Ground Zero

(Michael Pattinson & Bruce Myles, Australia, 1987)

A paranoid thriller in the vein of The Parallax View (1974) or Blow Out (1981), set against the 1984 Royal Commission into British atomic tests at Maralinga, Ground Zero is a fairly exciting and thought provoking film.

Colin Friels plays a cinematographer who, like the heroes of so many political tales, gradually wakes up as he searches for the top-secret film that his murdered father shot during the tests.

Co-directors Michael Pattinson and Bruce Myles handle the action-intrigue elements of the script better than its sentimental and comic touches.

Unfortunately, the romantic treatment of the wise, mystical Aborigines anticipates the worst passages of Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World (1991).

Ground Zero is a rather forgotten Australian film today, but it is worth revisiting.

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© Adrian Martin January 1993