The Dish is a comical story based on the true events of
the Apollo 11 spacecraft being sent to the moon. Instead of the typical portrayal of the
American viewpoint, this film is from the viewpoint of Australia’s own Parkes
Observatory. The satellite in Parkes played
a large role in keeping NASA in contact with Apollo 11. This film depicts the Australians as being
comical, careless people who play a large part in this worldwide success.
I found this film to be very similar to a typical
Hollywood comedy film. The comedy of the film
was seen though the crew who worked in the observatory. All four of these characters have a
chemistry that really seems to work. The
supervisor of the dish plays the older, father figure, while the other two are
younger and more energetic. The fourth
is a man sent by NASA to help with communication between Parkes and the
US. This man starts out as more of an
outsider but soon wins the others over.
There is a point in the film when there is a power outage and the backup
generators were not checked, so they lose contact with Apollo 11. When this happens, Cliff, the supervisor,
reassures NASA that they still have a strong signal from the craft. One of the large comedic pieces of the film
occurs when the United States ambassador visits Parkes and wishes to be present
when Armstrong speaks over the radio.
The Parkes Crew must improvise in order to keep their secret quite.
Another comedic
piece seen throughout the film is of the Parkes people and their lack of social
structure and the humor that arises from it.
The characters in the film are seen playing Cricket in the dish, arguing
with one another, and melting around the attractive town girl who continually
visits the dish. These different
situations make it seem as though the Australian culture is obtrusively
careless. As is seen in Crocodile Dundee this type of humor,
poking fun at the Australian culture, is popular. It is apparent that possibly many Australians
are able to laugh at themselves, and perhaps know that this is not necessarily
how they really see themselves.
Overall, I thought this was a genuinely good family film with clean humor. I would definitely recommend it to movie goers if they're looking for a fun and lighthearted film.
I also enjoyed this film. I remember the thrill of seeing Neal Armstrong walk on the moon. Of coarse at that young age I had no idea that that signal came all the way from Australia. I appreciated the historical significance of the film and laughed heartily when the band played the theme of Hawaii 5-0 as the American national anthem. I thought it was a well done film with lots of humor.
I enjoyed the film as well. It had a good balance of humor while still being educational about the events that happened in preparation for and during the Apollo 11 flight. Along that same line I enjoyed how they entwined the story of Cliff's life and his wife passing, and him overcoming opposition with the story of Neal Armstrong beating all odds and being the first man on the moon.
Much like a few of the other movies I have watched for this blog I like how they can take a rather serious topic and plot line and tie in the humor through the characters and the little things that happen to make it seem more like real life.