BMX Bandits


1h 30m 1983

Film Details

MPAA Rating
Genre
Adventure
Release Date
1983
Production Company
Arclight Films Pty Ltd.; Colorfilm; Opticals & Graphics; Panavision, Ltd.
Distribution Company
Rank Film Distributors Ltd

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 30m

Synopsis

Crew

Rosslyn Abernethy

Production Secretary

Kimbal Anderson

Production

Ross Berryman

Additional Photography

Sam Bienstock

Best Boy Electric

Sue Blainey

Assistant Editor

Tom Broadbridge

Producer

Sally Bryant

Medic

Brian D Burgess

Associate Producer

Gary Carden

Grip

Derrick Chetwyn

Props Buyer

Andy Clarke

Security

Miriam Cortez

Negative Cutter

Roger Cowland

Titles And Opticals

Gethin Creagh

Sound Mixer

Jan Crocker

Unit Publicist

Andrew Cunningham

Sound Effects Editor

Carolynne Cunningham

Location Manager

Danni Daems

Construction

Paul F Davies

Producer

Roxanne Delbarre

Assistant Director

Candice Dubois

Production Accountant

Patrick Edgeworth

Screenwriter

Derry Field

Loader

Reg Garside

Gaffer

Bill Gooley

Liaison

Sally Gordon

Makeup Artist

Russell Hagg

Source Material

Ken Hammond

Sound Recordist

Dave Hardie

Special Effects Technician

Bob Hicks

Stunt Coordinator

Bob Howard

Assistant Director

Louis Irving

Additional Photography

Boris Janjic

Best Boy Grip

Phil Judd

Sound Mixer

Robin Judge

Assistant Sound Editor

Joanne Kennedy

Tutor

Ian Kenny

Assistant Director

Willi Kenrick

Hairdresser

Alan Lake

Editor

Igor Lazareff

Props

Terry Lord

Construction

Suzie Maizels

Casting

Ross Major

Production Designer

Peter Mardell

Key Grip

Steve Mason

Camera Focus Puller

Lesley Mclennan

Wardrobe

Jenny Miles

Wardrobe (Standby)

Steve Miller

Boom Operator

Robbie Moreton

Stunt Rider

Chris Murray

Special Effects Coordinator

Jim O'neill

Stunt Rider

John Patterson

Post-Production Sound

Linda Ray

Continuity

Helen Rixon

Caterer

Murray Robertson

Assistant Director

Joanne Rooney

Production Assistant

John Seale

Director Of Photography

Phillip Shapiera

Grip

Colin Stead

Music

Andrew Steuart

Supervising Sound Editor

Frank Strangio

Music

Mark Sullivan

Assistant

Bliss Swift

Photography

Kathy Troutt

Caterer

Jim Walker

Sound Effects Editor

Craig White

Stunt Rider

Des White

Technical Advisor

Film Details

MPAA Rating
Genre
Adventure
Release Date
1983
Production Company
Arclight Films Pty Ltd.; Colorfilm; Opticals & Graphics; Panavision, Ltd.
Distribution Company
Rank Film Distributors Ltd

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 30m

Articles

BMX Bandits - BMX BANDITS - Nicole Kidman in 1983 Aussie Cult Movie


It is a credit to Severin Films, one of only a handful of boutique DVD companies still brokering in cult and niche titles, that the Australian BMX Bandits (1983) would have had a home there even if its star were not a 15 year-old Nicole Kidman. Founded in 2006, Severin's back catalogue is rich in vintage exploitation and erotica from all points of the compass, with key releases including the late night TV perennial Horror Express (1972), featuring British fright kings Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in a Spanish mash-up of Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Enzo G. Castellari's Euro-trash fan favorite The Inglorious Bastards (1978) starring Blaxploitation icon Fred Williamson and Alejandro Jodordowsky's spooky, taboo-tamping Santa Sangre (1989), whose benighted protagonist is the serial killer son of an armless circus queen. Severin's stock-in-trade encompasses the grotesque and the graphic, with subject matter at times inclining towards pornography. Dedicated to serving a clientele who never felt at home at Blockbuster, Severin's aesthetic is fearlessness personified, which makes the inclusion into their canon of the family-friendly BMX Bandits seem like the ultimate perversion.

The project originated with Australian writer-director Russell Hagg, who wanted to make a kids' film after watching his own children speed about on their bicycles. As the project passed into the hands of screenwriter Patrick Edgeworth and prospective director Brian Trenchard-Smith (chosen by the producers on the strength of his 1982 film, Turkey Shoot, aka Escape 2000, a sci-fi riff on Richard Connell's oft-filmed The Most Dangerous Game), Water Rats (Hagg's original title) morphed into BMX Bandits, due to the rising popularity of bicycle-motocross games, and its setting shifted from Melbourne to Sydney. The project was adjusted to its ultimate shape with the casting of Sydney teenager Nicole Kidman. Kidman's character had been conceived to offer feminine support to male leads Angelo D'Angelo and James Lugton but was foregrounded during shooting in the face of her perceived star quality. Although her participation in the film gives video store owners an incentive to offer BMX Bandits preferred placement on the "New Releases" shelves, the appearance of the future Academy Award nominee is one of the film's lesser charms, with Kidman contributing a serviceable but hardly star-making performance.

BMX Bandits strings the thinnest of plot lines between a handful of automobile vs. BMX bike chase scenes (one lasting 20 minutes!), telling the unlikely tale of a trio of Manly Beach teenagers who stumble upon a cache of two-way radios imported for use in a payroll robbery. When the criminal gang's Cockney kingpin (Bryan Marshall, from The Long Good Friday) identifies the two-wheeled tearaways as standing between him and a small fortune in ill-gotten gains, he dispatches dimwitted underlings David Argue (the Gallipoli star receives top billing) and John Ley (Mad Max) to retrieve the walkie-talkies by any means necessary. Adding free production value to the low budget affair is the use of such Sydney north beach locations as the Long Reef Gold Club, Bronte's sprawling Waverly Cemetery, and the Warringah shopping mall (which Trenchard-Smith had trashed in his 1976 film Death Cheaters) but the film's capital asset is its inexhaustibility, as the pubescent protagonists evade their pursuers on tarmac, grass (at one point interrupting a rugby match), through warehouses and at one point down the flume of an amusement park water slide. Much wheel well-level photography ensues, with professional stunt drivers and helmeted BMX champs hogging the frame for huge chunks of the film's running time.

Severin Films' packaging parrots cult film aficionado Quentin Tarantino's assertion that "if we'd grown up in Australia, BMX Bandits would have been our Goonies." The transfer is framed at the correct 2.35:1 OAR and anamorphically enhanced for widescreen playback. The image is startlingly clear and chromatically vivid, with primary colors popping from the picture (donated BMX gear is another level of free production value and brilliantly employed). The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is perfectly acceptable and audio options include a reflective and occasionally regret-tinged audio commentary by director Brian Trenchard-Smith. Trenchard-Smith and his collaborators, including Russell Hagg and actor James Lugton, appear in BMX Buddies, a making-of featurette (approx. 40 minutes) that fills in all of the background information without overstaying its welcome. Kidman's participation is limited to a vintage clip from the Aussie variety TV show Young Talent Time, plugging the product alongside host John Young.

For more information about BMX Bandits, visit Severin Films. To order BMX Bandits, go to TCM Shopping.

by Richard Harland Smith
Bmx Bandits - Bmx Bandits - Nicole Kidman In 1983 Aussie Cult Movie

BMX Bandits - BMX BANDITS - Nicole Kidman in 1983 Aussie Cult Movie

It is a credit to Severin Films, one of only a handful of boutique DVD companies still brokering in cult and niche titles, that the Australian BMX Bandits (1983) would have had a home there even if its star were not a 15 year-old Nicole Kidman. Founded in 2006, Severin's back catalogue is rich in vintage exploitation and erotica from all points of the compass, with key releases including the late night TV perennial Horror Express (1972), featuring British fright kings Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in a Spanish mash-up of Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Enzo G. Castellari's Euro-trash fan favorite The Inglorious Bastards (1978) starring Blaxploitation icon Fred Williamson and Alejandro Jodordowsky's spooky, taboo-tamping Santa Sangre (1989), whose benighted protagonist is the serial killer son of an armless circus queen. Severin's stock-in-trade encompasses the grotesque and the graphic, with subject matter at times inclining towards pornography. Dedicated to serving a clientele who never felt at home at Blockbuster, Severin's aesthetic is fearlessness personified, which makes the inclusion into their canon of the family-friendly BMX Bandits seem like the ultimate perversion. The project originated with Australian writer-director Russell Hagg, who wanted to make a kids' film after watching his own children speed about on their bicycles. As the project passed into the hands of screenwriter Patrick Edgeworth and prospective director Brian Trenchard-Smith (chosen by the producers on the strength of his 1982 film, Turkey Shoot, aka Escape 2000, a sci-fi riff on Richard Connell's oft-filmed The Most Dangerous Game), Water Rats (Hagg's original title) morphed into BMX Bandits, due to the rising popularity of bicycle-motocross games, and its setting shifted from Melbourne to Sydney. The project was adjusted to its ultimate shape with the casting of Sydney teenager Nicole Kidman. Kidman's character had been conceived to offer feminine support to male leads Angelo D'Angelo and James Lugton but was foregrounded during shooting in the face of her perceived star quality. Although her participation in the film gives video store owners an incentive to offer BMX Bandits preferred placement on the "New Releases" shelves, the appearance of the future Academy Award nominee is one of the film's lesser charms, with Kidman contributing a serviceable but hardly star-making performance. BMX Bandits strings the thinnest of plot lines between a handful of automobile vs. BMX bike chase scenes (one lasting 20 minutes!), telling the unlikely tale of a trio of Manly Beach teenagers who stumble upon a cache of two-way radios imported for use in a payroll robbery. When the criminal gang's Cockney kingpin (Bryan Marshall, from The Long Good Friday) identifies the two-wheeled tearaways as standing between him and a small fortune in ill-gotten gains, he dispatches dimwitted underlings David Argue (the Gallipoli star receives top billing) and John Ley (Mad Max) to retrieve the walkie-talkies by any means necessary. Adding free production value to the low budget affair is the use of such Sydney north beach locations as the Long Reef Gold Club, Bronte's sprawling Waverly Cemetery, and the Warringah shopping mall (which Trenchard-Smith had trashed in his 1976 film Death Cheaters) but the film's capital asset is its inexhaustibility, as the pubescent protagonists evade their pursuers on tarmac, grass (at one point interrupting a rugby match), through warehouses and at one point down the flume of an amusement park water slide. Much wheel well-level photography ensues, with professional stunt drivers and helmeted BMX champs hogging the frame for huge chunks of the film's running time. Severin Films' packaging parrots cult film aficionado Quentin Tarantino's assertion that "if we'd grown up in Australia, BMX Bandits would have been our Goonies." The transfer is framed at the correct 2.35:1 OAR and anamorphically enhanced for widescreen playback. The image is startlingly clear and chromatically vivid, with primary colors popping from the picture (donated BMX gear is another level of free production value and brilliantly employed). The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is perfectly acceptable and audio options include a reflective and occasionally regret-tinged audio commentary by director Brian Trenchard-Smith. Trenchard-Smith and his collaborators, including Russell Hagg and actor James Lugton, appear in BMX Buddies, a making-of featurette (approx. 40 minutes) that fills in all of the background information without overstaying its welcome. Kidman's participation is limited to a vintage clip from the Aussie variety TV show Young Talent Time, plugging the product alongside host John Young. For more information about BMX Bandits, visit Severin Films. To order BMX Bandits, go to TCM Shopping. by Richard Harland Smith

Quotes

Trivia

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States Winter January 1, 1983

Released in United States Winter January 1, 1983