Barber Black Sheep Trivia Quiz

Answer: Stealing them

The movie, directed by one of Australia's best known arthouse directors, Paul Cox, is a story based on E.L. Grant's novel "Priest Island". The tale centres on Peter (Aden Young) who steals the sheep in an effort to pay for his wedding dowry. He's exiled to an island with some rudimentary tools and is under the penalty of death should he return to the mainland.

His wife to be, Jean played by Claudia Karvan, is then forced to marry another man and loses her child during birth. A young servant girl, Mary (Beth Champion), arrives on the island, curious about its sole inhabitant, and develops a relationship with Peter, who remains haunted by visions of Jean.

As usual Paul Cox puts forward a visually strong film but it tends to move slowly, particularly early in the piece.

Answer: The Squatter's Daughter

"The Squatter's Daughter" is a melodrama directed by Ken G. Hall and it is a re-working of a similar movie shot in 1910 which, in itself, was based on a play of the same name. Clive "Ironbark" Sherrington seeks to bankrupt Enderby's station to acquire the land cheaply but Joan receives help from a stranger (Wayne Ridgeway) who mysteriously appears on the property.

He later reveals himself as the rightful heir to the Sherrington estate. The film's climax features a significant bushfire that was made to burn hotter by the strategic placement of old nitrate film among the trees. Joyce Howarth, who played Joan Enderby, would eventually move to Hollywood where she performed under the name of Constance Worth and appeared in movies such as Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion" (1941) and "Dillinger" (1945). The subtle hint there was "crouching" which, used another way, means to squat.

Answer: Jack Thompson

This is a typical Australian bloke's (male's) movie. It deals with harsh outback conditions, isolation, hard yakka (work), heavy drinking and brawling. There is little female involvement in this film apart from a brief play that Foley (Thompson) makes at the station owner's daughter.

The talking is kept to a minimum and the film relies on actions to convey its messages. A good example is the friendly competition amongst the shearers when Foley and his mate race each other at washing their clothes whilst stark naked. Jack Thompson received a Best Actor award at the Australian Film Awards while the movie became a hit at that year's Cannes Film Festival.

It was the first Australian film of the 1970s to achieve international recognition and it paved the way for a renaissance of Australian films overseas that included "The Last Wave" (1977), "The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith" (1978) and "Breaker Morant" (1980).

Answer: Gordon Jackson

The major problem for Wally King (played by Chips Rafferty) is the contention over a waterhole on his property that is vital for the survival of a local Aboriginal tribe. Wally's bigotry only adds fuel to the fire in this situation. Wally's initial approach in respect to the Aborigines is to "shove 'em off".

When this fails he endeavours to "ease 'em out". This leads to Wally being speared and his family in danger of being killed. Wally's Aboriginal hand Black Jack, played by Henry Murdoch, manages to get through to Wally and succeeds in convincing him to reach a compromise ("you gotta take 'em with you") with the tribe. Gordon Jackson plays Mac, an inexperienced drover, whose role was created to add some international flavour to the film. This was an Ealing Studios production and, at the time, Jackson had completed a number of projects with them.

These included "The Eureka Stockade" (1949), which also starred Chips Rafferty and "Whiskey Galore" (1949).

Answer: The Sundowners

The Carmody family are sundowners. In other words they are sheep herders who move from job to job and set up camp wherever the sun goes down. Ida Carmody (Deborah Kerr) and her son Sean have had enough of the drifting life and are keen to save some money to establish a mortgage on a small farm. Ida convinces her husband Paddy (Robert Mitchum) to take on a steady job as a shearer on a station to work toward this end.

This seems to work well until Paddy gets the urge to move again and rebels. Peter Ustinov also stars in the film as a refined Englishman who gets taken on as an extra drover by the family. Deborah Kerr received a nomination for an Academy Award as Best Actress for her performance.

Answer: Peter Finch

"The Shiralee" is the story of an itinerant sheep shearer, Macauley played by Finch, who sends his earnings back home to his wife and eight year old daughter. He arrives home unexpectedly to find his wife in the arms of the local bookmaker and his daughter passed out on the lounge. Enraged he hauls his daughter out of the house and drags her along on his travels with him.

The film then uses the backdrop of the magnificent Australian outback as the setting to a father bonding and coming to terms with the child he hardly knows. Shiralee is an Aboriginal term meaning swag (read that as a kind of backpack and sleeping bag) though in this scenario it is used as a metaphor for a burden.

Answer: On Our Selection

"On Our Selection" is a series of stories from the pen of Steele Rudd. Ken G. Hall wrote the script for this 1932 movie and his direction turned it into one of the most popular Australian movies of all time. Dad and Dave Rudd own a farm with a prize paddock that backs onto the Darling Downs sheep run.

Their wealthy neighbour, Old Carey, covets this piece of land and puts together a range of schemes designed to humiliate and bankrupt the Rudds. Another plot involves Dad's daughter Kate being wooed by two suitors, the devoted but penniless Sandy and the next door neighbour's evil son. Throw in a murder, some blackmail and a toothache and you have a movie that launched the successful career of Ken G. Hall and spawned three sequels.

Answer: Black Sheep

Henry Oldfield has a natural knack for farming but a stressful incident in his youth leads him to develop a fear of sheep. He leaves the family farm in the care of his brother Angus while he treks off around the world to find some inner peace. Fifteen years later he returns to sell his share of the property and discovers Angus conducting experiments on sheep that turn them from docile vegetarians to insatiable carnivores that crave human flesh. "Black Sheep" was written and directed by Jonathon King who cited that his style of humour was inspired by the workings of fellow New Zealand director Peter Jackson in such films as "Braindead" (1992) and "Bad Taste" (1987).

Answer: The Dish

Due to the timing of the moon landing Australia found itself as the best location with the ability to capture the historic moment (the moon landing) and broadcast it to the world.
Politician: "Turns out that Parkes is the biggest radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere".
Prime Minister: "What's it doing in the middle of a sheep paddock"?

"The Dish" presents a fictionalised account of the team involved and the problems they run into during the period. Directed by Rob Sitch and starring Sam Neill and Tom Long the film was subject to its share of criticism, namely for the fictionalising of the events. Made on a small budget it was a hit at the Toronto Film Festival and recouped in the vicinity of $18 million for its investors.
Oh, and the final credits inform us "Parks remains a part of NASA missions to this day. And it's still in the middle of a sheep paddock".

Answer: Babe

"Babe" is the adventures of a naive though curious little pig that is raised by a female sheepdog as part of her litter. He develops herding instincts and when Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) sees him herding hens and sorting them into browns and whites he decides to trial him herding sheep. Eventually he is entered into the local sheep dog trials as a contestant. The film took some seven years to bring together but the effort was worth it.

It garnered high praise from most quarters, grossed in excess of a quarter of a billion dollars worldwide and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

It would win one Academy Award, for Best Visual Effects in which it edged out the equally splendid "Apollo 13".