Film Review: The Dish with Sam Neill
Movie Recounts Real Life Tale of Parkes Radio Telescope
Nov 20, 2008
The producers of The Dish recognised Australia’s involvement in the moon mission and turned it into a heart-warming and inspiring film. It honoured the teamwork, skill and passion of scientists from NASA, Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes as they became key players for a few days in the Apollo XI space programme during July 1969.
The Parkes Radio Telescope was originally intended as a backup to the prime receiver in Goldstone, California.
Telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere were better positioned to pick up signals so NASA made a last-minute reschedule.
Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill), Ross ‘Mitch’ Mitchell (Kevin Harrington) and Glenn Latham (Tom Long) are the three scientists responsible for operating “the Dish”. They are joined by NASA representative Al Burnett (Patrick Warburton).
Cultural differences arise between the Australians and the American. Al discovers the Australians are more laid back than the crew back in Houston, whilst the Aussies find Al’s fastidious ways hard to accept.
Parkes buzzes with excitement as they prepare to greet visiting VIPs. Human relationships, risk-taking, high drama and tension abound during the staging of a most technologically challenging project ever taken.
There are many humorous moments, including the Australian Prime Minister asking, “What the bloody hell is it doing in the middle of a sheep paddock?”
The band played the Hawaii Five-O upon the US Ambassador’s arrival at the ball.
However, disaster strikes and the three men lose contact with Apollo XI. The Australians and Al frantically start searching for the missing rocket. Their reputations are on the line, along with those of Parkes Mayor Rob McIntyre (Roy Billing), Australia’s Prime Minister (Billie Brown) and the entire town. More problems arise with an unexpected gale …
The set reconstructed the 1969 control room was extremely accurate. Some original NASA equipment was used as props. Staff described the set as walking into a time warp.
Some events were changed for dramatic effect. It is smaller than a football field, but it weighed 1,000 tons. No power failure occurred and the boys did not play cricket. The Prime Minister visited Honeysuckle Creek instead of Parkes.
No friction occurred between the Australian and American scientists. (There were more than one!)
The Dish broke box office records to become the top grossing film in Australia in 2000—the fifth in Australian cinema history.
It won awards for Best Screenplay and Best Music from the Film Critics Circle of Australia.
The Dish was conceived, developed, written and produced by Working Dog Productions [Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Rob Sitch], the same team who created The Castle, and Michael Hirsh.
© 2008 Carolyn M Cash
United Nations declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy, featuring the real radio telescope at Parkes.
