The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

In honor of Pride Month and celebrating this film's upcoming 30th Anniversary, it's time to embark on the exciting adventures of three drag queens travelling across the Australian Outback on a bus which actually shares its title with this movie. :) This Oscar-winning cult hit was directed by Stephen Elliott and stars Terrance Stamp, Guy Pearce, and Hugo Weaving....yes THAT Hugo Weaving just about five years before his big break as Agent Smith in The Matrix!  Everyone's glammed up and wearing fantastically elaborate costumes as they give musical performances (mostly lip syncing the hits) to various audiences wherever they stop.  And the eventual goal of this mission?  Apparently so one of them can reunite with a key member of his family....it's all very heartwarming, so let's hit the road!

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon 

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Transcript

ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT - 1994

Directed by Stephan Elliott

Starring Terrance Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Bill Hunter, Sarah Chadwick, June Marie Bennett, Maria Kmet, Joseph Kmet, and Rebel Penfold Russell

Genre: Musical Comedy Adventure (Audio clip)

Why had I had not seen this before? 🤔 It came out amidst the media's '90's indie boom....and it's quite entertaining and touching. Terrance Stamp is fun to watch and brings some real gravity to his character Bernadette who's an aging transexual performer - young Hugo Weaving (!) as “Tick” and Guy Pearce as Felicia play the two younger 'queens with him who all embark on a pilgrimage to Alice Springs in the Outback (yeah there's a chicken/steakhouse joke in there somewhere) to meet one of their "wives" driving in their newly acquired bus which they name....Priscilla, Queen of the Desert of course. ;) 

Young Pearce makes quite the lovely 'Queen, Weaving not so much (sorry it's just hard to NOT see him as a scrawnier Agent Smith in drag at times) but they're both very engaging as is Stamp in a road picture which introduces them to any number of interesting characters including a Phillipino stripper who incorporates ping ping balls into her performance, a group of Aboriginees they encounter in the desert who quite enjoy their stage show (and even join along at times), and a crusty bigoted barmaid who's at least game for a drinking contest.

Along the way there are several fun dance numbers, possibly one too many as there is one towards the end that's a tad unnerving and seems inspired by....Jurassic Park? 🙄 Lots of good music throughout though including the original Village People's rendition of "Go West" (Pet Shop Boys released their own technoish remake around this time which remains THE definitive version as far as I'm concerned) among several fun dance numbers performed by our protagonists on screen.

It's just a kick to watch young Weaving and Pierce before they got big…..and strong performances all around especially Stamp leading to a genuinely sweet ending which drags (no pun intended) a bit but still leaves things on feel-good note. Just a good time all around! :)

Best Needle drop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Like I said, the soundtrack for this movie is pretty stacked with a good variety of retro dance classics for the likes of the Village People, Gloria Gaynor, CeCe Peniston, and Peaches and Herb.  But for me, the musical highlight is actually a stage performance which closes out the movie albeit it only includes Felicia and Tick….though at least fittingly the music kicks off with Bernadette waving good-bye to them.   We see them performing in front of a raucous Australian crowd….and the most affecting kicker?  Felicia’s young son in the audience enthusiastically holding a spotlight and dancing along.  Even better, the song we hear them lip-sync to is believe it or not – an Abba song from their 1975 self-titled album….”Mamma Mia.”  (Audio clip)  

Yes THAT Mamma Mia but here’s the kicker, this was actually several few years before that original titular British stage musical even started production and…I actually find THIS version to be more spirited than any sequence from either the stage or film versions of that musical! (Audio clip)  

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

It’s easy to wonder as to whatever happened to Stephan Elliott, the Sydney-born talent who both wrote and directed this, only his second feature film.  When this film was released on limited screens in the summer of 1994, it eventually blew up into a surprise indie WOM success here in the ‘States making about $11 million which wasn’t always exactly chump change back then for such a small movie.  It would go on to also win two BAFTA awards and EVEN an Oscar….I’ll get to that one in just a bit.

Since nothing he has done since then received such notoriety since then, what happened to Stephan Elliot?  Actually nothing really, he’s still directing and has directed ten films since then…most of them entirely Australian productions mainly just released in Australia.  He’s doing just fine….apparently he DID get some offers from Hollywood but just kind of stuck to his guns only holding out for material which he could final cut approval on.  Now if you want to make this all into some kind of zero-sum game, you COULD say that maybe he was market-corrected by fellow Aussie Baz Luhrman who himself had a crossover success a couple of years prior with HIS hit musical Strictly Ballroom….then a few years later the breakout success of Romeo & Juliet starring Leo DiCaprio and Claire Danes….and the rest was history.  But I don’t know if you could actually call them rivals….Stephan’s STILL doing what he loves today, he just decided to keep it local. 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

As tempting it was to choose another musical number, I’m always a sucker for the tropiest of tropes ..and that would be the BAR FACE-OFF.  Of course, this trope started with Westerns…you know when our protagonist would come to a new town and step into the local pub to get a drink.  And predictably at least one of the more belligerent locals would step up this person…threaten them, insult them, challenge them, or maybe even all three.  This type of sequence would even persist into the ‘80’s and ‘90’s beyond Westerns….more into cop thrillers.

Well about 25 minutes into the film after our three heroes have made the first stop of their prolonged journey at some backwoods tow, we are treated to such a scene at the local pub.  Bernadette kicks things off by ordering drinks for them….all relatively calm and confident.  Then of course, a local woman speaks out at Bernadette, insults her, ad the rest of the bar gets quiet for a second. (Audio clip)  

With grace and dignity, Bernadette not only responds by verbally putting her in her place resulting in uproarious laughter from every one around them….but smash cut to the next scene and she’s pounding shots having a drinking game with that same woman.  Guess who wins the drinking game? If you ever doubted that Terrance Stamp was a master at conveying POWER on-screen – even under gobs of make-up – then you can remove those doubts. (Audio clip)

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

Of course despite having some future stars in the cast and some great music throughout, the most enduring legacy of this movie over the past thirty years has been the costumes.  Our three protagonists are wearing stuff that goes beyond merely attempting to look more feminine, they take it to the extreme.  There is the now iconic head-dress worn by Hugo Weaving’s Tick during the final number which stretches over two to three feet in height AND width and is made ENTIRELY of flowers – this thing is so oversized that it honestly looks intimidating.  But it’s gorgeously eye-popping nonetheless.  Or probably among the most iconic….the extremely flowy and shiny silver lame dress worn by Pearce’s Felicia while dancing atop their bus about halfway through….we even see it eventually just flapping atop the bus without her later on displayed as if it's some sort of bright, shining flag announcing their arrivals in advance.  Bottom line these costumes were pretty much special effects on to themselves and not only remain the most impressive visual aspect of the film but are also very much a fourth major character to accompany our three leads.

So who was responsible for these impressive creations?  It was two costume designers from Sydney who were part of a burgeoning early ‘90’s drag scene there at the time AND this was the first movie they both worked on….even though they both had several years of experience creating costumes for drag performers.  Even with limited resources, they were both determined to deliver the most from the least….common low-cost items transformed into larger-than-life creations or as they described it, “the ability to turn the drab into fab.”  One notable example was a dress worn by Tick early one made up ENTIRELY of flip-flops via some stitching and hot glue.  And amazingly their work on this movie garnered SUCH worldwide attention that both of them would eventually WIN the Oscars for Best Costume Design later that year….against such vaunted big budget studio competition as Forest Gump and Little Women no less!  For bringing such unmistakable flair and color to this now iconic little movie that could, Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel are your Co-MVP’s. (Audio clip)                   a

Final Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Happy 30th Anniversary to a truly joyous cult classic!

Streaming on Prime Video, Peacock, Roku, hoopla, tubi, kanopy, PlutoTV, and freevee

And that ends another FANTABULOUS  review!