The Dish Review (Australia Day 2018)

The Dish

Release Date: 19th October 2000 - Australia

Production Companies

Working Dog Productions (presents)

Distant Horizon

Dish Film Ltd.

The Dish Film Productions

Distribution

Roadshow Films

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Rating: M

Runtime: 101 minutes 


Box Office Gross: $17,999,473 (Australia)

Plot Summary

July 20th, 1969 was the
moment that history will
never forget. The day man
first stepped on the moon.
A television audience of six
hundred million people
across the globe witnessed
that one glorious moment.
Remarkably, it was through
a "dish" in the Australian
outback that these timeless

images emerged. While it

may have been one small
step for man, for a handful
of Australian scientists, it

was a giant leap. And this
nearly wouldn't happen

without a series of mishaps.

Cast

Sam Neill - Cliff Buxton

Kevin Harrington - Ross

'Mitch' Mitchell

Tom Long - Glenn Latham

Patrick Warburton - Al Burnett

Genevieve Mooy - May
McIntyre

Tayler Kane - Rudi Kellerman

Billy Mitchell - Cameron

Roz Hammond - Miss Nolan

Christopher-Robin Street - Damien

Luke Keltie - Graeme

Naomi Wright - Melanie

Ben Wright-Smith - Nicholas

Beverly Dunn - Secretary v/o (Voice)

Grant Thompson - Mr. Callen

Bille Brown - Prime Minister

Roy Billing - Mayor Robert
'Bob' McIntyre

Andrew S. Gilbert - Len Purvis

Lenka Kripac - Marie McIntrye

Neil Pigot - Journalist

Frank Bennett - Barry Steele

Matthew Moore - Keith Morrison

Eliza Szonert - Janine Kellerman

Kerry Walker - Pearl

Denise Roberts - Bronwyn

Jeff Keogh - Ray

Jason Ritterman - Adrian Hobbs

Alexander Zest - Lead Guitarist

Rowan Macartney - Trumpet

Aidan Macartney - Trombone

Jarrod Factor - Drummer

Oliver McGill - Pianist

Marilyn O'Donnell - Melva

Jane Menelaus - Gwen

John Flaus - Ron

John McMartin - U.S. Ambassador Howard

Carl Snell - Billy McIntyre

Charles 'Bud' Tingwell - Reverend Lotus

Darren Davidson - Camera Person

Simon Donaldson - Sound Person

Randall Berger - Ambassador's Aide

Mal Walden - ABC Journalist v/o (Voice)

Rod McNeil - Radio Newsreader v/o (Voice)

Alister Paterson - ABC TV Newsreader

Colette Mann - Betty the Bush Poet

Susan Ward - Female Print Journalist

Roger Crisp - Male Reporter

Crew

Writer/Conceiver/Producer/Director -

Rob Sitch

Writers/Conceivers/Producers - Santo Cilauro,
Tom Gleisner and Jane Kennedy

Producer - Michael Hirsh

Production Designer - Carrie Kennedy

Art Director - Ben Morieson

Costume Designer - Kitty Stuckey

Director of Photography - Graeme Wood

Film Editor - Jill Bilcock

Sound Mixer - Roger Savage

Foley Artists - Francis Ward Lindsay

and Gerry Long

Music - Edmund Choi

Review

On New Year's Eve of 2017, I visited the landmark Parkes Radio Telescope, one of the few stations that received live transmitted images of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. On my recent trip, I purchased the movie THE DISH from the Visitors Centre, intending to review it for this year's Australia Day. THE DISH had presented itself as a historically dramatic comedy with humour similar to the director's previous film, The Castle. While the movie maintains some historical accuracies, it contains some noticeable differences necessary to keep the plot coherent and straight. The humour is broad so that nothing else can upset the noteworthy balance of the film's elements.

While each actor had a substantial part in the film, none were more notable than Sam Neill and Patrick Warburton. The latter portrays a scientific advisor from NASA and is the only American performer prominently featured in this Australian-esque picture. Though Warburton hasn't drifted into much dramatic territory, this picture was an exception in his career as a serious and comical actor. Sam Neill is a seasoned veteran actor who has been in big-budget movies like Dead Calm and Jurassic Park and now shines as a recently widowed chief supervisor.

THE DISH is an impressive Aussie film with its gentle comedy and local scenery. It went to extraordinary lengths to capture the spirit of Parkes (where it's shot in some scenes) and the secrets behind the lunar landing. I recommend this movie to all audiences interested in the history of space exploration or who have lived in the same town or visited it and seen the telescope or the dish themselves.

Star rating: (8/10) Very Good Movie

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