REVIEW : "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" (1994) - Movie by Stephan Elliott

in #movies5 years ago

Three drag queens, trekking through the Australian outback, in a lavender colored greyhound bus, sounds like a bit of a weird setup. But don´t quit just yet, this is a surprisingly solid movie, despite its fair share of clichés, political correctness and uneven direction. I remember back then, that I found the whole idea ridiculous and I only just in recent years watched it and was seriously surprised about its many charms, despite its flaws.

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It does use a lot of gay behavior clichés and stereotypical music references to your standard "gay" disco but you have to remember that a lot of water has run through the river, in the last 25 years and what is considered clichés now might have been bold and brave back then, at least to some extend. The core audience is the hetero, and it needs to be pushing the right buttons, so that hetero´s are not scared away by "too much" gayness but can confidently recommend it while not feeling they are trespassing too much within taboos.

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I like that it does not take much time to set up the characters in run time, before they set out for their journey. Instead we get to know them through their dialogue and a few flashbacks to their childhoods. This is fine if not a tad superficial, but we do get a fairly good insight into at least Tick (Hugo Weaving) and Bernadette (Terence Stamp) as they at least develop somewhat over the movie. Felicia (Guy Pierce) is less present, and takes a more stereotypical, run of the hunky gay man role.

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Their personalities are quite different and this is obviously deliberate. The storyteller wants to show that gay people are individual and different even if they diverge somewhat to a few common traits. Otherwise there would not really be a film would there.

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A directional touch that I was slightly surprised about, was a recurring strong sense of imagery of the desert and the various lizards and such to be found there. The extra´s list of various reptiles is fairly long if you make a note of them. At other times the cinematography does not match up to the quality it shows elsewhere and this is a bit of a shame. Some of the desert scenes are very good and most of the show sets and costumes are good to "fabulous" though :-)

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Overall this a solid good movie. It is not very deep in any real way, it plays mostly safe on the "gay" aspects and the stereotypes. But it does also create a visual experience primarily that is quite likable and the road-movie plot is always a forgiving one that can work as a driver for almost all kinds of stories of personal development. The development is not that huge but sufficient to keep the interest alive throughout. it does sadly suffer too much from, what we now would call LGBT SJW political correctness, most notably by Ticks son, accepting his father´s gay life and dancing away in the drag queen´s fashion in the bus. It is just too much imo, and a cheap trick to use children here to "normalize" things.

I would like to mention that Jonathan Stamp´s portrait of Bernadette is absolutely fantastic. He/she is the old and nihilistic worn out show queen, with a lot of passive aggressiveness and diva notions. It is the most convincing gay/trans depiction I have seen on the screen nad he is really able to create a balanced and both funny, likable and pathetic personality all with very few tricks. Brilliant.

7/10

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I watched this film many years ago and I am glad you enjoyed it. I wasn't a huge fan even though I was glad I watched it. I think if I am going to re watch another film there are just so many better ones that would leapfrog this. A good review though none the less.

It is a bit of a one off kinda movie. Doesnt look or feel like any other I have seen. Choose it fir that reason :-)

Hi mandibil,

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I watched this movie so long ago I did not even remember Guy Pierce and Hugo Weaving were in it. :)
This happens a lot to me.
Then, I watch the movie again and it is as if I had never watched it.
I guess this will be next in the list of re-watch
Thanks for refreshing my memory about this one.
Great review

Thanks for the memories and the kind words

time ago a friend saw this movie. but I just ignored it. I was in the room while they were watching but I did not pay attention. Now that I read your post I think an interest in me has been born to give it the chance that this film deserves.

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