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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
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.
