Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Cactus (2007)

play Coarse language – low
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip A road train driver

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

Clip description

Thommo (Shane Jacobson), a road train driver, is baffled when he stops at the road-closed-due-to-flooding sign placed earlier by John with the aim of preventing vehicles from heading any further. He calls local cop Rosco (Bryan Brown, who stopped John in clip one), who tells him the area has experienced a 100-year-long drought. He starts up and drives over the sign.

Curator’s notes

This piece of wry comedy plays an important narrative function: it’s where the elaborate plan starts to come unstuck, the stupidity and inexperience of John and his mystery employer plain to see. How could they not have realised this outback area is in the middle of a drought? It thus serves as a portent of trouble to come. The scene also introduces the character of Thommo, who will play a small but crucial role in the narrative. The casting of Shane Jacobson – best known for his starring role in the hit comedy Kenny (2006) – underlines the scene’s deadpan comedy (note his astonished expression as he reads the 'flooding’ sign and then looks up at the bone-dry landscape), as does the dancing doll on his dashboard.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer A road train driver 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
cactus072_pr.mp4 Large: 13.7MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
cactus072_bb.mp4 Medium: 6.4MB 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: