Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

provided by

This clip shows Detective Sergeant Ray Birch (Bruno Lawrence) at an armed siege, where he uses journalist Tom Stewart (Colin Friels) as a foil in order to shoot a rapist called Les (Richard Carter) who is holding a woman hostage. Negotiations have stalled and Birch sends for Stewart, offering him a ‘scoop’ if he talks to Les. However, when Les comes to the warehouse door, Birch shoots him and then fires into the ground. He tells Stewart to write that Les fired the first shot, and reminds him of an earlier scoop obtained through underhand means.

Educational value points

• Grievous Bodily Harm has been described as a modern ‘film noir‘ and in keeping with this genre the main protagonists, Stewart and Birch, are morally ambiguous characters. In this clip Birch appears at first to be an honest policeman doing his best to break the siege, but this impression is undermined when he uses Stewart as a ruse to shoot the rapist, Les, in cold blood.

• Contrasting light and dark is a feature of film noir, and is often used to signify a character’s moral ambiguity. During the exchange between Stewart and Birch in the warehouse scene the use of low-key lighting often places Stewart’s face in partial shadow, an effect heightened by filming the two men in profile. The final shot reinforces this ambiguity by placing Stewart in the centre right of the frame against a backdrop that is neatly divided into shadow and light.

• During the final part of the siege the clip cuts between shots of Les, Stewart, Birch and a nearby train, which in each shot is shown progressively closer to the camera. The changing position of the train may be intended to build tension and to suggest that each party is on a collision course. The soundtrack reinforces this sense, the tempo of the music escalating with the advancing train and increasingly rapid edits.

• The clip depicts an incident of police corruption. At the time Grievous Bodily Harm was released in 1988, the New South Wales police force had a reputation for widespread corruption, including the fabrication and planting of evidence. The Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service conducted by Justice James Wood between 1994 and 1997 found that corruption was endemic and systemic within the force.

• Colin Friels, who plays Tom Stewart, graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) in 1976 and has since worked in film, television and theatre. He made his mark in the title role in Malcolm (1986), winning Best Actor in a Lead Role at the 1986 AFI Awards, and won another AFI award for his work in Halifax fp: Hard Corps (1994). Friels has been nominated for two other AFI awards but is best known for his role as Detective Frank Holloway in Water Rats.

• The New Zealand actor Bruno Lawrence, who plays the hard-bitten and ruthless Detective Sergeant Birch in Grievous Bodily Harm, appeared in a number of Australian films including Rikky and Pete (1988), The Delinquents (1989) and Spotswood (1992). In the early 1990s he won plaudits for his role as the cynical television executive in the television comedy series Frontline. He returned to New Zealand in 1994, just prior to his death in 1995.

• Director Mark Joffe has worked in both film and television, and it was his direction of the fast-paced, taut and well-received television miniseries The Great Bookie Robbery (1986) that led to his selection as director of Grievous Bodily Harm. His other films include Spotswood (1992), Cosi (1996), The Matchmaker (1997) and The Man Who Sued God (2001).

A gunman, Les, is seen standing inside the doorway on the top floor of a warehouse. He is checking what is going on outside while staying in the protection of the doorway. A police officer, Derek, approaches Detective Sergeant Ray Birch, part of a group of police who are set up at a distance from the house.
Derek What’s happening?
Ray Birch puts down his binoculars.
Ray Birch Bloody hopeless. Tom Stewart isn’t back there by any chance, is he?
Derek Yeah, I think so.
Ray Get him.

Derek walks away, towards the news camp. Sirens are heard in the distance.
Derek Stewart!
Tom Stewart Yeah?
Derek Detective Sergeant Birch wants a chat.
Tom Aren’t I lucky? Come on, Mick.
Mick, a news photographer, starts to follow but Derek gestures with his megaphone, as if to block him.
Derek Not you.

Tom approaches Ray.
Tom Bit of strife, Ray?
Ray Tried everything. Want to talk to him?
Tom Not especially.
Ray Your scoop.
Tom Yeah, my arse too.
Ray Derek, get everyone out of sight.
Derek moves off to start clearing the area.
Ray He’s got a shotgun so stop where I tell you.
Derek (in the background) Right, everyone back.
Tom (sarcastically) Oh thanks, Ray.
Ray You’ll be alright.
Derek (in the background) I want everyone outta here, right out. Behind the car, come on! Everyone out of here!

Les looks out and then disappears through the doorway. Tom slowly walks towards the building as the police retreat.
Ray That’s far enough, Tom.
Derek (in the background) Behind the car, come on!
Tom stops and Ray gets out a megaphone to speak to the gunman.
Ray I know you don’t want to talk to us but the gentleman standing out there is a reporter, name of Tom Stewart. You’ve probably heard of him. He wants to hear your side of the story. What do you say?

We see inside the room where Les stands. He is just inside the door. Further back inside the room is a woman who is gagged and tied up. Les motions with his gun for Tom to go inside the warehouse. Tom looks back at the police, uncertain whether to approach.
Tom Les! I don’t want to pry into your personal affairs. Whatever reason you’ve got for doing this I’m sure is a good one in your eyes. Look, all I wanna do is talk to ya and get your side of this.
Les glances at the tied-up woman who is trying to say something through the gag in her mouth.
Tom Maybe take a photograph. That seem fair?
Les Well, what about the coppers?
Tom They just want to wrap this up, go home and have a beer. They don’t want blood. They’re just doing their job.
We see a nearby train advancing.
Les Well, I’ll think about it, I’ll think about it.

Les closes the door. Ray lifts his gun to aim at Les. The train continues to approach. Ray fires his gun and the shot goes through the glass pane of the door, shattering the glass and hitting Les who falls to the floor. Tom looks back in shock. Ray walks over to Tom and discharges his rifle at the ground.
Ray Derek’ll bring your mate up. Coming?
Tom looks around, still shocked by what has happened.

Inside the house uniformed and plain-clothes police walk around. Les’s body lies on the floor. Ray addresses the woman.
Ray Detective Allan’ll look after you.
Detective Allan If you just wait here a minute, please…
Tom is walking across the room. He looks agitated.
Ray Three counts of rape, two attempted murders. He wouldn’t have let that girl go.
Tom Yeah, stops overcrowding the jails, Ray.
Ray Get real, Tom.
Tom puts his hand on Ray’s chest, clearly angry.
Tom I don’t need any more bloody favours, alright.
Tom walks away. Ray stops him by grabbing his arm.
Ray There were two shots. Leslie fired first, at you, and I saved your life. You do understand how that story will read, don’t you?
The two men look at each other with hostility. Tom walks away and Ray calls after him.
Ray By the way, great exclusive on Eddie Winks’s girl. Don’t know how you do it, really don’t.
Tom looks down, then continues walking away.