Doing Time for Patsy Cline (1997)

Director:

Chris Kennedy

Writer:

Chris Kennedy (writer)

Release Date:

25 September 1997 (Australia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Everyone's Crazy For Patsy!

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Musician | Australia | Dream | Country

Awards:

10 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Richard Roxburgh	...	Boyd
Miranda Otto	...	Patsy
Matt Day	...	Ralph
Tony Barry	...	Dwayne
Roy Billing	...	Dad
Colette Brus	...	Waitress
Annie Byron	...	Mum
Tyler Coppin	...	Bobby Joe
Laurence Coy	...	Alfie
Shayne Francis	...	TV Reporter
Tom Long	...	Brad Goodall
Gus Mercurio	...	Tyrone
Kiri Paramore	...	Ken
Wayne Pygram	...	Geoff Spinks
Jeff Truman	...	Warren

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

UK:15 | Australia:M | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Carrathool, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Oilrag Productions

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The title character Patsy, is named after Patsy Cline and during the film she refers to watching a film about the life of Patsy Cline - Coal Miners Daughter. But Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) is about 'Loretta Lynne'.

Soundtrack:

Boulder To Birmingham

A Sweet Musical Satire of Country - both the Australian Bush and Nashville

It's too bad that the sweet little "Doing Time For Patsy Cline" only finally got commercial release in the U.S. in 2006, because its premise has gotten a bit dated in a post-Keith Urban/Jamie O'Neal world where Aussies have now taken Nashville by storm. It's not that crazy a fantasy for a kid to dream of getting from the bush to Music City.

The structure of the film musically turns around two parallel road movies, one a picaresque tour of the back roads of a northern New South Wales peopled with eccentric characters, and the other a fantasy "Wizard of Oz"-like imagining them all as alter-egos seeking fame and fortune in country music, intentionally mimicking Johnny Cash's bio (as later more seriously filmed in "Walk the Line").

The fantasy scenes are amusing satires of country music's rags to riches stereotypes of singers, managers and performances. But even the reality scenes are amusing satires of country bumpkins vs. Sydney sophisticates, salt of the earth station families vs. drug dealers. The prison blues jokes do get a bit repetitive as the film goes on a bit too long in going through every jail and jail music cliché.

Matt Day is personable and cute as "Ralph", the central kid with a guitar, a song and a dream, and his dreams are adorable. But the film is pretty much stolen by the scheming couple who pick him up as a hitchhiker, particularly motormouth Richard Roxburgh as "Boyd" who gets surprisingly more appealing and human as the film goes on. Miranda Otto as the object of their affections does Marilyn Monroe-like wide-eyed sexy yet somehow innocent very nicely, and has a surprisingly nice singing voice.

The song selections are a lovely mix of originals by the other Peter Best, covers of country classics and non-commercial country selections, such as by Emmy Lou Harris.

This film is like a country version of "Rock Follies", the British miniseries that satirized rock 'n ' roll fantasies.