Goodbye Paradise: Difference between revisions

|image = GoodbyeParadiseDVDcover.jpg

|caption = DVD cover

|released = {{Film date|1983}}

'''''Goodbye Paradise''''' is a 1983 Australian film directed by [[Carl Schultz]]. The plot centres on [[Queensland]]'s [[Gold Coast, Queensland|Gold Coast]] in the early 1980s, when a disgraced former cop, Michael Stacey ([[Ray Barrett]]), writes a book exposing police corruption, does an investigation resulting in 2two murders, exposes a religious cult and watches the army begin a military coup.

The idea of doing a Raymond Chandler-type story set on the Gold Coast came from Denny Lawrence. His original idea was to have an ex -police officer working as a private investigator who investigated a quasi-religious commune run by a charlatan that ended with the deaths of manmany of the communescommune's followers. Then the [[Jonestown Massacre]] happened and Lawrence backed away from this idea.<ref name="denny">Christine Cremen, "Denny Lawrence", ''Cinema Papers'', May–June 1983 p 113-115</ref>

He then pitched the idea to Bob Ellis, who liked it and the two of them agreed to work together.<ref name="david">[http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/11713091662/Writer-Director-Bob-Ellis David Stratton interview Bob Ellis at SBS Movie Show]. Retrieved 28 March 2015</ref> They always envisioned Ray Barrett in the lead role as the private eye Stacey and the three of them got some money from the NSW Film Corporation to go up to Surfers Paradise for a week to research and write the script.

Many of Ray Barrett's characteristics found their way into the character of Stacey. Barrett:

According to Lawrence, he was more interested in a genre piece whereas Ellis tried to incorporate his personal politics, but the collaboration was a successful one and the two men would work again many times in the following years.<ref name="denny"/>

The NSW Film Commission wanted [[Michael Thornhill]] to direct but he wanted several changes to the script and Ellis and Lawrence insisted that [[Carl Schultz]] direct.<ref name="david"/> The movie was shot in the winter of 1981 in and around Surfers Paradise over eight weeks.<ref name="stratton"/>

The film was nominated for 4 [[Australian Film Institute Awards|AFI Awards]], won in the [[AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role|Best Actor in the Lead Role]] (Ray Barrett) and [[AACTA Award for Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted|Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted]] ([[Bob Ellis]], Denny Lawrence) categories. John Seale won the Cinematographer of the Year award of the Australian Cinematographers Society.<ref>[httphttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085612/awards IMDb awards]</ref>

Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence wrote a sequel for the film called ''Goodbye Adelaide''. The plot involved Stacy finishing the book he is writing in the first movie and visiting the [[Adelaide Festival]] to promote it, where he is caught up in an attempted defection by a Russian poet. In January 1985 ''The Age'' reported the film would be made that year with a budget of $3 million.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=29 January 1985|page=14|title=A Busy Year Planned for Our Film Industry|first=Graham|last=Simpson}}</ref> However, the movie was never made.<ref name="stratton">David Stratton, ''The AvacadoAvocado Plantation'', Pan Macmillan 1990 ppp. 234-236</ref><ref name="denny"/>

{{Reflist|30em}}

*{{cite book |last=Murray |first=Scott |coauthors=(ed.) |title=Australian Cinema |publisher= Allen & Unwin/AFC |location= St.Leonards, NSW. |year=1994 |month= |page= 257 |pages= |isbn= 1-86373-311-6 }}

*[httphttps://australianscreenaso.comgov.au/titles/features/goodbye-paradise/ ''Goodbye Paradise''] at [[Australian Screen Online]]

[[Category:Australian1983 drama films]]

[[Category:English-languageFilms filmsdirected by Carl Schultz]]