Blackrock (film)

Brian Joyce, the director of Newcastle's Freewheels Theatre in Education, approached playwright Nick Enright, encouraging him to create a play that explored themes around the 1989 rape and murder of Leigh Leigh in Stockton, a beach area of Newcastle.[7][8] Leigh's family objected to the fictionalisation of her murder.[9] Titled A Property of the Clan, the 45-minute play premiered at the Freewheels Theatre in 1992 and was performed at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1993.[10] The play was shown at various high-schools in the Newcastle area and, following its positive reception, was shown nationally at high schools across the country over a period of eighteen months.[11]

In 1994, the Sydney Theatre Company commissioned Enright to develop the play into a feature-length production.[9] The resulting play was titled Blackrock. Blackrock retained the original four characters from A Property of the Clan,[11] and added nine others; it was considered a more fictionalised version of Leigh's murder.[9] The narrative and emphasis were reshaped for an adult audience rather than for a specifically educational environment.[12]

While the revisions to the play Blackrock were still being finalised, Enright started working with first-time director Steven Vidler to direct a film version,[13] which would also be titled Blackrock.[9] By December 1995, Vidler was working with Enright as an unofficial script editor, although they were having trouble finding financing for the film. Vidler said he considered directing the film Blackrock after having watched and been moved by the theatrical version, saying the play was "absolutely what it was like [for him] growing up in the Western Suburbs ... It's about keeping bonded with your mates. Nothing else matters ... It's about the unbelievable lengths boys will go to keep those bonds solid."[14] Leigh's mother Robyn campaigned to have production of the film halted, but her attempts failed after the film received government financial backing[15] from the New South Wales Film and Television Office.[16]

Blackrock was filmed over a period of two weeks with a cast and crew of about 70. A call for extras received an enthusiastic response by many teenagers in the Newcastle area. Filming locations included Stockton, Maroubra Beach, Caves Beach, and NESCA House.[2] Notable Stockton landmarks seen in the film include the Stockton Ferry[15] and Stockton Bridge.[2]

The Stockton Ferry, one of several locations in Stockton used for filming[15]

The community of Stockton opposed filming in the area, as memories of Leigh's murder were still fresh and the details of the script were "too close for comfort".[9] When filmmakers arrived in Stockton in late August 1996,[17] locations that had previously been reserved were suddenly no longer available. The local media treated them with hostility.[9] Former Newcastle deputy mayor and Stockton resident Frank Rigby criticised the film during production, saying "I would just love it to go away and so would everybody else."[2] Brian Joyce was also critical of the decision to film in the area, saying the filmmakers had to acknowledge the choice they had made in doing so.[17][2] The situation was exacerbated by the filmmakers' denial that the film was specifically about Leigh, despite their choice of Stockton for filming.[18] During production in September 1996, Elfick told The Newcastle Herald that he was "getting a bit bored" of people mentioning Leigh's murder. While acknowledging that the comments were understandable, Elfick concluded, "Unfortunately, that event happens all over Australia. We wanted to take the events of that murder and many other murders". He was also quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald as saying, "The movie is bigger than the Leigh Leigh thing".[3] Elfick hoped that people viewing the film would see it as a positive way of looking at the circumstances that led to Leigh's death,[2] and that it would make people think and maybe stop something like that happening to someone in the future.[19] Leigh's family were vehemently opposed to the film, saying that the filmmakers were "feasting on an unfortunate situation",[9] insensitively trivialising and exploiting her death, and portraying her negatively while doing so.[17] One of Leigh's aunts wrote to The Newcastle Herald later that month, saying "David Elfick doesn't seem to mind free publicity even if it comes from the tragic and brutal assault, rape, and murder of a fourteen-year-old virgin, not as he called it: 'the Leigh Leigh thing which happens all over Australia.'"[20] Enright said that while Leigh's murder served as the inspiration, the completed film is about the way a small town reacts when one of its own members murders another.[2]

Sandy George from Australian Screen Online said that Vidler's long career as an actor helped him "draw the terrific performances" from the film's young actors.[21] 17-year-old Laurence Breuls was literally the first person to audition for the role of Jared. Hundred of others auditioned though Breuls remained the favourite choice.[22] Vidler chose Simon Lyndon, who played the role of Jared in the original stage production of Blackrock, for the role of Ricko, stating that Lyndon had the looks, charisma, and complexity to play the role.[6] Rebecca Smart, who also portrayed Cherie in the original stage production,[23] was the only person to reprise their role from the play. Blackrock is often considered to be Heath Ledger's debut film,[24] but he had an uncredited minor role in the 1991 film Clowning Around.[25] While Ledger's role in Blackrock is small, it is credited with garnering him attention in Australia, leading to more prominent acting roles.[26] 15-year-old Bojana Novakovic was given the role of Tracy partly because she was a competitive gymnast and was considered mentally and physically strong enough to film the rape scene. Vidler discussed the role with her parents before filming commenced, who despite initial reservations, eventually gave permission for her to film the scene. Novakovic said the experience was traumatic and she began to tremble uncontrollably once the shoot ended, though recovered shortly afterwards, concluding, "In a way, I feel lucky to have had such a role at the beginning of my career. I don't think I'll ever be scared by an emotional scene again." The boys involved in the scene showed up at her door the following day and gave her a bunch of flowers and a T-shirt that said "shit happens".[6] Vidler said he found the performance so powerful that when he first watched the rushes of the scene alone, he burst into tears.[6]

In anticipation of the film's debut at Sundance, John Brodie from Variety said the film could be the "thunder from Down Under the way Shine was last year."[30] Having watched the film at Sundance, David Rooney from Variety praised several of the actors' performances and said the film "should score with kids the protagonists' age, but its soap-opera-style plotting and overwritten dialogue will limit wider acceptance".[31] Premiere also gave a negative review of the film's debut,[9] commenting that audiences had been expecting to see another Shine, though left the screening disappointed.[3] Elfick acknowledged that the initial screening of Blackrock at Sundance was less well received, which he blamed on sound problems. He stated that the issue was rectified for the second and third screenings, which were much more successful.[3] Diane Carmen of The Denver Post gave the film a positive review of the film, which she said left audiences at Sundance "reeling with its intensity", concluding it was "almost guaranteed to find a distributor in the U.S",[32] though in the event the film never received American distribution.[9] Having viewed the film at the Boston Film Festival, Chris Wright from The Phoenix concluded, "Even with its slightly over-the-top dénouement, Blackrock is a believable, touching teen drama. It's also a gripping thriller".[33]

R.S. Murthi from the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times gave the film two out of five stars, concluding it is "an unflattering but somewhat forced look at the wild side of teen life that at times seems dangerously tolerant of unrestrained teen behaviour."[34] Associate professor Donna Lee Brien of Central Queensland University said that when shown outside Australia, the film lacks the "poignant and powerful narrative support of Leigh's tragedy" and was deemed by critics to be "shallow and clichéd".[9]

Australian novelist and critic Robert Drewe gave a positive review, praising the performance of Breuls, the cinematography by Martin McGrath, and director Steven Vidler's choice of such a controversial subject for a first film. Upon noting that the filmmakers deliberately insisted that their characters be portrayed as different from the actual people involved in the Leigh Leigh murder as possible, Drewe said the film is "asking a lot of Australian audiences to expunge reality from their memories", though he concluded that the film should be "compulsory viewing for all Australian teenagers."[13] Rob Lowing from The Sun-Herald noted that the film belonged to a slew of Australasian films that focused on middle class life and ultimately gave the film 3½ stars out of 4, stating, "if you went to see Romper Stomper, Metal Skin, Idiot Box or Once Were Warriors, this gritty, punchy social drama ably fits into that class."[35]

In her book Who Killed Leigh Leigh?, Kerry Carrington, a criminologist and prominent researcher of Leigh's murder, had both criticism and praise for the film. She praised it for dispelling "the myth" that sexual violence is confined to one social class, for illustrating how boys model their sexual conduct on their fathers' treatment of women, and how the culture of sex segregation in workplaces can carry over into the public life of a town, exacerbating sexist beliefs and behaviours. She criticised the film, however, for the "strong impression" it makes that ineffectual mothers are part of the underlying problem and for several differences between Leigh's murder and the film that she considered to be disrespectful to Leigh's memory, in particular the film's "Hollywood ending".[36]

Donna Lee Brien stated that just as the filmmakers attempted to distance themselves from Leigh's murder, the city of Newcastle attempted to distance itself from Blackrock. A 1999 feature in The Sydney Morning Herald discussing cinematic production in Newcastle mentioned everything from Mel Gibson's 1977 debut film Summer City to a short film festival that year, but made no mention of Blackrock.[37] Brien theorised that some of the condemnation the film received may have been due to public frustration with the legal system, as the film achieves justice for the victim, whereas no one was ever convicted of raping Leigh. Brien cited the film as an example of why sensitivity and care must be taken when fictionalising an actual crime.[37]

A region 1 DVD was released on 29 October 2002 containing the original version of the film.[38] A region 4 DVD was released on 19 November 2003 containing the edited version. Special features included a four-minute featurette, cast and crew interviews, a 'goof reel' which included footage of a bonding trip made by Simon Lyndon, Laurence Bruels and Cameron Nugent to Lennox Head, and the film's original trailer and television advertisement. According to Andrew L. Urban from Urban Cinefile the featurette was "overburdened" with clips from the film, but was otherwise of interest. Urban also praised the seven-minute interview with Nick Enright.[39]