Peter Weir

:For the Northern Ireland politician see Peter Weir (politician)

Early life and career

After leaving university in the mid-1960s he joined Sydney television station ATN-7, where he worked as a production assistant on the groundbreaking satirical comedy program The Mavis Bramston Show. During this period he made his first two experimental short films, Count Vim's Last Exercise and The Life and Flight of Reverend Buckshotte.

Related Topics:
Sydney - Television - ATN-7 - The Mavis Bramston Show

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Weir then took up a position with the Commonwealth Film Unit (now Film Australia), for whom he made several documentaries, including a short documentary about young people living in the underprivileged outer suburbs of Sydney, and the short rock music film Three Directions In Australian Pop (1970), which featured rare in-concert colour footage of three major Australian rock acts of the period, Spectrum, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band and Wendy Saddington.

Related Topics:
Commonwealth Film Unit - Film Australia - Spectrum - The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band - Wendy Saddington

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After leaving the CFU Weir made the short feature Homesdale (1971), a black comedy which co-starred actress Kate Fitzpatrick and musician and comedian Grahame Bond, who later became famous as the star of The Aunty Jack Show; Weir also played a small role, but this was his only significant screen appearance.

Related Topics:
Kate Fitzpatrick - Grahame Bond - The Aunty Jack Show

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His first full-length feature film was the underground cult classic, The Cars That Ate Paris (1974). He achieved considerable success in Australia and internationally with the atmospheric Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), based on the novel by Joan Lindsay. Widely credited as a pivotal work in the much-discussed Australian film renaisssance of the mid-1970s, the film also helped launched the career of internationally renowned Australian cinematographer Russell Boyd. It was widely praised by critics, many of whom praised it as a welcome antidote to the so-called "ocker film" genre, typified by The Adventures of Barry McKenzie.

Related Topics:
The Cars That Ate Paris - Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay - Russell Boyd - Ocker film - The Adventures of Barry McKenzie

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His next feature, The Last Wave, which starred American actor Richard Chamberlain, was a pensive, ambivalent film which expanded on the themes of Picnic, exploring the interaction between the native Aboriginal culture and the European. It was only moderately successful at the time, but Weir scored a major hit with his next film Gallipoli (1981), scripted by renowned Australian playwright David Williamson. It is regarded as classic Australian cinema. Gallipoli was instrumental in making Mel Gibson into a major international film star, but Gibson's co-star Mark Lee, who also received high praise for his role, has made only a handful of film appearances since.

Related Topics:
The Last Wave - Richard Chamberlain - Aboriginal - Gallipoli - Playwright - David Williamson - Australian cinema - Mel Gibson - Mark Lee

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The cumulative high point of Peter Weir's early career was the international production The Year of Living Dangerously which united Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver in a story about loyality, idealism, love and ambition intertwined with political and humanitarian themes in the Indonesia of 1965. The film won Linda Hunt an Oscar for best supporting actress.

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