Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Cactus (2007)

play Coarse language – low
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip Stopped by a cop

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

After nearly hitting a police vehicle while reaching down to switch on the radio, John (Travis McMahon) is stopped by the cop (Bryan Brown), who breathalyses him but doesn’t realise there is a kidnapped man in the boot. The cop gives John a dryly witty but long-winded speech about how he’s in luck. He is letting John off today because tomorrow he will give up smoking for his wife’s birthday which will make him extremely irritable. The cop, Rosco, warns John that this area and a large swathe of land to its west is his territory and not to get into any trouble or he’ll have him to deal with.

Curator’s notes

by Lynden Barber

This scene introduces the significant and colourful character of Rosco. The iconic status of Bryan Brown adds power to an otherwise small part and leads the audience to suspect – correctly – that he will play an important role in the narrative. The scene works via an astute mixture of tension (will the cop order John to open the boot and discover the body?) and dry humour (the cop’s amusingly pompous speech).

Note the way the scene in general and the shot of the cop framed by John’s car door echo a similar scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) where Janet Leigh’s character, also a criminal, is stopped by a highway patrolman.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Stopped by a cop from the feature film Cactus as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
cactus071_pr.mp4 Large: 21.3MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
cactus071_bb.mp4 Medium: 10.0MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: