Jack Thompson
It's been a long time since Caine, Bronson, Angus and Wendell—aka ‘The Chain Breakers'—escaped a torturous Vietnamese POW camp. They now find themselves sharing a new prison, The Hogan Hills Retirement Home for Returned Veterans. Each of the boys has an unrealised dream they want to achieve, so they band together to devise a plan to escape their new hell. But the rules of engagement have changed. In fact, they can’t even remember what they were—and that’s half the problem.
Set in the 1930s in Northern Australia and is inspired by true events. In a remote corner of the wild country, a bloody war rages. Travis is a bounty hunter with one last hope of redemption. Djumbatj is a young Indigenous man trying to save the last of his family. Together they embark on a manhunt, which unravels a secret that ultimately pits them against each other.
1975: A 200-ton blue whale gets washed up on a local beach and the kids think it’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened in Australia. Behind closed doors, the Mums and Dads of a quiet suburban street are going to celebrate in their own special way, by joining the sexual revolution and throwing a wife-swapping key party. And like the rotting whale, it’s all about to go spectacularly wrong.
After a nuclear war decimated the northern hemisphere, the surviving population in the south become desperate and violent competing for scarce resources. Society crumbles and an infectious bacteria threatens to destroy those who remain. In an attempt to rebuild civilization, a self appointed government called 'The ORDER' distributed an immunization to the bacteria, via a massive Electro-Macnetic Pulse (EMP). Secretly, the Order also delivered a bio-tech virus through the EMP, giving them the power to control the population. One man remains immune to the Order's virus - Jake Slater. Now Jake scavenges the wasteland searching for a way to keep his unconscious daughter alive, unaware she is the last child on Earth, and the key to the survival of mankind.
An Aboriginal Australian and Native American documentary narrated by award-winning actor Jack Thompson, One Heart-One Spirit tells the story of Kenneth Little Hawk, an elder Micmac/Mohawk performing artist, meeting the oldest surviving culture on the planet: the 40,000 year old Yolngu nation located in northern Australia.
Based on true events that changed the law. This is the story of a survivor, Lyndal, a young woman sexually abused as an 11 year old while attending a prestigious school. Her courage to fight for justice is entrusted to a local lawyer determined to build a case and give Lyndal peace from her torment. With the help of his aspiring young associate and an enigmatic barrister, the lawyer and Lyndal find their way together.
Documentary about the life and career of Australian actor Rod Taylor.
A compelling personal journey with David Stratton, as he relates the fascinating development of our cinema history. David guides us from his boyhood cinema experience of Australia in England, where he saw the first images of this strange and exotic landscape via the medium of film, to his migration to Australia as a ‘ten pound pom’ in 1963 and onto his present day reflections on the iconic themes that run through our cinematic legacy. All of this reflects a passionate engagement in a uniquely Australian medium. Parallel and at the heart of the series is the story of an industry whose growing pains David has witnessed over a lifetime. Alongside David, the protagonists of this history are the giants of Australian cinema – both behind the camera and in front of it.
A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from an adrift rowboat.
In 1868 Goldfields Victoria, an Irish settler seeks revenge and justice from those who murdered his family.
A story of struggle and tragedy, the film features harrowing underground disasters, heroic rescues and traces a history of strikes, industrial turmoil and the current push by global mining giants to destroy regional communities and replace local mineworkers with a subservient itinerant workforce.
Narrated by Jack Thompson and featuring the last Gallipoli Anzacs this film challenges the widely held perspective of the Gallipoli Campaign and the birth of the Anzac legend.
The year is 1988. It is 35 years after the events of Fred Schepisi’s classic film, The Devil’s Playground. Tom Allen, now in his 40s and recently widowed, is a respected Sydney psychiatrist and father of two children. A practicing Catholic, Tom accepts an offer by the Bishop of Sydney to become a counselor of priests. During these sessions, he will uncover a scandal and become embroiled in the Church’s attempts to cover it up. Tom’s quest for justice will push him to his limits, and reveal a side of Church power and official corruption he could never have imagined.
An indigenous detective returns to the Outback to investigate the murder of a young girl.
A young Aboriginal boy is torn between his unexpected love of acting and the disintegration of his family.
The Telegram Man explores the impact of World War II on a close-knit Australian farming community.
Oakie, a young blue heeler pup, is supposed to be delivered to Texas, USA, but through a courier bungle he ends up in Texas, Queensland, in Outback Australia. Oakie is quickly befriended by Action Dann (an animated character identifiably based on Troy Dann) and they embark on a series of adventures, meeting many wonderful and quirky characters in the rugged and unique beauty of the Australian Outback.
A young girl sent to live with her father and his new girlfriend discovers creatures in her new home who want to claim her as one of their own.
At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.
As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.
A light hearted comedy about the beginnings of Professional American Football. When a decorated war hero and college all star is tempted into playing professional football. Everyone see the chance to make some big money, but when a reporter digs up some dirt on the war hero... everyone could lose out.
For many years, four teenage orphans at an Australian outback convent have watched their younger comrades find new parents, and realize that they may never be adopted. The Reverend Mother sends the four boys away on a seaside vacation, where they meet Teresa and Fearless, a couple who would make perfect parents. The youths compete with one another to be the one Teresa and Fearless decide to adopt.
Bastard Boys is an Australian television miniseries broadcast on the ABC in 2007. It tells the story of the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute. The script, published by Currency Press, won the 2007 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Television Script.
An American journalist arrives in Berlin just after the end of World War Two. He becomes involved in a murder mystery surrounding a dead GI who washes up at a lakeside mansion during the Potsdam negotiations between the Allied powers. Soon his investigation connects with his search for his married pre-war German lover.
"Whaledreamers" - the title alone evokes hypnotic visions of these most magnificent and ancient creatures. This visually stunning film offers an incredible glimpse into a rarely seen and scarcely understood tribal culture whose entire story of creation revolves around whales and has endured for centuries. The film passionately explores the connection between the subtle elegance of these “mothers of the sea” and ancient civilizations around the world whose culture and very existence is based on whales. Intertwining incredible underwater footage with ancient legend, whaledreamers examines the complex past and the possibly dire future of human civilization. Told with moving optimism and spiritual strength, it is a clarion call encouraging humanity’s reconnection to the profound beauty of the natural world and is an appeal to embrace all living beings thereby creating the unity and peace which the Earth itself can bring.
A love story about a young man who runs away up an isolated Australian river and gets a job with eighth generation oyster famers.
This program provides, through 1st hand accounts & contemporary films & photographs, a rare insight into what really happened. Together with meticulously researched stories, it provides a unique analysis of the Gallipoli campaign, including never-seen before interviews with the last 10 Gallipoli Anzacs, rare film footage showing the beach & trenches at Gallipoli.
It’s 1974 and Sam Bicke has lost everything. His wife leaves him with his three kids, his boss fires him, his brother turns away from him, and the bank won’t give him any money to start anew. He tries to find someone to blame for his misfortunes and comes up with the President of the United States who he plans to murder.
The story of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight boxing champion.
Following an assassination attempt on Senator Padmé Amidala, Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi investigate a mysterious plot that could change the galaxy forever.
A young man is plunged into a life of subterfuge, deceit and mistaken identity in pursuit of a femme fatale whose heart is never quite within his grasp
During World War II in the South Pacific love is found between a young nurse, Nellie Forbush and an older French plantation owner, Emile de Becque. The war is tearing them apart.
Meet Albert, The Magic Pudding, Bunyip Bluegum, a splendid young koala and his seafaring friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff. Together they fight off the bungled attempts of pudding thieves, Possum and Wombat, and try to solve the mystery of Bunyip's parents' disappearance.
A rich brat (Alicia Silverstone) fakes her own kidnapping, but in the process ends up locked in the trunk of a car that gets stolen.
A visiting city reporter's assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local millionaire, whom he befriends.
Harry and his much-younger girlfriend surprise their friends one vacation weekend by announcing their desire to marry immediately. As they are visiting a small island village off the coast of west Australia, that is easier said than done.
Tess returns home to Drovers Run, a family-run ranch in Australia’s outback, to reunite with her estranged father Jack and half sister Claire. Although Tess and Claire have feuded in the past, they must now work together to save the ranch from bankruptcy.
After a period of separation, Sarah visits her research scientist mother on a remote New Zealand island. Before long Sarah becomes inextricably involved in events involving both Maori legend and an Albatross.
When rogue stealth-fighter pilot Vic Deakins deliberately drops off the radar while on maneuvers, the Air Force ends up with two stolen nuclear warheads -- and Deakins's co-pilot, Riley Hale, is the military's only hope for getting them back. Traversing the deserted canyons of Utah, Hale teams with park ranger Terry Carmichael to put Deakins back in his box.
Upon taking a new job, young lawyer Rick Hayes is assigned to the clemency case of Cindy Liggett, a woman convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. As Hayes investigates the background for her case, the two begin to form a deep friendship, while all the while the date for her execution draws nearer.
A story of high emotion, tragedy and romance set against the dramatic landscape of Northumberland in the 1830's.
"The Sum of Us" is an Aussie story about a father and a son both searching for love and sharing an unconventional bond. Harry, the father, is the caring and open-minded "mate" that borders on annoyance. His son Jeff unsuccessfully searches for love, with the unwanted guidance of his father.
Thrown together under incredible circumstances, two strangers must discover courage and strength when they begin a journey across the treacherous African desert! Equipped only with their wits and the expertise of a native bushman who befriends them, they are determined to triumph over impossible odds and reach their destination. But along the way, the trio face a primitive desert wilderness.
Baseball cards and a food-aid worker help a woman follow her shady husband's money trail around the world.
Reporter Judith Wilkes leaves her husband and two sons in Sydney and goes to Malaysia to cover the story of the Vietnamese boat people. She becomes romantically involved with Kanan, and strikes up a friendship with Lady Minou Hobday, who keeps a regular vigil at "Turtle Beach" where the refugees try to land secretly in the hope that one day her own children will arrive. Accompanying Minou one night, Judith witnesses a brutal massacre by the Malaysians which spurs her on to expose the horrors of the internment camps at Bidong.
In 1983, yacht sailor Will Parker leads an American crew financed by millionaire Morgan Weld to defeat during the America's Cup race against an Australian crew. Determined to get the prize back, Will convinces Morgan to finance an experimental boat designed by his ex-girlfriend Kate's new beau, Joe Heisler. When the boat is completed, the Americans head to Australia to reclaim the cup.
Following her husband Arthur's mysterious death, Rachel Baxley packs up her life as a State Department wife in Hong Kong and boards a freighter along with her husband's casket bound for the U.S. She begins to regret this decision when she meets one of the crew members, a handsome rogue named Jake Fontaine - who has smuggled his liquor above in Arthur's coffin! Suddenly, a typhoon hits and the freighter breaks apart. Marooned on a desert island with Jake they fall in love. Shortly thereafter, Jake comes to suspect that Rachel's "late" husband Arthur might not be dead at all. Rachel is stunned when Arthur arrives on the island with his heroin smuggling partners. In the ensuing chaos, Jake overcomes each of the smugglers and heroically rescues his new love, Rachel.
Dramatisation of the sinking of the Greenpeace ship 'The Rainbow Warrior' by French agents in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1985.
In 1937, a routine passenger and mail flight crashes during bad weather on a flight between Brisbane and Sydney. A local bushman begins a search, and finds the wreckage and two survivors ten days after the crash.
A second generation cameraman in Australia finds evidence that his father had filmed a nuclear test that allowed aboriginies to be exposed to and killed by radiation. He begins a search for a secret that if true, his government has already killed people to keep quiet.
Top New York cop Theo Kojak finds himself trapped in a tangled web of false trials, jealousies and murderous scheming as he investigates the death of two young boys. Their bodies are discovered in a Harlem river, the boys mother is the major suspect. But what appears to be an open shut case soon becomes something much more sinister.
The Last Frontier is a 1986 television miniseries Starring Linda Evans, Jack Thompson and Jason Robards.
After a lightning bolt zaps a robot named Number 5, the lovable machine starts to think he's human and escapes the lab. Hot on his trail is his designer, Newton, who hopes to get to Number 5 before the military does. In the meantime, a spunky animal lover mistakes the robot for an alien and takes him in, teaching her new guest about life on Earth.
A band of medieval mercenaries take revenge on a noble lord who decides not to pay them by kidnapping the betrothed of the noble's son. As the plague and warfare cut a swathe of destruction throughout the land, the mercenaries hole up in a castle and await their fate.
A story based on true events about two explorers on a doomed journey trying to cross Australia on foot in the 19 century.
Australian dockyard workers go on strike. Immigrant Italian workers are brought in as scab labour. In the midst of all this, an Italian woman meets & falls in love with one of the Australians.
Island of Java, 1942, during World War II. British Major Jack Celliers arrives at a Japanese prison camp, run by the strict Captain Yonoi. Colonel John Lawrence, who has a profound knowledge of Japanese culture, and Sergeant Hara, brutal and simpleton, will witness the struggle of wills between two men from very different backgrounds who are tragically destined to clash.
The wife of a Malaysian planter kills an employee of her husband one night, but her motive begins to appear not entirely truthful.
Jim Craig has lived his first 18 years in the mountains of Australia on his father's farm. The death of his father forces him to go to the low lands to earn enough money to get the farm back on its feet. Kirk Douglas plays two roles as twin brothers who haven't spoken for years, one of whom was Jim's father's best friend and the other of whom is the father of the girl he wants to marry.
The story of the Russian-born, Wisconsin-raised woman who rose to become Israel's prime minister in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, a man returns home to Australia to die in the wildness. His plans become complicated when he meets a young man and decides to take him under his wing.
During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.
Comedy about a womanizing journalist on a Sydney newspaper who confronts job problems and impotence in the context of Australian media and politics of the 1970's. A somewhat lesser Australian film comparable to the American film Shampoo.
The true story of a part aboriginal man who finds the pressure of adapting to white culture intolerable, and as a result snaps in a violent and horrific manner.
The true story of Irish outlaw Daniel Morgan, who is wanted, dead or alive, in Australia during the 1850s.
Sydney homicide detective Sergeant Scobie Malone (Jack Thompson) and his offsider (Shane Porteous) investigate the murder of Helga (Judy Morris), whose corpse is found in the basement of the Sydney Opera House.
A hard-drinking but hard-working gun shearer leads a group of Outback sheep herders into striking after wealthy landowners attempt to drive them from their territory.
Tony Petersen, a married electrician and ex-footballer, goes to university to study English. Petersen is odd man out at the uni. He receives extracurricular help from his stuffy professor's beautiful lecturer wife in her office. Their get-togethers there are quite rootine. The professor is also seeing one of his students after class. Petersen and the professor's wife talk about having a baby. But then she accepts an appointment to Oxford, provoking a rage in Petersen...
Wake in Fright is the story of John Grant, a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough outback mining town of Bundanyabba planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney, but as one night stretches into several he plunges headlong into his own destruction.
Spyforce was an Australian TV series produced from 1971 to 1973, based upon the adventures of Australian Military Intelligence operatives in the South West Pacific during World War II. It was produced by the Nine Network in conjunction with Paramount Pictures. The series centres on the action and adventures of lead actor Jack Thompson's character Erskine, and his main support character, Peter Sumner's Gunthar Haber. It was the first lead role for Jack Thompson. The two are part of an elite unit of special operatives, the Special Intelligence Unit, and their adventures are loosely based upon those of the real Services Reconnaissance Department who often operated behind Japanese-held lines during the war. Unlike most previous war films, Spyforce deliberately steered away from the notion that the United States was solely responsible for Japan's defeat, and highlights the important role Australian forces played in the defeat of the Imperial Japanese Army. Producer Roger Mirams was also careful to avoid stereotypes of the genre, and tired formulas for the battle scenes. The idea appealed to American producers Paramount Pictures, who backed creator Roger Mirams to begin production without having seen a script. He made the pilot episode, "Spy Catcher", which impressed Paramount, and the Nine Network immediately bought the local rights. The first episode aired in Sydney on 8 August 1971, and the rest of Australia on 26 August 1971. It was originally intended to produce 26 episodes, but following the success of the first series, Mirams held talks with both Nine Network and Paramount Pictures, who backed him for a second series. In all 42 episodes were produced. The series was last aired on Australian television in Adelaide on 21 September 1976, but has been re-run several times since.
