The Dish

The Dish

The Dish

The Dish

I have to agree with the reviewer who said it was an experience rather than a movie. I truly felt I was going right along with the people in the movie. It was so nice to see Patrick Warburton in a really good part. I think he's highly underused. I liked his character and I liked the way he played it. They all worked well together. Probably the weakest character was the fellow who played the "guard". It was overdone, but then who know, perhaps that's just the way someone in that position would act. It didn't detract from the movie at all.

A delightful small movie that will surely please fans of Bill Forsythe. The Dish is a sort of down under "Local Hero". Lots of small visual jokes on top of amusing slices of life set against the background of the 1969 moon landing. It's a little more breezily paced and occasionally literal than Forsythe's pictures, but impossible not to put in the same utterly agreeable category.

Every great event has as its foundation the faithful efforts of an army of people. This movie chronicles the little bits of heroic effort that converged to allow us to actually see the human species leave the cradle live. It's interwoven with quirky Australian humor and the kind of love that makes life worth living. Very well directed and beautifully shot, this movie seems to be ignored by the chain theatres. It will be back with a vengeance when it's released on DVD.

I saw "The Dish" earlier this year at Sundance and couldn't wait to see it again at the cinema. The film is a gem - It's such a great story focusing on Australia during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission and the efforts of a small town called Parkes. We all know the incredible story of Apollo 11, but what we did not know was that a telescope in Australia was responsible for the first pictures of Armstrong walking on the moon. The characters are hilarious, especially the security guard 'Rudi'. Lookout for one particularly funny moment when our Ambassador visits the telescope. I was entertained the whole way through. It's a very interesting story told beautifully with both dramatic and comedic moments. There is heaps of amazing archival footage from 1969. Lot's of it I hadn't seen before, including some hysterical Australian news footage. The music is fantastic and I can't wait to check out the DVD. Go and see this movie if you like a great story and heaps of laughs.

There were these two flies, playing football on a saucer. One turns to the other and says. "You had better buck up your ideas. We're playing in the Cup next week!" Not really funny. But makes you smile. And priorities were different then. Ron (Viewed 20May2001)

In 1969, when Neil Armstrong was going to the moon to be the first human to set foot there, the radio telescope outside of the small village of Parkes in Australia was chosen to relay the television signal of the moon walk because it was the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. So here was a chance for the Little Guys to triumph. Now, nobody does lovable, quirky eccentrics like the Australian film industry and this film is filled to the brim with them. I really wanted to love this movie and the movie wanted me to love it. Alas, it was not to be. Syrupy music intrudes constantly. There are not really any surprises. The acting is mostly on a TV sit-com level. Everything seemed manufactured. It is a shame not to be able to recommend it.

While some of this film is fiction, it does convey the spirit that grabbed the world on July 20, 1969. The movie is of the Parkes dish in Australia which was the one chosen by NASA to carry the live pictures of Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon. The dramatization is great, especially the issue with the wind and the size of the dish. If the movie is correct, the dish nearly wasn't able to grab the signals because the wind was so strong. It's a great movie of a point in man kinds history that should live forever. I remember watching the actual live broadcast in glorious B&W on the momentous day in July 1969. I watched on CBS and Walter Cronkite who passed away on July 17, 2009 was speechless for the first time. He simply smiled and removed his glasses on this historic occasion We should all rejoice that man kind was adventurous enough to undertake such a dangerous exploration. Great movie, well worth watching again.