| Struck by Lightning | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jerzy Domaradzki |
| Written by | Trevor Farrant |
| Produced by | Terry J. Charatsis Trevor Farrant |
| Starring | Garry McDonald Brian Vriends Catherine McClements |
| Cinematography | Yuri Sokol |
| Edited by | Simon James |
| Music by | Paul Smyth |
Release date |
|
Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | A$2.6 million [1] |
Struck by Lightning is a 1990 Australian film directed by Jerzy Domaradzki. The film was nominated in 4 AFI Award categories, including Best Director and Best Film. It won the film award at the Human Rights Medal and Awards in 1990. [2]
Garry McDonald plays Ollie, a grumpy alcoholic workshop supervisor at a shelter called Saltmarsh. He hires Pat (Brian Vriends), a school teacher, to develop an experimental fitness program for the intellectually disabled young adults in the shelter. Pat teaches P.E and decides to try to get them involved in soccer, with some interesting results. Jill is Ollie's social worker, whom Ollie calls 'the bitch'.
In February 1989 Jerzy Domaradzki was working with writer Trevor Farrant on another script when Farrant gave him the screenplay for Struck by Lightning. The director loved it, Terry Charatsis applied for funding to the Film Finance Corporation and managed to get the film up. [3] It was shot in November 1989 in Adelaide. [1] [4]
Critics' reception was generally positive to glowing ("charming and exhilarating black comedy, marvellously acted by the whole cast." [5] ), but the Australian audience stayed away, perhaps deterred by its "improving" nature, and abetted by low-key promotion and hesitant distribution. It has been played on free-to-air TV a few times. There was a limited VHS, but to date no DVD, release.
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Garry George McDonald AO is an Australian actor, satirist and comedian. In a career spanning five decades he has had many theatre, television and film roles, and has been listed as a National Living Treasure. He is best known as the seemingly naive celebrity interviewer Norman Gunston, through whom he pioneered the "ambush interviewer" technique since followed by many others. He received a Gold Logie award for the television Norman Gunston Show in which he developed the character. He is also famed for his role of the hapless Arthur Beare in the television sitcom Mother and Son. Appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003 for service to the community in the mental health field and to the arts as an entertainer, he has also been a board member of the Australian mental health organisation Beyond Blue.
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Ground Zero is a 1987 Australian drama-thriller about a cinematographer who, prompted by curiosity about some old film footage taken by his father, embarks on a quest to find out the truth about British nuclear tests at Maralinga. It stars actors Colin Friels, Jack Thompson and Indigenous activist Burnum Burnum.
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