The First Kangaroos
7 /10 1 Votes
Director Frank Cvitanovich Written by Nigel Williams Duration Country United Kingdom
Australia | 6.8/10 IMDb Music director William Motzing Genres Drama, Short Film Writer Nigel Williams Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Release date 1988 Based on an original idea by Frank Cvitanovich People also search for Beauty, Bonny, Daisy, Violet, Grace And Geoffrey Morton Cast Philip Quast , Dennis Waterman , Chris Haywood , Clarissa Kaye , Tony Martin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The First Kangaroos is a 1988 British–Australian made for TV sports film directed by Frank Cvitanovich and starring Dennis Waterman, Chris Haywood and Dominic Sweeney. It depicts the 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain, the first-ever such tour by the Australia national rugby league team.
Contents
The First Kangaroos drew complaints from the Granddaughter of British rugby league legend Albert Goldthorpe for its villainous depiction of him.
Some scenes featured the grandstand of Arlington Oval in the inner-western Sydney suburb Dulwich Hill which hosted women's competitions of the 1938 British Empire Games.
Cast
Both Wayne Pearce (Balmain Tigers) and Andrew Ettingshausen (Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks) were current Australian rugby league test players when the film was released. Pearce had been a member of the undefeated 1982 Kangaroo tour, while Ettingshausen would go on to be the leading try scorer on both the 1990 and 1994 Kangaroo Tours.
Reception
Karen Hardy, reviewing the film in 2013 said, "Sure, it wasn't the finest sports movie ever made but there was humour - intentional or not, I wasn't quite sure - and conflict and pathos. And its story, which it admitted in the opening credits was sort of based on true events, was an interesting one."
References
The First Kangaroos WikipediaThe First Kangaroos IMDb