Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line – Dir: Paul Clarke (13th Floor/NZIFF Film Review)

Aussie rockers Midnight Oil get a career-spanning look from director Paul Clarke who has also documented John Farnham and Lillian Roxon.

Its seems that just about everything about Midnight Oil involves a hard slog. Clarke reportedly spent seven years making this film.

The band itself is notorious for doing things on its own terms which is why it took them four albums before they broke through in 1982 with 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1….almost a decade after they first came together as Farm.

Frontman Peter Garrett signed on a couple of years later and a name charge was wisely implemented.  This was now the heyday of punk, and while the Oils were never The Saints or The Birthday Party, they did have attitude…refusing to accept an invitation to appear on Australian pop music TV show Countdown…a move that surely slowed their ascent to the charts, but ascend they did, on their own terms.

That fourth album ended up spending a record-breaking 171 weeks on the Aussie charts.

Despite of, or because of, their strident political and social stances, Midnight Oil has sold over 20 million record over their 45 + year career.

But do they warrant a 105 minute documentary?

By most rock & roll standards of excess, they have been fairly mellow…no in-group fighting, no drug and alcohol causalities…even the ex-members, all bass players, speak up and have good things to say about each other.

Only one member has died…third bass player (and Kiwi) Bones Hillman, and that moment does bring some much needed emotion to a film that, like the band,  is all outward looking, rather than inward.

We don’t really get a sense of who Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey are and what makes them tick.

We do get a very thorough look at a band that had the courage of their convictions…standing up for Aboriginal rights, anti-nuclear disarmament and protection on land and see.

One of their finer moments is featured as they pull up a flatbed truck in the middle of Manhattan and perform live for 45 minute in front of the Exxon oil office, just after the Valdez spill. Even the NYC police were impressed, allowing them to perform far longer than they expected.

Musically, the band was something of a One Trick Pony, not particularly adventurous, until, like Paul Simon when he went to South Africa, they went to the outback and collaborated with Aboriginal group, Warumpi Band.

Of course Garrett eventually became a member of Parliament and tried to affect real change in the early 2000’s causing the band to dissolve.

But it seems the music spoke louder than the politician and they were back together and touring in 2016, although they supposedly have played their last show back in 2022.

There’s footage of that, and just about everything else you could want to see, including a young Peter Garrett with long blonde hair, in this documentary.

This film may not change your life, but Midnight Oil might have.

Marty Duda

Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line plays next month at the New Zealand International Film Festival. Click here for tickets and showtimes