"Everything is so awful in this movie it's funny," noted a previous review that awarded the film but one star. How right that is, but not in the sense meant...everything that happens in this splendidly rhetorical saga of a small Aussie Rules Football club is so awful that it's utterly and memorably hilarious. Never mind that sports films can be dull, that isn't the focus. A declining Melbourne footy club buys an expensive player, resented by the team, who is stoned much of the time. The club president, arrested for an assault on a stripper, is a just successful pie salesman with money who loves the game. The coach, cheated of fame when he was a player and formerly subject to alcohol problems, struggles to save his job and do it well at the same time. An ex-coaching board member wants to defeat the current coach before his own record is beaten. The business manager is concerned only with profit. The team captain is in danger of being traded. David Williamson's acerbic play reaches the screen with a dream Australian cast who fight each other in the boardroom with such verbal sting it will leave your ears red. Jack Thompson in his prime, John Howard when he was thin, Graham Kennedy at his wits' best, Frank Wilson and Alan Cassell driving verbal nails and vintage location setting exactly where the story is depicted...plus actual players from the time. THE CLUB will stay with you for life, regardless of when you see it. Seldom is a movie taken from a play so successfully transferred. The musical theme, "Up There Cazaly," a dedication to famed player Roy Cazaly, adds icing to a finely layered literary cake. Ten big ones, cobber.
