The World of Movies: The Dish
Written by Rachael Crawley
The World of Movies is a series that explores global cinema, drawing on films from many countries, industries and eras. This week, we head to Australia – and beyond!
The Dish.
May contain spoilers.
Fifty-two years ago this month, three astronauts landed on the moon. While this enormous achievement is rightly celebrated, less often discussed are the efforts of the hundreds of support staff and scientists who were part of it. As The Dish (Rob Sitch, 2000) recounts, this work stretched as far as the Southern Hemisphere – specifically the small community of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia.
In the lead-up to the moon landing, the Parkes Observatory was chosen to help transmit TV signals from the moon, as it had one of the largest receiving dishes on earth (and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere). Much of the movie was filmed in the region. The observatory makes up some of the film’s most stunning shots. The radio telescope is still operational to this day, in fact.
Apparently, much of this film was only loosely based on real history. I don’t think that matters – at least not dramatically. It still reflects the atmosphere of the late 1960s, and the way the moon landing transfixed the world, while playing with the dynamics between Australia and the United States. One of the film’s best decisions is to dive into the landing itself with little buildup. It sets the film up for a breezy pace that doesn’t get too bogged down in technical matters. The few days of the moon mission give us ample material for drama. There are several clever sequences with humorous payoff. And, well – no matter how long we’ve had to get used to the idea of man on the moon, it’s still spectacular. The final sequence conveys every bit of the wonder that the residents of Parkes, and viewers around the world, must have experienced at the time.
The Dish.
The movie is led by a great cast, including Sam Neill and Patrick Warburton, though even the bit parts are performed well. It also captures the excitement – and pride – of great events in a small town. I found myself enjoying the scenes within the community, and their preparations for the landing, even more than the time in the observatory. There’s a wry humour throughout, even in serious moments, and they manage to maintain the very real tension and uncertainty in that mission. We also have a few fun historical tidbits (generally at NASA’s expense). It is prone to the visual and musical cliches that so often befall movies about the 1960s – those same few video clips, and particularly songs, that we see in every movie about the time. The script can sometimes plod with exposition. However, these drawbacks are slight.
The Dish was the highest-grossing Australian film in 2001. It’s easy to see why it appealed so strongly – it celebrates a little-known part of history, and does so with style. For some viewers, perhaps, it might even have held real memories. With an easy humour, this movie gives us a view to an extraordinary time. It never loses track, however, of the individuals who were a part of the moment.
Rachael Crawley holds a Master's Degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, and has worked with film in Canada and in Europe. She adores language and cinema, and how these subjects interact with each other.