Culture
08 May 01

THE DISH

THE DISH Dircted by Rob Sitch. Starring Sam Neill, Kevin Harrington, Tom Long, Patrick Warburton)

While not quite attaining the unprecedented levels of buffoonish charm generated by Rob Sitch’s directorial debut The Castle, The Dish is nonetheless that rarest of cinematic creatures: a genuinely heart-warming and frequently funny crowd-pleaser.

During the Apollo XI mission to the Moon in July 1969, one of the Australian radio telescopes intended to back-up NASA’s prime receiver in Goldstone, California is situated in the one-shop town of Parkes in New South Wales. ‘The Dish’, as it’s locally known, is the pride and joy of the locals, and lends the oddballs who operate it a considerable degree of local celebrity status.

However, our heroes are still beset with problems. The decidedly daft Glenn (Long) can’t bring himself to ask a girl out, curmudgeonly Mitch (Harrington) is having major problems taking orders from the newly-arrived NASA representative Al (Warburton) and the keeper of the dish Cliff (Neill) seems too melancholic to get excited about the moon-landing or anything else.

These personal difficulties aside, much worse is to come. A few days after Apollo XI’s liftoff, an electrical failure causes the team to lose contact with the craft, and a last-minute flight shedule change means that it’s their responsibility to receive the images of Neil Armstrong’s first steps. Technically speaking, then, they’re fucked, as is the reputation of the local mayor Bob (Billing) and the whisky-guzzling prime minister (Brown) unless something can be done, and fast.

While The Dish is primarily a winning exercise in goofy humour, it also successfully manages to capture the absolute sense of awe surrounding the moon-landing in a way that similar true-story accounts (The Right Stuff, Apollo 13) couldn’t remotely muster. And as you’d expect from the team who brought us The Castle, the film is boundlessly full of affection towards its characters, no matter how dumb they may be.

As humorous and heartfelt as it’s gushy and nostalgic, The Dish isn’t quite a classic, but you would have to be a certified bastard from hell to dislike it.