Blood Oath (1990 Australian film)
7 /10 1 Votes
Director Stephen Wallace Duration Country Australia | 6.8/10 IMDb Genre Drama, War Language English
Japanese | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Writer Denis Whitburn , Brian A. Williams Release date 26 July 1990
26 July 1990
15 March 1991 Screenplay Denis Whitburn, Brian A. Williams Awards AACTA Award for Best Costume Design, AACTA Award for Best Sound Cast Bryan Brown (Captain Cooper), George Takei (Vice-Admiral Baron Takahashi), Terry O'Quinn (Major Beckett), John Bach (Major Roberts), Toshi Shioya (Lt. Tanaka), John Clarke (Sheedy)Similar movies Bryan Brown appears in Blood Oath and Stir Tagline Where does war end and murder begin? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blood Oath is a 1990 Australian feature film, known in some countries as Prisoners of the Sun. The film is based on the real-life trial of Japanese soldiers for war crimes committed against Allied prisoners of war on the island of Ambon, in the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia), such as the Laha massacre of 1942.
Contents
It was directed by Stephen Wallace and co-written by Denis Whitburn and Brian A. Williams. The cast included Bryan Brown, George Takei, Terry O'Quinn, John Bach, John Clarke, Deborah Kara Unger, John Polson, Nicholas Eadie, David Argue and Ray Barrett.
The film was the first film debut for both Russell Crowe and Jason Donovan, in minor roles. It was nominated for several AFI Awards in 1990, including "Best Film". It won the AFI Awards for "Best Achievement in Sound" and "Best Achievement in Costume Design".
Blood oath film preview
Cast
Production
The film was the idea of Brian Williams, who was the son of Captain John Williams, who had prosecuted Japanese officers in charge of the POW camp at Ambon during the war. He was impressed with the TV series The Last Bastion and approached Denis Whitburn, who had written it with David Williamson, and they wrote the script and produced together. Bryan Brown and Stephen Wallace then came on board the project (although at one point Geoff Murphy was also considered as director).
The movie was shot at the Village-Warner Film Studio on the Gold Coast.
Box office
Blood Oath grossed $707,194 at the box office in Australia. Stephen Wallace has said he thought the film would have been better had the writers been more accurate as the truth was more interesting.
The writers announced plans to follow up Blood Oath with a $20 million film about the Cowra breakout, Giants at Dawn, but this was not made.
References
Blood Oath (1990 Australian film) WikipediaBlood Oath (1990 Australian film) IMDb Blood Oath (1990 Australian film) themoviedb.org