HBO special on Australia featuring Olivia's Rumour album
On a soft summer Saturday, it’s always nice to drift off to faraway places. And now we can visit two of them.
At 11 p.m. Saturday, KCET gives us Jamaica and the rhythmic urgency of reggae. At 10 p.m. pay-cable HBO has Australia and the persistent pleasantness of Olivia Newton-John.
Both films have gorgeous pictures, gentle ambience and music that… well, tends to repeat itself.
There are other things of note this weekend. At 8 p.m. Saturday. you can catch Dionne Warwick on PBS “Evening at Pops” or the debut of Fox’s magazine show, “The Reporters.” At 8 p.m. Sunday, catch the TV premiere of “The Killing Fields,” a stunning real-life story set amid the agony of wartime Cambodia. But this is also a time to visit distant locales. Here’s a sampling:
Gil Scott-Fleron grants that it took him awhile to get the feeling of reggae. “It’s almost like inside-out music,” he says in this round of PBS “Summer Night Music” series, “I had to get more familiar with the atmosphere to understand how appropriate that was.”
That hints at the hurdles this faces. Yes, the music seems inside-out. Rhythm, the quiet support for most commercial music, takes control. In the right settings amid the glories of the annual Sunsplash in Montego Bay, amid the anger of a Jamaican ghetto-this might come into focus. But on a TV set in our living rooms, it just seems terribly repetitious.
The film’s first performers (Chalice and Bankie Banx) are some of the more elusive. Stick around and you might enjoy the brass glories of the Skatalites or the full-voiced work of Gregory Isaacs or Judy Mowatt.
And you’ll definitely admire the work of flimmaker Robert Mugge. With one camera and a lot of energy, he captures the beauty and the passion of the music.
Newton-John's special has no such budget limitations.
This is a plush and vibrant film, glowing with richness.
It is an hour long homage to Australia, for that country’s bi-centennial. And in front of all the grand vistas, the star stands up and sings many songs… or maybe the same song many times.
In the past, we’ve seen Olivia Newton-John deliver the sweet innards of warm ballads and the solid punch of rock ‘n’ roll. Here, however, she is given neither. She does a succession of songs that are each pleasantly upbeat in roughly the same way.
Close your eyes and you’ll think you’ve been trapped inside “Yentl” or “Xanadu.” You’ll think you’ve found a cyclops version of a Broadway revue.
But open your eyes and you’ll see the wonders of Australis, brilliantly photographed. You’ll meet the people and savor their frontier spirit.
“I love the pride,” Newton-John tells some Australian women. “Before, you had to leave Australia to come back here and make it.”
She left for England as a teenager, then found fame and fortune in America. And now, suddenly, Americans have fallen in love with her native land.
Now we’re fascinated by Paul Hogan and Mel Gibson and a string of gifted movie directors. We even forgive the Aussies for Jacko. And we can feast on Australia while listening to Newton-John’s song for an hour.
By Mike Hughes, Gannett News Service
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