Australasian Cinema > films > Stockade
Stockade (Ross McGregor, 1971) prod. Hans Pomeranz for Spectrum Films, wr. Kenneth Cook, dp Jack Bellamy; Graham Corry, Michelle Fawdon (Elizabeth Green), Rod Mullinar (Peter Lalor), Michael Caton; began as a musical play detailing, with reasonable historical accuracy, the events at the Eureka Stockade when rebellious miners fought against government regulation of the goldfields in Ballarat in 1854; 90 min.
Stockade was of far greater strategic importance in the political struggles of the film industry than it was intrinsically as a film. As the first feature to receive financial aid from the government, it was exposed to much public and political attention. In December 1971, the Liberal MP for Ballarat, Dudley Erwin, deplored the use of government money to produce a film with 'immoral content' (referring primarily to the film's brothel scenes) and called for it to be withdrawn from circulation. A far more serious controversy arose over the failure of the film to find a distributor. Kenneth Cook and Hans Pomeranz drew attention to the regulations governing the production and exhibition of films in New South Wales: the state government refused to enforce its old quota for Australian films, but at the same time enforced regulations that prohibited public screenings in unlicensed halls, thereby preventing Australian producers from finding any alternative to the established film exhibition trade. The struggle attracted a great deal of media coverage, and public interest reached a climax when Pomeranz issued a formal demand to the Chief Secretary, Eric Willis, for an inquiry into the New South Wales industry. Their role as 'film-producing David against the Goliaths of the film trade' was weakened, however, when the film was finally released, and the trade was vindicated in its claim that had the film been any good they would have been glad to handle it. Cook and Pomeranz withdrew from the public arena and the issue lapsed. The regulations remained unaltered by the storm, but the public had become more acutely aware of their inconsistencies. Pike & Cooper: 55.
Unfortunately, Stockade was neither an 'art' film or one with general interest - but somehow fell between the two categories. Eric Reade, 1975: 270
Eureka Stockade (George & Arthur Cornwell, 1907) Australian Cinematograph Company, screened Atheneum Theatre, Melbourne, 19 October 1907 (Reade 1975: 275)
Loyal Rebel, The (Alfred Rolfe, 1915) aka Eureka Stockade wr. Arthur Wright; Reynolds Denniston, Maisie Carte, Charles Villiers; 5 reels
Eureka Stockade (Harry Watt, 1949) Ealing Studios, prod. Michael Balcon, assoc. prod. Leslie Norman, wr. Harry Watt, Greenwood & Ralph Smart, dp George Heath; Chips Rafferty (Peter Lalor), Jane Barrett, Jack Lambert, Peter Illing, Gordon Jackson, Peter Finch, Reg Lye; events of 1854; 102 min.
Pike, Andrew & Ross Cooper 1998, Australian Film 1900-1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, revised edition, Oxford University Press, Melbourne (first edition: 1980).
Reade, Eric 1975, The Australian Screen: A Pictorial History of Australian Film-making, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne.
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