Main Cast: Sam Neill, Kevin Harrington, Tom Long, Patrick Warburton, Genevieve Mooy
Release Year: 2000
Country: AU
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
In this comedy, as American astronauts prepare to make one giant leap for mankind, a small Australian town stumbles through its own small steps to help. In the summer of 1969, Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill) leads a team of scientists overseeing the operations of one of the world's largest radio telescope dishes, nestled in a New South Wales community of sheep farmers. As NASA prepares for Apollo 11, the first manned voyage to the moon, Buxton and his crew are asked if they will allow their telescope's dish to be used as a backup receiver for the television transmission from the moon, should the main receiver in California fail. Buxton and his men are more than happy to help, and the village is agog as they gear up for their own small part in one of the world's greatest adventures. Mayor McIntyre (Roy Billing) and his wife May (Genevieve Mooy) are thrilled to be greeting a small but steady stream of important visitors, though many of the locals are not especially good with etiquette, and several members of Buxton's team, most notably high-strung Mitch (Kevin Harrington), are less than enthusiastic about Al Burnett (Patrick Warburton), the know-it-all NASA technician brought in to oversee the Australian operations. When a change in Apollo 11's schedule means the Australian dish will have to pick up the vital broadcast from the moon, Cliff, Mitch, and Al must put aside their differences to pull the show together. Though played for laughs, The Dish was inspired by actual events. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The worst thing anyone could possibly say about this thoroughly likable Australian comedy-drama is that it's a bit slight in material and presentation. It can be persuasively argued, however, that an ancillary quality to the proceedings is very much the intention of filmmaker Rob Sitch, whose previous film The Castle (1997) was another Down Under hit centered upon material that seemed picayune at first glance. The inherent charm of mounting a feature film about the guys who monitor NASA space flights from an Australian sheep pasture isn't lost on Sitch or his trio of screenwriters. They gleefully poke gentle fun at rural customs and aspirations, while making much of the conflict between the characters' simple lives and their history-making undertaking. Anchoring the film and providing some emotional heft is Sam Neill, whose affectionate and sly rendering of the Ward Cleaver-style hero archetype is even presented with a Mr. Rogers-style sweater and a pipe. Notable too is Patrick Warburton, who adds a notch to his professional belt with another riff on the chisel-jawed, square-shouldered all-American who's not quite as he appears. Yes, it's pre-programmed, lacking in subtlety, and a small film in every sense, but The Dish is also very satisfying storytelling and a first-rate imported comedy with wide appeal. It will certainly find favor with fans of such recent British fare as Waking Ned Devine (1998), Saving Grace (2000), and Greenfingers (2001). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Tayler Kane - Rudi Kellerman; Billie Brown - Prime Minister; Roy Billing - Mayor Bob McIntyre; Andrew S. Gilbert - Len Purvis; Lenka Kripac - Marie McIntyre; Matthew Moore - Keith Morrison; Eliza Szonert - Janine Kellerman; John McMartin - U.S. Ambassador; Carl Snell - Billy McIntyre; Rosalind Hammond - Miss Nolan
Credit
Ben Morieson - Art Director, Jane Kennedy - Casting, Kitty Stuckey - Costume Designer, Annie Maver - First Assistant Director, Rob Sitch - Director, Santo Cilauro - Second Unit Director, Jill Bilcock - Editor, Michael Hirsh - Executive Producer, Caroline Styles - Hair Styles, Jane Kennedy - Composer (Music Score), Edmund Choi - Composer (Music Score), Carrie Kennedy - Production Designer, Graeme Wood - Cinematographer, Santo Cilauro - Producer, Tom Gleisner - Producer, Jane Kennedy - Producer, Roger Savage - Sound/Sound Designer, Santo Cilauro - Screenwriter, Tom Gleisner - Screenwriter, Jane Kennedy - Screenwriter, Rob Sitch - Screenwriter
In 1994, Kiki Yablon decided to learn how to play the guitar. After being taught the first line of Rocket From the Crypt's "Hippy Diddy Do," she decided she could tackle the instrument. Yablon was booking shows at Chicago's Empty Bottle, a neighborhood bar known for booking top garage and punk acts as well as avant-garde jazz artists, and it was there she met Sarah Staskauskas, who tended bar at the club. Staskauskas had previously played in Cherry Rodriguez with Maureen Herman, who later went on to play in Babes in Toyland. Yablon and Staskauskas shared a mutual love for bands like the Slits and Wire and used their influences to form the Dishes, who, along with the Nerves, became one of Chicago's better-known garage punk acts in the late '90s.
The initial lineup, with Yablon on guitar, Staskauskas on lead guitar and vocals, Kari McGlinnen on bass, and Leroy Bach on drums, played some sloppy shows around town for the next few years. Then McGlinnen went on to play bass for alt-country artist Chris Mills and Bach, who had previously done bass work for Liz Phair and later would play keyboards for Wilco, left the Dishes for 5ive Style. Yablon and Staskauskas, however, were learning that they had a similar vision for what the band should be and Yablon became a strong enough guitarist to play fast. The two recruited Sharon Maloy, who had done some time in Bender with comic writer Jessica Abel and some salsa with Trenchmouth's Fred Armisen, and also brought in drummer Rick Gasparini. With this lineup, the Dishes went in to the studio and laid down seven tracks which would account for more than half of the band's self-titled debut record. The songs were curt and powerful and drew some comparisons to Sleater-Kinney, which is accurate only in the sharp and inventive guitar work of Staskauskas, as the Dishes have a strong melodic drive and plenty of shout-along choruses. The effect is more like Wire filtered through Chicago's Naked Raygun.
Yet the Dishes would soon need a new drummer. Out went Gasparini and in came Kim Ambriz, who recorded six songs with the band. With 13 tracks recorded, Yablon started No. 89 Records and put out the Dishes in March 2000. Yablon, by the way, was now editing the music section of the Chicago Reader. And then Ambriz quit, leaving the Dishes for Bees Are Black. She was replaced for six months by Graeme Gibson, and within a little more than a year of releasing the Dishes, the record had turned a profit. Then Gibson left the Dishes for the Aluminum Group. In 2000, drummer J.J Klein, formerly of L.A.'s Paper Lantern, joined Yablon and Staskauskas' band. ~ Todd Martens, All Music Guide
The Dish is a 2000 Australian film that tells the story of how the Parkes Observatory was used to relay the live television of man's first steps on the moon, during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. It was the top grossing film in Australia in 2000.
The film tells a somewhat fictionalised story of three Australian scientists/engineers (Neill, Harrington, Long) and their American NASA representative (Warburton). It had been decided quite late in the planning for Apollo 11 to include a television camera to broadcast the first steps on the Moon. Due to the timing of this, Australia would be the prime receiving station. The film tells of the three dealing with a variety of problems, from a power outage wiping their computer memory, to high winds that could cause the whole telescope to collapse. After the 11 crew decide to walk immediately after landing on the Moon, Parkes thinks they have lost their chance to be the prime receiving station. But due to delays on the Moon and problems with Goldstone they achieve the distinction at the last minute.
Although based on true events, the film uses fictional characters and alters historical details for dramatic effect. NASA's Honeysuckle Creek and Goldstone stations both had the signal first, but Parkes' signal was used from soon after the beginning of the moon-walk. No power failure occurred, there was no friction with the NASA representatives (of whom there were several, not just one), and Prime Minister John Gorton visited Honeysuckle Creek, not Parkes. They did however operate in very high winds at 60 degrees inclination, risking damage to the dish and even injury to themselves to keep the antenna pointed at the moon during the moonwalk.
Much of the film was shot on location; the "cricket match" and "hayride" scenes were shot on the real dish and researchers often postponed experiments to position the dish for photography.[1][citation needed] The set reconstructing the 1969 control room was extremely accurate, even down to small details like ashtrays. Some of the "props" were in fact original NASA equipment used during the Apollo 11 landing, left behind in Australia as they were too heavy to ship back.[1][citation needed] Staff from that era expressed amazement at seeing the set; they said it was like walking into a time warp.[1][citation needed]
Apart from the radio telescope scenes, the majority of the movie was actually filmed in the small town of Forbes 33 km south of Parkes because of its old historic buildings, and also in Old Parliament House in Canberra, and Crawford Studios in Melbourne.[citation needed]
