Goodbye Paradise (1983)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Crime Drama	Interviews-Crew-interview with director Carl Schultz (30:27)
Rating
Year Of Production	1983
Running Time	117:45
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Carl Schultz
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Ray Barrett Robyn Nevin Janet Scrivener Don Pascoe Kate Fitzpatrick Robert “Tex” Morton John Clayton Lex Marinos Kris McQuade
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	?	Music	Peter Best

     Deputy Commissioner of Police Michael Stacy (Ray Barrett) quit the force to write an expose of political and police corruption on the Queensland Gold Coast. Then things went pear shaped and now, although he has been off alcohol for three months, he has mounting debts including his rent and his publisher has declined, under pressure, to publish Stacy’s book. He receives a lifeline, of sorts, when Senator Les McCredie (Don Pascoe), an old acquaintance facing re-election, asks Stacy to find his runaway 18 year old daughter Katy (Janet Scrivener) to avoid a scandal.

     Stacy follows Katy’s trail around the gaudy Surfers Paradise strip via various lovers and through Sea World, strip clubs, brothels, the launch of Gold Coast Free State by Sir Ted Godfrey V.C. (Robert “Tex” Morton) where an assassination bid fails, a quasi-religious cult and finally to an ashram type “Eden” in the hinterland run by Stacy’s old army buddy Bill Todd (John Clayton). All the time Stacy is dogged by current police officer and old acquaintance Curley (Paul Chubb) although he receives help from old flame and piano bar owner Kate (Robyn Nevin) and eccentric tour operator and part time girly photographer Con (Lex Marinos). But when Stacy finds the runaway daughter his troubles are just starting as the bodies pile up around him and a military coup looms.

     Goodbye Paradise is a 1983 Raymond Chandlerish noir thriller complete with a boozy, grizzled lead, dry voice-over narration, corruption in high places, double crosses and sleazy clubs and bars; in fact the only ingredient missing is a femme fatale! The AFI Award winning script is by writer / actor Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence and there are a wealth of familiar Australian talent in front of and behind the camera, starting with the craggy visage of Ray Barrett, who won an AFI Award for this role (his other two were for The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (1978) and Hotel Sorrento (1995)). He carries the film effortless with his tough guy image and deadpan style and he is well supported by Robyn Nevin and Janet Scrivener. Other familiar faces in the cast include Kate Fitzpatrick, who despite her prominent billing has very little to do, and Kris McQuade. Goodbye Paradise was directed by Carl Schultz, who was also nominated for an AFI Award for this film but lost out to George Miller for Mad Max 2, although Schultz did win an AFI Award the next year for Careful, He Might Hear You, which also starred Robyn Nevin. Goodbye Paradise was filmed by cinematographer John Seale, who went on to win an Oscar for The English Patient (1996), and the music is by Peter Best, who scored a number of Australian classics including Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Muriel’s Wedding (1994).

     As noted above Goodbye Paradise won AFI Awards for best actor and best screenplay; it was also nominated for best film and best director. Goodbye Paradise was also one of the 50 Australian films selected to be preserved in the National Film and Sound Archive. Goodbye Paradise is a film full of observations about political chicanery, greed and corruption and it has a wry sense of humour; I loved the cut away to the snake at the Eden ashram, the big banana emblems at the New State launch and our large tough guy driving a tiny pink Fiat! And, as a film of the 1980s, it finds every excuse to show topless women.

Video

     Goodbye Paradise is presented in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, 4x3 and in PAL. I can find no information about the original aspect ratio anywhere but as the film receiving a theatrical release in 1983 I do not expect it to be 1.33:1. Until more information comes to hand I think it may have been cropped from 1.85:1 as in some scenes characters are partly out of the frame. This may, however, be the only print of the film available!

     The print itself is quite soft looking. Outdoor daytime sequences fare best with nice detail and the bright colours of the Surfers Paradise canals and backwaters, especially the blues of the sky and water. However, interiors inside clubs and exterior night scenes are quite dull and the shadow detail is often quite murky. There are a number of small marks, the odd scratch or two, the most obvious at 67:24, and reel change markers every 17 minutes or so, starting at 17:56. The layer change at 69:57 in the middle of a scene was quite noticeable.

     No subtitles are available.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono at 384 Kbps, mono.

     Dialogue is sometimes recorded at a low level, requiring one to up the volume to hear it. Effects, including gunshots and explosions, are predictably flat but are effective enough. The moody score by Peter Best suited the film. I heard one crack but otherwise hiss and distortion is absent.

    Lip synchronisation was fine.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Goodbye Paradise revisited (30:27)

     Made in 2019 for Umbrella, this is an extended interview with director Carl Schultz that plays straight after the film. Accompanied by black and white photos and occasional film footage Schultz speaks about his birth in Hungary, fleeing to England then Australia after the 1956 Hungarian revolution and finding work as a cameraman with the ABC in Sydney before moving into directing. He explains that he was fired by the South Australian Film Commission from Blue Fin before getting to do Goodbye Paradise and he talks about Bob Ellis, the casting of Ray Barrett, the music, the look of the film and DP John Seale, reactions to the film and his subsequent career. A good interview, well worth watching.

     This is the only release of Goodbye Paradise currently available.

     Goodbye Paradise is another of those “lost” Australian films getting a welcome release thanks to Umbrella Entertainment. It is an Oz-noir film with an excellent Ray Barrett in the lead that takes aim at a lot of political targets and sacred cows. Although it does bite off more that it can chew successfully Goodbye Paradise still manages to be wry, deadpan and very entertaining.

    The video has some problems but as a "lost" film this may be all there is. The audio is fine. The extra is worthwhile.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall