This year Australian shark movies have been particularly ravenous, swimming into different waters and taking a bite into other genres. Sean Byrne’s Dangerous Animals arrived in local cinemas in June, blending the creature feature and serial killer movies into one foul fishy stew, with Jai Courtney playing a psycho who feeds his victims to the sharks. And now we have Kiah Roache-Turner’s Beast of War, a second world war movie with a great white twist, which cheekily begins with a text insert declaring that it was “inspired by actual events”.
That’s cheeky because this film doesn’t exactly aspire for social realism, which will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Roache-Turner’s splatterific oeuvre (he cut his teeth helming monster movies about spiders, vampires and demons). Then again, one could argue – as many have – that all art is inspired by life. So perhaps it’s not too outrageous to connect this film to the sinking of HMAS Armidale, the aforementioned historical event in which an Australian corvette was attacked by Japanese bombers in 1942, resulting in the deaths of 100 of its 149 crew members.
Just don’t go into Beast of War expecting a stock-standard war movie, or a stock-standard shark movie. Roache-Turner borrows from various genre playbooks but conjures a distinctive, gung-ho, atmosphere-oozing work that’s all his own. This blast of oceanic mayhem has a curious tone: not quite realistic, not exactly taking the piss.
It’s led by a very entertaining lead performance from Mark Coles Smith (star of Mystery Road: Origin), who builds dramatic heft but also channels the spirit of midnight movies as Leo, a character who’s smart and principled but at any given moment may just punch a shark in the kisser. Leo is the only Indigenous soldier in a squadron of Australian troops that includes Will (Joel Nankervis), with whom he strikes up a friendship during military training. The training involves participating in drills and listening to a one-armed commander (Steve Le Marquand, having a good time) monologising about how he lost his arm “at the elbow” on the battlefield, while his mate “lost his head at the neck”.
The plot really swings into gear when the ship carrying the troops across the Timor Sea is sunk by the Japanese. Leo and Will are among a small group of survivors, who huddle on drifting wreckage with limited resources and limited options. There’s a motor boat only metres away – but there’s also, in the words of one character, “a pissed-off 20-foot fish” swimming nearby.
Like so many before him, Roache-Turner takes some inspiration from Jaws, doing a lot of cutting around the shark – though he’s not afraid to deploy vision of the gnarly chomper. The film is drawn to water from the start, including in an early flashback scene presented in milky reds and blues, which establishes a personal relationship between Leo and ravenous beasts of the sea. Another key part of Leo’s character is his sheer bloody Australianess. The shark disturbs him, but not as much as another man’s preference for Foster’s. “You dirty bastard!” he spits out. “VB all the way!”
Cinematographer Mark Wareham (whose work includes Boy Swallows Universe, The Survivors and Cleverman) conjures an exciting visual flavour: a beautifully damp look with swirling milky colour schemes and stylishly askew angles. The presence of thick fog has a narrative purpose, but it also adds atmospheric richness, adding an extra air of unreality. The fog also helps to psychologically close in the environment and distract from the fact that much of Beast of War was obviously shot on sound stages.
This smashingly well-paced and gung-ho film feels like it exists on the edge of consciousness – not quite reality, not entirely a nightmare, and certainly not a history lesson.
-
Beast of War is showing at Melbourne international film festival now. A general release in Australia and internationally has yet to be announced
