The Castle (1997)

Director:

Rob Sitch

Writers:

Santo Cilauro (written by)
Tom Gleisner (written by)

Release Date:

7 May 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Ordinary Family. Extraordinary Story.

Plot:

A Melbourne family is very happy living where they do, near the Melbourne airport (according to Jane Kennedy...

Plot Keywords:

Airport | Honeymoon | Aviation | Australia | Australian Life

Awards:

2 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Michael Caton	...	Darryl Kerrigan
Anne Tenney	...	Sal Kerrigan
Stephen Curry	...	Dale Kerrigan
Anthony Simcoe	...	Steve Kerrigan
Sophie Lee	...	Tracy Kerrigan
Wayne Hope	...	Wayne Kerrigan
Tiriel Mora	...	Dennis Denuto
Eric Bana	...	Con Petropoulous
Charles 'Bud' Tingwell	...	Lawrence Hammill
Robyn Nevin	...	Federal Court Judge
Costas Kilias	...	Farouk
Bryan Dawe	...	Ron Graham
Monty Maizels	...	Jack
Lynda Gibson	...	Evonne
John Benton	...	Mr. Lyle

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:PG (TV rating) (censored) | Malaysia:U | UK:15 | Italy:T | Australia:M | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Company:

Working Dog

Trivia:

The shooting schedule was cut from from 20 to 11 days - the number of days the filmmakers could afford to feed the cast and crew.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the characters have their final appeal to the High Court of Australia, it is before 5 Justices. However in reality, when a constitutional dispute is brought before the High Court, all 7 Justices will sit (known as the Full Bench).

Quotes:

Dale Kerrigan: If there's anything Dad loved more than serenity, it was a big two stroke engine on full throttle!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "20 to 1: Great Aussie Movies (#3.5)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Make It With You

Don't damn it just coz you don't get it.

This is an very Australian film built for a particular sense of humour. Having lived in both Sydney and Melbourne, I feel I can say that this will appeal more to the Melbourne than the Sydney sense of humour.

Forget "The Crocodile Hunter", Nicole Kidman or Russel Crowe. This is a lot closer to your typical Australian.

Reading the other comments, two things surprised me.

1) That anybody outside Australia, the UK, NZ or Ireland actually got this movie. To those Americans who praised it, thank you for taking the time to appreciate something outside your normal experiences.

and

2) The ferocity with with those who didn't get it damned the movie.

The Castle is very very clever. Yes, there are references to "wogs" and "lebs", but if given how that's exactly how a large percentage of these ethnic groups refer to themselves, they are terms without power and thus are rarely used in a racist sense. Melbourne is a wog city. It has the largest Greek population outside of Greece and is the third largest Greek city in the world. It also feature a huge population of first, second or third generation Italians. Some of my ex-coworkers sounded like they were straight out the Godfather. Then there are the lebs and the polacks and and a great mix of European Cultures.

Wogs. The lot of them. :)

To reduce the movie to laughing at the lack of intelligence in the family or to picking on racial minorities (not that the wogs are a minority in Melbourne), is to miss the point entirely. If you don't live in Aus, I can fully understand why this would be the case.

But simply because a movie is a outside your understanding or experience or doesn't fit your personal expectations of what is "funny" it no reason to condemn it. Once you get more sophisticated than "Beverly Hills Cop", you are not going to carry 100% of the audience, and the audience shouldn't expect that it would. (Notable exceptions exist.. Dead Poets' Society immediately comes to mind)

Personally, I like movies is one that makes a social comment, or those that a rift in society and stir informed debate. The Castle is a reflection on the "Australian Dream", if such a thing exists, which is that everybody should get "A fair go". This is streets apart from the American dream of riches beyond imagination at the expense of everything else, and highlights the great difference between the two cultures.