3 out of 5

Directed by: George Miller, John Power, Carl Schultz, George Ogilvie, Phillip Noyce

A 1983 Australian television mini-series – each director taking one hour of six (someone doubled up there, but I’m not sure who) – The Dismissal is a lengthy, dry, informative – and not uninteresting – docudrama that covers a (thus far, as far as I know) unique event in Aussie history: the dismissal of the Prime Minister, an elected position, by the Governor General, a non-elected position.  While this is maybe a hill o’ beans to those of us with very little concern for politics, and is further distilled by – if yer a Yank or at least a non-Aussie – the foreign setting, and thus unusual government structure, the lead-up to the event is detailed enough to get an understanding of why the wiki page repeatedly cites it as “the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australia’s history.”  While the series, in my opinion, leans slightly in the favor of the Labor Party – which I took to be more of a ‘people’s’ party – on the whole, each side, from a political standpoint, gets a fair shake.  However, accepting that it’s a big topic, there’s not much insight into the effect things had on the public (beyond setting the stage which led to the Labor Party being voted in), and thus ‘The Dismissal’ is a very siloed experience, absolutely focused on the political turmoil and not much beyond.  This mainly seems to be because the series is not really intended for people who didn’t live through it.  This isn’t to suggest that it doesn’t feel thoroughly research, just that it acts very much as a document to say: “this happened,” as opposed to a fully dramatized take for entertainment or something a bit more textbook for education.  There is a sensation of tragedy and loss fueling things (hence the vibe of leaning toward Labor), but also the restraint of trying to tell a straight story.  Accepting this, perhaps, purposeful limited scope, the series tries to churn through some scandal in its first half that, while important as evidence of how things got to their unstable position, the screentime devoted to these details feels a little unimportant in the long run, as though the length of the show was decided and then the timeline divvied up so that each episode would have somethingto focus on.

It’s also, as mentioned, pretty dry.  When the Labor Party / Opposition scuffle starts to heat up in the second half, it’s appropriately gripping, but besides some dramatic music themes here and there and some attempts to add some motion to the camerawork in Phillip Noyce’s episode (2, I think), it’s a pretty standard stable camera, talking heads flick.  And if not for the narrator saying ominous things about what’s to come, unless you know the history, you might be wondering why we’re watching all these talking heads anyway.

But we do have a narrator.  And we have some very convincing actors.  Max Phipps as the leader of Labor (the Prime Minister) has an odd affectation (and maybe an odd wig), but as you settle into his role as the vocal piece for his party, the presentation starts to make sense and then actually starts to feel appropriately powerful.  On the opposite side, John Stanton’s Malcolm Fraser (the leader for The Opposition) is slick and calculating; a hint of a smile to let you know his plans are working; always watchful and cunning.  The Governor General, played by John Meillon, seems like a weak point for a while, but again, once it’s accepted that he’s supposed to seem like something of a milquetoast, it makes sense.  There are plenty of highlights.  The most important thing is that none of these guys feel like they’re playing up a historical role via mannerisms or an impression: you accept all of them for who they claim to be.  Which is why the docudrama works, because it’s committed with the passion of a film, even though it’s assumedly just a straight factoid dump.  With a bit of plot trimming, and more variations to the point-and-shoot setup, it might be a little more involving, but if you allow it the chance to warm up, it’s certainly a fascinating story, and properly communicates the importance of the event to even the completely politically clueless.