Movie Reviews by Evelyn Gough.
Remember the Titans (PG)
Directed by Boaz Yakin

I have to be honest with you - I'm not a huge fan of football (though Tom Cruise can show me the money any day!), especially the over-padded, drawn out, stop-start American version.

But I'm not knocking it - don't get me wrong - to each his (or her) own... etc etc.

Not that Remember the Titans is just about football.

Set in the early 70s during the turbulent years of integration in American schools, this drama covers some pretty big issues, like racism, bigotry and prejudice. It takes place in Virginia in 1971 and is about the first racially integrated football team (yes folks, it wasn't that long ago that OJ Simpson wasn't even allowed to play footy so he could pay for all those lawyers...)

Based on fact, it stars Denzel Washington as the coach who knows that feeling which so many coaches now know - you're only as good as your last game. His new job depends on his team outscoring their rivals, every time. It's a difficult objective when there's so much division and hatred among his own players.

Unfortunately, if you're expecting something 'fresh' from director Boaz Yakim (of Fresh fame), forget it - this has Jerry Bruckheimer Productions written all over it. Bruckheimer specialises in films that appeal to a 'certain audience'. Think Armageddon, Gone in 60 Seconds, and back to his collaborative days with Don Simpson on movies like Top Gun.

That's right. If you're young and you've got balls (literally helps...), then you'll find Remember the Titans appealing. In other words, it's oversimplified, testosterone land and extremely predictable. Even worse, it's full of icky male-bonding and lots of football - American football at that.

The soundtrack, however, is fabulous.

Remember the Titans didn't do it for this oestrogen-inclined reviewer, but judging by the cheers from pubescent boys, it has a certain something for a certain audience.

Word On Books by Jeremy Fenton.
The Bearpit
By Peter Collins
Published by Allen & Unwin

On Friday, December 4, 1998, would-be-Premier Peter Collins received a telephone call from his deputy Ron Phillips asking him to attend an urgent and unscheduled meeting.

Collins pondered:

"This was seriously strange. What on earth could it be? Corruption allegation? Another departure? - I didn't like the feel of this."

And well he shouldn't have, for he was about to be unceremoniously dumped from the Liberal leadership in the run-up to the March, 1999, state election. Whether he actually had a shot at winning is now a moot point, but we certainly know that those who replaced him suffered a virtual electoral rout.

To make matters worse the same period saw the collapse of Collins’ second marriage.

Rather than lick his wounds privately - as good pollies are expected to do - he put pen to paper. What emerges is The Bearpit.

All the pivotal moments are here - from his entry to politics in 1981 in the seat of Willoughby, to heady days as a Cabinet member of the Greiner Government, and finishing with the details of his second, and presumably final, political "assassination" in 1998.

Alas, what could have been a real (and rare) glimpse into the workings and machinations of modern politics, written contemporaneously, turns out to be a bit of therapy for Lismore-born Collins. What better way to get things off your chest than to write a book?

At least it's a better motive than revenge.

The Bearpit is published proof that politicians can't and shouldn't write while still in office. This isn't autobiography, it's a long and slightly bitter resume.

Huckstepp – A Dangerous Life
By John Dale
Published by Allen & Unwin

When people all around Australia witnessed the blonde-headed woman on television openly talking about police corruption (alleging that a police officer had organised the shooting murder of her boyfriend) many assumed - including herself - that she would soon be dead. They were right.

Sallie-Anne Huckstepp was murdered in Centennial Park on February 6, 1986, but she remains a figure of interest and intrigue to the Australian media and people.

An acquaintance of Huckstepp, author John Dale, has set out to piece together the ill-fitting puzzle of her life. Prostitute, drug user and dealer, devotee to the 'excitement' of the criminal world, author, media celebrity and outspoken advocate for the down-trodden, Huckstepp was a mess of contradictions with a keen intelligence and the maturity of a child.

In A Dangerous Life, the winner of last year's Ned Kelly award for Non-Fiction, the mystery is as much who the murderer was‚ as it is who was Sallie-Anne. Oversimplifications - presumably extending from Australia's love of the anti-hero - have often painted her as the 'courageous' fighter of corruption, however Huckstepp was far too involved in the criminal underbelly for such a label.

Was there a moment lying at the heart of her story (her 'rosebud') that can serve to explain who she was and what she did? Huckstepp: A Dangerous Life offers a fascinating speculation that there was.

This is a book that does justice (if such a word can be used in conjunction with the tragedy of Sallie-Anne's life) to the complexities of a mixed-up young woman who spoke too loudly about things that demand to be kept silent.

Detective work at its finest from John Dale.