The Dish (2000)

Director:

Rob Sitch

Writers:

Santo Cilauro (conceived and written by) &
Tom Gleisner (conceived and written by) ...

Release Date:

27 April 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Man's first step on the moon nearly stumbled on earth

Plot:

A remote Australian antenna, populated by quirky characters, plays a key role in the first Apollo moon landing.

Plot Keywords:

NASA | Satellite Dish | Australia | Moon Walk | Space

Awards:

3 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Sam Neill	...	Cliff Buxton
Billy Mitchell	...	Cameron
Roz Hammond	...	Miss Nolan
Christopher-Robin Street	...	Damien
Luke Keltie	...	Graeme
Naomi Wright	...	Melanie
Ben Wright-Smith	...	Nicholas
Beverley Dunn	...	Secretary (voice)
Grant Thompson	...	Mr. Callen
Bille Brown	...	Prime Minister
Bernard Curry	...	Newspaper Reporter
Kevin Harrington	...	Ross 'Mitch' Mitchell
Tom Long	...	Glenn Latham
Patrick Warburton	...	Al Burnett
Roy Billing	...	Mayor Robert 'Bob' McIntyre

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Runtime:

101 min | France:97 min (DVD)

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Netherlands:12 | Italy:T | Australia:M | Chile:TE | France:U | Germany:6 | Spain:T | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Crawford Productions, Box Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Company:

Working Dog

Trivia:

In real life Neil 'Fox' Mason - the character represented by Russ 'Mitch' Mitchell in the movie - never got to see the moonwalk pictures live. He was too busy keeping the windswept dish pointed at the moon.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Near end of film when high winds hit Parkes, a welcome banner stretching across the main street says "Welcome Prime MinAster", e.g., "Minister" is misspelled as "Minaster" on the banner.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Cliff Buxton: [narrating] ... and it's still in the middle of a sheep paddock.

Movie Connections:

References "Hawaii Five-O" (1968)

Soundtrack:

The Real Thing

Very enjoyable

"The Dish" is a real crowd pleaser, which surpassed my initial expectations. I guess you could say that it falls into that little genre of world cinema known as the "regional comedy." Such examples might include "Cinema Paradiso" or "The Full Monty." It looks, quite lovingly, at the lives of several characters and their environment, providing subtle humour and a healthy dose of sentiment as well. What makes this film particularly interesting is its take on the first moon landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. While usually covered in an American jingoistic mode of filmmaking, "The Dish" offers a fresh, outside perspective. How did the world view it? How were Americans viewed? The detached perspective of the Australians is the source of much humour within the film, culminating in a few scenes where the responsibility of providing a relay signal from Apollo 11 to Houston is placed fully upon the small band of dish operators in rural Australia. Perhaps the most profound thing about this film is that it is largely based on a true story.

With an all-round solid cast, led by Sam Neill and Tom Long.