Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

The Finished People (2003)

play Human suffering or death; Coarse language – medium
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip Des is called to account

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

Clip description

Des (Rodney Anderson) is in trouble for backing out of the drive-by shooting he’d been ordered to perform. He and Sophie (Sarah Vongmany), having been captured by the crime boss’s henchmen, are marched into a car park to meet him. When the boss (Ivan Topic) discovers Sophie is pregnant he tells her to get to her knees, then orders Des to kick her in the stomach. Des pleads not to but then appears to give in. The boss stops him and insults Des for being prepared to kick the woman carrying his baby. He tells Des to go away and that he will shoot him in the head if he sees him again. As the young couple walk away Sophie pushes Des away from her.

Curator’s notes

by Lynden Barber

An extremely powerful scene that, without quite showing any violence, is more disturbing than many explicitly violent scenes in other films. This is because it deals primarily with the morality of violence and power, and the ease with which good people in powerless positions can be manipulated into performing evil acts.

The cynicism and blatant hypocrisy of the boss is lent extra force by Topic’s uncannily chilling performance. But it’s the fact that Des – hardly violent by nature, as previously conveyed by his inability to commit a drive-by shooting – seems prepared to assault his girlfriend and their unborn child, rather than allow himself to be beaten or killed, that is truly shocking.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Des is called to account from the feature film The Finished People 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
finished3_pr.mp4 Large: 17.7MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
finished3_bb.mp4 Medium: 8.4MB 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: