STONE (1974) Ozploitation Classics #2 Blu-ray
Director: Sandy Harbutt
Umbrella Entertainment

Australian biking culture found its touchtone with the auteurist Ozploitation biker film STONE, on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment.

After acid-tripping Toad (Hugh Keays-Byrne, MAD MAX) "witnesses" the assassination of an environmental rights political candidate (Deryck Barnes, THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS) at a park rally by hitman Ballini (HOMICIDE's Lex Mitchell), his gang The Grave Diggers are targeted for murder. After the third apparent freak accidental death in the gang, drug squad police officer Stone (Ken Shorter, SUNDAY TOO FAR AWAY) is sent undercover to ride with the gang and catch the killer. He is quickly made by members of the gang who resent police involvement, but they change their mind when he saves leader Undertaker (director Sandy Harbutt) from a crossbow assassination attempt. Stone is distracted from his investigation by the various initiation challenges – including a forced piercing – but he starts to see past the violence to the sense of brotherhood and family among the gang members and their molls, much to the annoyance of his style magazine editor girlfriend Amanda (Helen Morse, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK) who harangues Stone's superior (Slim DeGrey, WAKE IN FRIGHT) to give him time off the assignment for games of mixed doubles and poolside lounging. After a violent run-in with rival gang The Blackhawks – lead by Birdman (Tony Allyn, THE STUD) – Ballini suggests disguising a mass execution of the remainder of The Grave Diggers under the guise of a gang war.

While biker films were the rage in Hollywood during the late sixties and started petering off at the beginning of the seventies, there was no such genre in the then-burgeoning Australian cinema scene where most of the first feature films of the seventies were conscientious of representing Australian "culture" and "bikies" had a very similar popular reputation in Australia as they did to middle class America, and a film about them as likely to cause as much a stir as THE ADVENTURES OF BARRY McKENZIE and its celebration of ocher culture. Written, directed, and art directed by co-star Harbutt, STONE is at its best when the crime storyline takes a backseat to the exploration of biker culture and the contrasting shallowness of Stone's home and work life or the cold-blooded portrayal of the businessmen behind the assassination. While Harbutt and the many future Ozploitation and arthouse Aussie regulars – among them Roger Ward (TURKEY SHOOT), Vincent Gill (SNAPSHOT), and Rebecca Gilling (THE MAN FROM HONG KONG) – give naturalistic performances (some pot-assisted), Shorter is the weak link, giving a soft-spoken and sometimes wooden performance easily overshadowed by the others. The assassination storyline is pushed to the background for such a long time that Toad's recognition of the killer and recollection of the murder seems like a hastily-written wrap-up. Fortunately, the film gives us one last unexpected kick in the teeth that is as suited to an open ending as a setup for a sequel.

STONE was released theatrically with a running time of roughly 126 minutes. Harbutt revealed that he was not as involved with the editing as he should have been and was dissatisfied with that cut of the film. While the distributors were okay with the excessive length because the film was successful domestically, they did eventually cut the film down to 103 minutes for a 1979 reissue and for export (the film was successful in Germany, Japan, and the UK). When it was released on Australian VHS in 1985 by Roadshow, however, Harbutt was allowed to recut the film to its current director's cut length of 99 minutes. It is this cut that turned up on fullscreen DVD in Australia and on widescreen DVD in the US and UK from Severin Films in 2008 on two-disc special edition. The film made its Blu-ray debut in Germany from SchröderMedia in a 2000-copy limited edition including extras from the Australian and Severin DVDs as well as a bonus feature film in BRUTE CORPS (in SD).

We have not seen that version but it and Umbrella's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray also represent the director's cut of the film. Although the seventies film stock and location lighting can result in grainer images than one expects of even vintage 35mm and sharpness can be affected by both run-and-gun shooting and some deliberate soft-focus, clarity can be quite remarkable and some of the more saturated colors in the seventies clothing and décor do pop (as well as some surprisingly sparse bloodshed), but the overall roughhewn look is organic to the film's tone and style. The mono soundtrack is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, delivering generally clear dialogue and some nice presence in the scoring and a handful of foley effects. Optional English HoH subtitles are included.

With feature filmmaking starting to take off in Australia at the time of production, a number of films in both arthouse and exploitation were the subject of television and theatrical making-of shorts, including STONE (23:12) as a black and white piece looking at a couple days of the shooting including the stunt work of Peter Armstrong (THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY) and the fight scene with the rival gangs (filled out by Hell's Angels paid in beer). Shorter, an ex-cop with a few youthful lead roles under his belt including a film with Harbutt in YOU CAN'T SEE 'ROUND CORNERS, reveals that there is much he dislikes about biker culture including the violence, but he does admire the sense of brotherhood and honor. The disc also includes "Stone Forever" (65:36), a 1999 documentary commemorating the film's twenty-fifth anniversary with Harbutt, much of the surviving cast – Shorter is represented here in footage from the aforementioned 1974 making-of – as well as a generation of Australian bikers whose lives were changed by the film which they felt presented them as more than hooligans. New to the Blu-ray is "Tarantino on Stone" (9:12) in which Quentin Tarantino (PULP FICTION) waffles on a bit about why STONE is the greatest biker film for those unwilling to take a chance on an obscure film without his endorsement.

Never before presented on home video is a compilation of all of the deleted and extended scenes (38:25) from the original theatrical release that Harbutt removed for his director's cut – too bad Umbrella did not do this with Peter Weir's director's cut disc of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK – seen here in a combination of film, video, and watermarked video sources including more of the opening funeral, an entire introductory sequence for Stone that depicts him as already having some biking and mechanic experience, more cutaways to the police investigation, Ballini prowling various locations, and some extended bits to the pot scene, as well as a slightly longer version of the skinny-dipping beach scene (which really is not more explicit but just feels so because it is brighter in the old video source).

As expected for a vintage Ozploitation release, we get more NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD extended interviews (125:20). Harbutt discusses his early career as actor and TV commercial director, the long development of the script and the various attempts at getting private and government funding before he was encouraged by people at the Australian Film Development Corporation who liked his script to produce it himself. He discusses the budget, casting, stunts, biker extras (he put an add out for bikers for the funeral procession and was shocked by the results), the fight scenes, the use of real drugs on set, the film's release, and how people still react to the film's ending while providing his helpful interpretation of it.

Shorter is also interviewed, recalling meeting Harbutt who wanted to cast him in the film, going to England in search of work as an actor and getting letters periodically from Harbutt telling him that the project was still alive, returning to Australia when the film finally went into production, providing his own wardrobe (Shorter had already been doing his own leatherwork which he was selling at fairs and markets when Harbutt first approached him about the film). Model Gilling originally auditioned for a non-speaking part and landed one of the bigger female roles in the film, discusses the atmosphere, and confirms the use of real marijuana during one twenty-five hour shoot. Ward recalls working on a play by night and the film by day, accepting the role of "Dr. Death" because it was the closest thing to playing Count Dracula (his character is seen sleeping in a coffin), and being picked up and thrown into the cab of a truck during the fight scene by Hell's Angel who intended it as a compliment.

Executive producer David Hannay (ALISON'S BIRTHDAY) recalls the funding travails and being impressed with what Harbutt was able to achieve as a director fielding multiple roles, referring to STONE as an auteur work. Lastly, editor Ian Barry (THE CHAIN REACTION) recalls that Harbutt's TV commercial roots and being on set for some of the shoot including anecdotes about the Hell's Angels, and cutting Harbutt's 360 degree camera panning pot-smoking sequence. The disc also includes the stills gallery with commentary by Harbutt (20:28) ported over from the DVD editions, silent make-up tests (8:33), and the film's theatrical trailer (3:19). As with other Ozploitation Classics releases, the slipcover features the synopsis and list of extras while the cover features two poster artworks on one side and here a track listing and song lyrics for the CD soundtrack which is included with the first three thousand copies. (Eric Cotenas)

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