SPIDER AND ROSE
Australia, 1994, 94 minutes, Colour.
Ruth Cracknell, Simon Bossell, Max Cullen, Lewis Fitz- Gerald, Jennifer Cluff, Tina Bursill, Marshall Napier, Beth Champion, Bruce Venables.
Directed by Bill Bennett.
Spider and Rose was written and directed by Bill Bennett who made a series of small-budget but entertaining films including Backlash, Mortgage, Jilted. After Spider and Rose he won the AFI awards for his thriller Kiss or Kill. He made some films in America including Two If By Sea with Sandra Bullock and Dennis Leary.
This is a road film in the vein of the very popular Harold and Maude. Ruth Cracknell is a matriarch who has been involved in a car accident and the death of her husband. With heart trouble, she is to be driven by ambulance from Sydney to Coonabarabran for her birthday. Simon Bossell plays the ambulance officer, who has been involved in a sad case where a child died, who wants to leave the job and is wanting to celebrate with a booze-up on his final night. However, he is told to drive Rose to Coonabarabran.
The film is a road movie, Australian style. The pair are an odd couple, sparring, getting the better of each other, experiencing things together, gaining some admiration, finally friendly with each other. The two stars bring the characters to life. Max Cullen, who won an AFI award for best supporting actor, plays a beekeeper who enters into their lives and their journey. Lewis Fitz- Gerald and Jennifer Cluff (Bill Bennetts’ wife) play the son and daughter-in-law.
The film has the scenery of north-western New South Wales, filmed around Mudgee. The film is amusing, tongue-in-cheek ironic, finally warm and advocating people being themselves rather than living up to people’s expectations (or their own).
1. An Australian road movie, Sydney to Coonabarabran, the mountains, the desert, the countryside, the towns, the feel of the road, the cars, truck, tractor?
2. Old and young, echoes of Harold and Maude, antagonism, sharing, friendship?
3. The title and the tone? The names?
4. The initial accident, Rose and her bewilderment, the country road, walking, her husband’s body, her grief? The later flashbacks to the violence of the crash?
5. Rose in hospital, heart condition, cantankerous, swatting flies, her illness, her fears, her memories, her treatment of the staff?
6. Spider on the ambulance staff, his work, the interview with the boss, giving up his job, the past and the flashback to his inability to help the child, the child’s death? The effect on him? Planning his party, the nurses and the girls, his mates, going to get the vodka and the other things for the party?
7. Meeting with Rose, the confrontation, the games they played with each other? One-upmanship? The issues of where to sit in the ambulance, Rose and her comment about carsickness, the clashes with the music, their talk, taunting each other, her being sick, his having to change his clothes, going into the clothes bin? The encounter with Jack, Rose going off with Jack, his search for Rose along the roads?
8. Rose, her age, character, strong-willed, her love for her husband, the limits of her son, the farm, going to her birthday party, carsickness, her being sick in the car, her eating, the swatting the fly at the diner, the lift, talking with Jack, the bees, going to the hives? Her being found? Continuing with Spider, her driving, their crash, the dead kangaroo? The effect, getting a lift, the cantankerous truck driver, outing them? The house, going into the bath, Rose and her lack of inhibitions, Spider and his awkwardness, sleeping, Jack finding them, taking Spider to the hospital, Rose having tended his leg, her background as a nurse? Rose and Jack going off together, Robert finding them and taking her home?
9. Spider’s story, his parents, Brad as his real name, flip style, changing, disliking Rose, liking her after sharing with her, the crash, his leg, her tending him, his independence in the hospital and the nurse putting him in the wheelchair?
10. Robert, his wife, children? Spider going to the house? The meal, the discussion about Rose going to an institution, her reactions? Spider and his telling off Robert and his wife?
11. Rose, her room, the pills, putting on the party dress, Jack arriving, dancing, her fainting, Spider taking her off in the car, his knowing that she was faking things?
12. Rose and her future, the car, driving off – who cares?
13. The credits and Spider arguing with the ambulance man?
14. Light, but strongly-drawn characters, issues of age, family, friendships?
