Stone

Australian films have only recently been distributed as international products. Some are good, some are not. Stone is one of the latter. Picture the set, Australia of the 70s, hot and vivid, camera zooms in on a bike gang.......'The Grave-Diggers". Riding big Japanese bikes (like Kawi 900s) they enter the scene of the original crime (political assassination). One of the boy's sees the gunman and that's how the story starts. To cover his tracks, the gunman and his mates begin to pick the bikes off, one by one. The local constabulary get a bit concerned after the third bikie gets done in. The solution, send in Stone, the super long hair cop from the D squad. Then they all ride around for a while (as they're apt to do in bike films), destroy a pub and have a scrap with another gang. Stone rides with the gang to check things out. The underlying story line is they're trying to get the gunman before he gets them ( The Grave Diggers that is). Just as the gang is about to take revenge Stone grabs the assassin at gun point and takes him downtown. The Grave Diggers get booked at the same time for all kinds of things. Stone develops an affinity with the gang during the film, and to show their gratitude for his efforts the gang kick his head in.

Curtain closes, fights on.

The acting throughout is very pretentious and forced. This is attributable to two things. Firstly the actors are not of a high ability. Stone in particular, as the major character is more of an 'anti-hero' than anything else. He's small and thin, and very unimposing. He doesn't smoke dope with the gang (which everyone expected him to), falls of his bike in a race, and gets beaten up. He lacks style and his ability is less than stunning.

The second reason is that none of the caste seemed to understand what they were trying to portray. This was because the plot was disjointed from the beginning on. It comprises the usual scenes from most bike films with a few changes, placed in a vague sequence. The first few scenes were quite spectacular, four deaths, one trip, a few brawls and a grandiose funeral procession all in a few minutes. Then nothing followed to build up on this, and it sagged to the drowsey state that it never recovered from. The film was an attempt to portray Australia in the 70s, rough, tough, and modern, a down-to-earth 2001. An attempt only.

Technically it was excellent. The cameraman caught each piece of action in the best way (he must have seen "Solaris"). It was his ability that kept a few people from walking out. Properties and setting succintly reflected the image which was trying to be presented. This is where the credits lie.

To put things concisely, Stone is a 3rd rate movie with 2nd rate pretentions the possibilities for something stunning were developed in the introductory scenes, but not worked on. The story line was sloppy. It did not create an empathy between the audience and the characters. This made the actors' task nigh impossible, before they even attempted anything. The film was classified R20, presumably because of all the dope smoked in it. On top of this, the scene where one of the bikies gets done in is censored completely. To censor an R20 film seems strange indeed. Stone is one Of many films about cliche'ed topics, Dope, Sex and Rock 'n roll. Don't worry if you miss it.

Jon Grainer