AustLit

Director: Frank Shields

Running Time: 96 min.

After the hiatus of the 60s, the Australian film industry grew rapidly; to international audiences, the Gold Coast was a must-see destination due to what Stockwell identifies as a “booster imperative”—where an influx of tourism material aimed at audiences overseas created an ideal yet counterfeit image of the Gold Coast (284). This booster effect had its drawbacks as the hedonistic lifestyle staged on screen masked, or possibly gave way to, widespread crime in the city. Frank Shields 1986 film The Surfer delves beneath the glitz and glamour of the Gold Coast to the hard underbelly of organised crime and corrupt law enforcement. Gary Day plays Sam Barlow, a war veteran who investigates the death of two friends which leads him to a shady cop, a mercenary, and a gang of Vietnamese crime lords. The Surfer is one example of many films that used the Gold Coast as their setting for crime related narratives, such as Colour Me Dead (1969), Surrender in Paradise (1976) and Goodbye Paradise (1983). The Surfer was produced on the verge of an era where Gold Coast movies became Hollywood productions made for international rather than local audiences (Goldsmith et al. 32). “Selected for the Directors Fortnight at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival,” The Surfer warrants rediscovery as a “contemporary film noir” that showcases the enduring Australian value of mate-ship, set against a crime riddled city (Kuipers).