Sunday Too Far Away (1975 film)

Category: Australian drama

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It was the movie that kicked off the Golden Age of Australian cinema and propelled Jack Thompson (and his jiggling butt cheeks) to stardom - Sunday Too Far Away.

Now, I initially thought Sunday Too Far Away was actually a reference to the grind of life on a station where no matter what day of week it is, Sunday (the day of rest) is always too far away. However, it actually comes from a poem reflecting the life of a shearer's wife where the line goes “Friday night [he’s] too tired; Saturday night too drunk; Sunday, too far away”. But given the fact that there are no shearer's wives in this movie, I am going to stand by my interpretation!

And just a heads-up, I will give a brief explanation of any terms I think need expanding upon in the plot summary.

The plot:

Set in 1955 and in an unnamed state of Australia (though most likely South Australia), Foley (Thompson) is driving to a major country town to find work as a shearer when he falls asleep behind the wheel of his car and rolls it over, forcing him to walk the rest of the way.

(Shearer - someone who shears sheep, where shearing is the process by which the wool is removed from a sheep by use of clippers in order for the wool to be gathered, packaged and sold)

He arrives at the pub of a town called Gimli where he meets up with Tim King, an old mate who is now into the contracting business, alongside some other shearers who are just as competitive as he is. Foley, while being proficient at his job, also lives a solitary and hard-living lifestyle as he says “I’ve come back but I’m not gonna bust my gut. I’m gonna shear nice and steady, ease up on the grog. Put a little bit away.”

(Contracting is essentially labour hire. The contractor will gather together a group of men to work on a large sheep breeding farm called a station for a set period of time.

"Bust my gut" means perform work strenuously to the point that you risk burnout or injury.

"Grog" is an old term for alcohol, usually beer. 

"Put a little bit away" means to put some of your wages/salary aside for long-term savings).

King tells Foley and the others that he has a work assignment to which he gathers up a number of the shearers also at the pub, including the sleepy alcoholic Old Garth and a young roustabout (someone who performs unskilled labour, usually a young person starting off their career) named Simpson.

The gang all squeeze in to King's car and travel a long, dusty road to the sheep station where they meet some of the other shearers King has hired, as well as the cook. 

Work begins the next day (despite one or two of the men nursing hangovers) and the Cocky (the owner of the station) lays down the law - his rams (male sheep) are award-winners so they need to be handled with care. Foley is chosen to be the rep (meaning he represents the men in matters of working conditions and issues). Two issues soon make themselves apparent - the Cocky is so overprotective and watchful that he starting to interfere with the shearing operations, and the cook is absolutely atrocious.

To deal with the Cocky, the men vote to ban him from the shed, so we see the Cocky trying to sneak a peek through the holes in the door which still annoy the men as they can see him peeping in. However, the cook is not the kind to take feedback on his work lightly, so Foley gets in to a fistfight with him and the men load his unconscious body on the back of the mail truck.

Sunday finally comes and the boys get to drink up, get in to fights and generally let their hair down.

The weeks take their toll, though, as the men are going through the repetition of shearing and sleeping for six days a week. Foley is affected most as has had enough of Old Garth's drinking in their dual-bed quarters, as underneath Old Garth's bed is a collection of beer bottles (most noticably Coopers, which is a classic South Australian brand). Foley chastises Old Garth for his drinking, and the next day, Old Garth is found deceased outside the quarters. Foley then chastises the man driving the vehicle that is taking the corpse back to town, to the point that Foley threatens the driver if the driver moves Old Garth's corpse from the passenger seat of the car.

Running parallel to this is a growing relationship between Foley and Sheila, the Cocky's teenage daughter. Sheila agrees to keep Foley's theft of the previous cook's material a secret as she wants to sit in and watch the men shearing, something the men are not too happy about. Alongside this is the competition/rivalry between Foley and Black, another proficient shearer.

However, the big news is that the Federal Court has made a decision that will affect the remuneration the men get. At the moment, the men are expecting a higher rate per 100 sheep shorn as the price of wool the previous year was at an all-time high, allowing the men to earn more. The court decision means that they will go back to the lower rate, which leads to a strike (reflecting the actual 1956 Shearer's Strike).

The men finish their stint at the station and head back to town to have some sharp words with the non-union workers coming off of the train to replace them. The leader of the non-union workers attempts to buy a round of drinks for everyone, but Foley and the barmaid ensure they don't get served, leading to a bar-room brawl.

The film ends with the words: "The Strike lasted nine months. The Shearers won. It wasn't the money so much. It was the bloody insult".

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I'm torn about this movie. I understand that it's iconic movie - but is it a great movie, worthy of its place in history?

Look, I'll say it's definitely decent. I think the beauty of this film lies in its simplicity - it's not a convoluted story. A bunch of blokes are trying to earn a few pounds in a most unglamorous and strenuous job, they have challenges and setbacks along the way, and at the end of the day, despite their lack of airs and graces, they stick together.

There is also the fact that not only is it a coherent story, but also a relatable one, particularly to the people of 1975 who would still have the Shearer's Strike and even WW2 in their memory. It's almost like "Guys…we did it! We actually made a movie! Look - the sound even works!".

Actually, if this film were made now, there would be complaints about the lack of women (there are only two women in the movie and both of them get very little screen time), the lack of indigenous representation, the lack of ethnic representation as well as the use of homophobic slurs, though I'm sure those same people would have no issue with the objectification of Jack Thompson. There is one scene, one of the most humorous in the movie, where his butt cheeks are on full display!

I'm going to say yes - as a movie, it just works. It doesn't do too much, it has a cast and a story you can relate to, and while not a technical masterpiece, all it needs to do is tell a story - which it does very well. So on that basis, this movie deserves its place in history.

Apparently, there is a 2.5 hour cut of this which has never been released which goes further in to the relationship between the Cocky's daughter and Foley, as well as the strike and some other plot points, and Jack Thompson himself reckons it’s the best movie ever made in Australia. I reckon when he passes on, THAT version will be released.

STAR RATING: 4/5