Bastard Boys - Wikipedia
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| Bastard Boys | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Sue Smith |
| Directed by | Raymond Quint |
| Starring | Jack Thompson Colin Friels Dan Wyllie Geoff Morrell Rhys Muldoon Anthony Hayes Daniel Frederiksen Justin Smith |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 4 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Miranda Dear Scott Meek |
| Producers | Brett Popplewell Ray Quint |
| Running time | 55 minutes |
| Production company | Flying Cabbage Productions Pty Ltd |
| Original release | |
| Network | Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
| Release | 13 May – 14 May 2007 |
Bastard Boys is an Australian television miniseries broadcast on ABC Television in 2007. It tells the story of the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute.
The series tells the story of the waterfront dispute, when businessman Chris Corrigan and the Liberal government at the time illegally dismissed the unionised workforce. The story is related from four perspectives: "Greg's War", from the point of view of union leader Greg Combet; "Josh's War", from the point of view of lawyer Josh Bornstein; "Sean's War", from the point of view of dock worker Sean McSwain; and "Chris' War", from the point of view of Patrick Stevedores managing director Corrigan.
- Daniel Frederiksen as Greg Combet
- Justin Smith as Josh Bornstein
- Anthony Hayes as Sean McSwain
- Geoff Morrell as Chris Corrigan
- Rhys Muldoon as Julian Burnside, QC
- Francis Greenslade as Bill Kelty
- Mike Bishop as Peter Reith
- Jack Thompson as Tony Tully
- Dan Wyllie as Brendan Tully
- Lucy Bell as Petra Hilsen
- Colin Friels as John Coombs
- Deborah Kennedy as Gwen Coombs
- Christopher Widdows as Garry Coombs
- Caroline Craig as Tali Bernard
- Justine Clarke as Janine McSwain
- Jeremy Kewley as Frank Parry
- Kevin Harrington as Derek Corrigan
- Helen Thomson as Valerie Corrigan
- Anna Lise Phillips as Cherie Snape
- Michele Fawdon as Lyn Tully
- Louis Corbett as Joe Corrigan
- Richard Heath as Podge
Most of the characters portrayed are real individuals, many of whom were interviewed in the process of writing the drama. However, a number of characters were invented and events were considerably compressed for dramatic purposes. Notably, the waterside workers portrayed in the drama were composites, based on interviews with many waterside workers.[1]
Another example of invention was the placing of lawyer Josh Bornstein at a key protest, which would have been illegal because of a court injunction[2]
Bastard Boys was broadcast on ABC1 in May 2007.
The series was later issued by ABC and Roadshow Entertainment in their "Masters collection" as a two-DVD set (220 mins), packaged with the tele-film Curtin (93 mins) as a third disc.[citation needed]
The Age's Debi Enker described it as a "thoughtful, illuminating and superbly cast account of a seminal event in our recent history [which] represents exactly the kind of drama that one would want the national broadcaster to nurture."[3]
In 2006 Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, while the series was still in production, called it wasteful spending and criticised it as "anti-government, pro-left propaganda".[4] Journalist Michael Duffy described the series as pro-union propaganda.[5] Chris Corrigan, who was involved in the dispute and attempted to sack the unionised workforce and replace it with strikebreakers, was highly critical of the series.[2] Then-Prime Minister John Howard also labelled the series "political propaganda", saying that it ignored the notorious inefficiency of the Australian waterfront and years of collaborative failures to change this.[6]
Criticism also came from some members of the union movement. According to Phillip Adams, unionist Bill Kelty was concerned that "no researcher, writer or producer - spoke to him about the dispute or his role in it. Yet they haven't hesitated to put words into their Kelty's mouth that the original Kelty never said".[7] Chris Corrigan's brother Derek Corrigan has disputed claims that the broadcasting of Bastard Boys was timed to support Greg Combet's run for politics".[8]
The script, published by Currency Press, won the 2007 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Television Script.[9]
The film received seven nominations in the 2007 Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Telefeature or Mini Series and Best Direction in Television with Sue Smith winning Best Screenplay and Paddy Reardon winning Outstanding Achievement in Television Screen Craft.[10]
- ^ "The Reality of Television". The Age. 16 May 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
- ^ a b "Reloading history". The Age. 16 May 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
- ^ Debi Enker (10 May 2007). "Reliving the waterfront war". The Age. Retrieved 15 May 2007.
- ^ Rachel Browne (13 May 2007). "ABC did not influence Boys". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 May 2007.
- ^ Michael Duffy (12 May 2007). "ABC unloads a shipload of bias". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 May 2007.
- ^ "Howard hits out at 'lopsided' 'Bastard Boys'". ABC. 17 May 2007. Archived from the original on 19 May 2007. Retrieved 17 May 2007.
- ^ Phillip Adams (15 May 2007). "Don't lose plot over 'true' stories". The Australian. Archived from the original on 25 May 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
- ^ ABC News Online (15 May 2007). "Suggestions 'Bastard Boys' timed to Combet election run 'bizarre'". ABC. Archived from the original on 17 May 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
- ^ Smith, Sue. "Bastard Boys". Currency Press. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
- ^ "Winners & Nominees: 2007". AACTA. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
- Bastard Boys at IMDb