Blue Fin
| Blue Fin | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Carl Schultz |
| Produced by | Hal McElroy |
| Written by | Sonia Borg |
| Based on | novel by Colin Thiele |
| Starring |
Hardy Krüger Greg Rowe Elspeth Ballantyne |
Production company |
South Australian Film Corporation McElroy and McElroy |
| Distributed by | Pacific International Enterprises |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | AU $750,000[1] |
| Box office | AU $703,000 (Australia)[2] |
Blue Fin is a 1978 family movie that stars Hardy Krüger, Greg Rowe and Elspeth Ballantyne.[3] It is based on an Australian novel written by Colin Thiele and published in 1969.
Plot
Based on the children's novel by celebrated South Australian author 'Colin Thiele', this is an emotional father and son story about tuna fishing of Southern Blue Fin tuna in South Australia's Port Lincoln fishing district. Accident prone son Snook is forever making mistakes much to the chagrin of his father Pascoe. But when tragedy strikes the fishing boat during a deep sea fishing trek in the Southern Ocean, the boy is called on to become a man in a rites of sea passage to reconcile is past mishaps and save both his father and the ship from certain disaster.
Twelve-year-old Steve Pascoe is nicknamed 'Snook' by everyone in Port Lincoln. He's thin and long-faced, like the fish he's named after. At school he's no good at sport and, at home, his father scorns him. Snook joins his father and fellow crewmen on a tuna-fishing expedition, when disaster strikes. It is up to Snook to save himself and his father from a desperate situation.
Cast
- Hardy Krüger as Bill Pascoe
- Greg Rowe as Steve "Snook" Pascoe
- Liddy Clark as Ruth Pascoe
- Elspeth Ballantyne as Mrs. Pascoe
- John Jarratt as Sam Snell
- Hugh Keays-Byrne as Stan
Production
The film is an unofficial follow up to Storm Boy with the same writer and star, also adapted from a Colin Thiele novel. The South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) did not want to use Henri Safran as director, though, so employed another director from the ABC, Carl Schultz.[4]
The film was shot near Streaky Bay in mid 1978. It was a difficult production and editor Rod Adamson claimed the film would not cut together. Five weeks after filming had completed, Schultz had to leave the film to take up a directing job at the ABC. Accordingly, Matt Carroll of the SAFC called in Bruce Beresford, who was under contract to them, to re-shoot some sequences. Some of these had to be done using a body double for Hardy Kruger since he had returned to Europe.[4] Schultz was supportive of Beresford stepping in but was unhappy with the fact he supervised the final re-cut.[5]
DVD release
A DVD was released on 1 January 2003.
See also
References
- ↑ Greg Kerr, "Blue Fin", Australian Film 1978-1992, Oxford Uni Press 1993 p15
- ↑ Australian Films at the Box Office - Report to Film Victoria accessed 5 October 2012
- ↑ Blue Fin (1978) Archived 4 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
- 1 2 David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson, 1980 p271-272
- ↑ Peter Beilby & Rod Bishop, "Carl Schultz", Cinema Papers, Jan-Feb 1979 p242
External links
- Blue Fin at the Internet Movie Database
- Blue Fin at Oz Movies
- Blue Fin at the National Film and Sound Archive
- Blue Film at Australian Film Commission
- Blue Fin at The New York Times
- Pacific International Enterprises