film made?

2. Technical quality: Queensland locations, the camp, Panavision photography? Special effects? The attention to deaths and woundings - gory and contrived? The film moving gradually over the edge? The atmospheric score?

3. The effectiveness of the basic concept: the futuristic totalitarian-fascist regime? Themes of freedom as obedience and work as life? The arrest of alleged deviants and their rehabilitation in camps? The echo of concentration camps and slave labour? Brainwashing? Torture? The blend of this idea with chase action? Escape films? The suspense of the pursuit? The cruelty of humans hunting humans? How well was the concept used?

4. The picture of futuristic society: the opening and the transport of prisoners, the flashbacks for the arrests of Paul for his broadcasting of freedom programmes and Chris for her unwitting sheltering of a fugitive and her compassion? The arrival and the conventions of introduction to the camp? The guards and their violence? Thatcher and his governorship of the prison? The indoctrination? The proclamations about the running of the camp - the focus on promiscuity but deviance in sexual matters as capital crime? The representatives of the authority: Mallory, Jennifer, the hunter? The rules, corrections, violence?

5. The focus on torture: Ritter kicking the girl to death as a demonstration, Paul being tortured, Chris and her fears and the attack in the shower block? The showers, the dormitories, the work gangs? Paul advising Chris not to be afraid but to watch and not be cowed?

6. The prisoners and their work, Griff and the stealing of the knife, Dodge and his place in the camp and his knowing what was going on?

7. Thatcher and his rule, his defying Paul who threatened him with failure? Organisation, the rules, Thatcher in action? Cruelty? His sense of superiority? His relationship with, Mallory and Jennifer? The setting up of the turkey shoot? His pursuit of Paul but not killing him at the waterfall? His killing of Griff? Putting his body in the camp? The pursuit of Paul, the return to the besieged camp? His explosive death? Michael Craig's investing the character with some semblance of understanding rather than stereotype?

8. Jennifer and her wealth, manner, style, clothes? Her deadly weapons? Participation in the hunt? Her cruel killing of Griff with the arrows? The pursuit of Rita? The lesbian overtones and the cruelty? The irony of her similar death from Chris? Mallory and his pomposity, casual shooting and injuring people, his hunting with Ritter, his being shot by Chris, being burnt in the canefields? The hunter and the mutant? The torture and the biting of the toe? The killing of the mutant with the tractor? The hunter and his being axed by Paul? The cruelty of the pursuit of Dodge?

9. Ritter and his place in the camp, cruelty, his helping Mallory? The final fight with Paul, his arms being chopped off by Chris? Red and his cruelty, the mocking of his castration? His death?

10. Paul as hero, his background, compassion for Chris, confronting of Thatcher? The last to go in the hunt? The pursuit over the cliffs, his helping Chris? His escaping from the mutant? The canefields, the beach? The final siege? Chris and her story, fear, modesty, her escape, her changing and her brutal self-defence?

11. Rita and her story, prostitute, survival, the pursuit, her death? Griff and Dodge as symbols of the prisoners and the killings?

12. The success of the film as hunting action, the editing and the pace, the use of the terrain from mountains to canefields to sea? The planes and the bombing of the camp?

13. The emphasis on gore and the effectiveness of the special effects? The over-focus on the violence?

14. The comic strip style? Audience acceptance of conventions and stereotypes? The blend of reality and unreality? How valid were the themes put in this pop-art form?