Blue Fin

Blue Fin is a 1978 Australian family film directed by Carl Schultz and starring Hardy Krüger, Greg Rowe and Elspeth Ballantyne.[3] It is based on a 1969 Australian novel written by Colin Thiele.

This article is about the 1978 movie. For the Spanish cargo ship, see MV Blue Fin. For other uses, see Bluefin.

Blue Fin
DVD cover
Directed byCarl Schultz
Written bySonia Borg
Based onnovel by Colin Thiele
Produced byHal McElroy
StarringHardy Krüger
Greg Rowe
Elspeth Ballantyne
CinematographyGeoff Burton
Edited byRod Adamson
Music byMichael Carlos
Production
companies
Distributed byPacific International Enterprises
Release date
  • November 1978 (1978-11)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetAU $750,000[1]
Box officeAU $703,000 (Australia)[2]

Plot

Based on the children's novel by South Australian author Colin Thiele, this is a father and son story about tuna fishing of Southern Blue Fin tuna in South Australia's Port Lincoln fishing district. Accident-prone son Snook is forever making mistakes much to the chagrin of his father Pascoe. But when tragedy strikes the fishing boat during a deep sea fishing trek in the Southern Ocean, the boy is called on to become a man in a rites of sea passage to reconcile his past mishaps and save both his father and the ship from certain disaster.

Twelve-year-old Steve Pascoe is nicknamed 'Snook' by everyone in Port Lincoln. He's thin and long-faced, like the fish he's named after. At school he's no good at sport and, at home, his father scorns him. Snook joins his father and fellow crewmen on a tuna-fishing expedition, when disaster strikes. It is up to Snook to save himself and his father from a desperate situation.

Cast

Production

The film is an unofficial follow up to Storm Boy (1976) with the same writer and star, also adapted from a Colin Thiele novel. The South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) did not want to use Henri Safran as director, though, so employed another director from the ABC, Carl Schultz.[4]

The film was shot in Streaky Bay in mid 1978.[5]

Reshoots

During post production editor Rod Adamson claimed the film would not cut together. Five weeks after filming had completed, Schultz had to leave the film to take up a directing job at the ABC. Accordingly, Matt Carroll of the SAFC called in Bruce Beresford, who was under contract to them, to re-shoot some sequences. Some of these had to be done using a body double for Hardy Kruger since he had returned to Europe.[4] Schultz was supportive of Beresford stepping in but was unhappy with the fact he supervised the final re-cut.[6]

Proposed Remake

In 2017 it was announced the movie would be remade.[7]

DVD release

A DVD was released on 1 January 2003.

References
  1. Greg Kerr, "Blue Fin", Australian Film 1978-1992, Oxford Uni Press 1993 p15
  2. Australian Films at the Box Office - Report to Film Victoria Archived 9 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine accessed 5 October 2012
  3. Blue Fin (1978) Archived 4 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  4. David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson, 1980 p271-272
  5. "How the little town of Streaky Bay got into films". Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 27 September 1978. p. 50. Retrieved 23 June 2020 – via Trove.
  6. Peter Beilby & Rod Bishop, "Carl Schultz", Cinema Papers, Jan-Feb 1979 p242
  7. Treloar, Casey (28 September 2017). "Port Lincoln setting for new Colin Thiele Blue Fin film". Port Lincoln Times.
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