THE MOVIE

Before he was Agent Smith in The Matrix, Hugo Weaving was dressing up as a drag queen called Mitzi Del Bra and strutting his, or is that her, stuff on stage. This classic Australian comedy, which was written and directed by Stephan Elliott, also stars Guy Pearce as Felicia Jollygoodfellow and Terence Stamp as a transsexual called Bernadette.

Following the death of a close friend, Anthony (Hugo Weaving) suggests to Bernadette that she join Adam (Guy Pearce) and himself on a road trip to Alice Springs to get away from it all. So they set off from Sydney in a bus called Priscilla and thus the adventure begins.

In the middle of the desert, the bus breaks down, and after meeting some of the locals, a mechanic called Bob (Bill Hunter) decides to join them on their journey. Along the way, Adam and Bernadette also learn that Anthony’s wife manages the resort in Alice Springs where they will be performing and that he owes her a favour. That’s just the start of it though, he has an even bigger bombshell for them when they arrive…

THE TRANSFER

Video:

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 widescreen and it is also 16:9 enhanced. Although when viewed on a standard 4:3 television some of the opening credits were slightly cropped. In terms of detail, well some of the close ups are okay, but generally speaking, the level of detail isn’t that flash. This film also suffers from quite a considerable amount of film grain and background noise.

Colours are pretty darn good, especially the bright costumes worn by Hugo Weaving, Terence Stamp and Guy Pearce. Flesh tones appear realistic in most scenes, although can be a little orange in the scenes that take place in darkened interiors. Things look the best when the three main characters are out in the middle of desert in the bright sun. There was some minor aliasing (the bus is the major culprit) and the layer change is also quite noticeable, occurring between chapter 18 and 19 (68.28 minutes).

Audio:

This film has four soundtracks, a Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack, a DTS 5.1 channel soundtrack, and two Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtracks, one featuring production audio and the other featuring an audio commentary (see below for more information). I listened to the Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack, and I must say I was quite surprised by the level of rear channel audio given that this film is almost ten years old.

The rear channels are really quite dynamic and there are some pretty cool background effects to be heard, including the phone ringing in chapter 1 (4.53 minutes), the bus approaching in chapter 2 (8.59 minutes), the laughter in chapter 6 (24.02 minutes), the ping pong balls flying out into the crowd in chapter 16 (54 minutes) and the fire crackling in the background in chapter 16 (72.30 minutes). Low frequency output wasn’t all that bad either with some nice bass to be heard during some of the songs.

This film has a great soundtrack with music from ABBA, Gloria Gaynor and The Village People to name just a few. Dialogue is clear and highly intelligible throughout, and although the actors lip synch to the song lyrics during the cabaret performances, there didn’t appear to be any genuine audio synch problems. This DVD also comes with English subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Audio Commentary
This commentary track features writer/director Stephan Elliott, and he does a remarkable job, providing numerous interesting insights into the film. He talks about the music and how many artists didn’t want to be involved (e.g. Barry Manilow) and upsetting ABBA fans. Casting is also discussed and he mentions the international stars who were considered for the part of Anthony - Richard E Grant, Colin Firth. He also talks about the Cannes Film Festival quite a bit and the costumes (what they achieved on a limited budget).

Deleted Scenes
Selecting this option loads a submen where you can choose from three deleted scenes. Unfortunately, there is no ‘Play All’ feature. All scenes are presented in 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. Total running time is around 5 minutes.

Behind the Bus
Here you’ll find a montage (approximately 9 minutes) of outtakes from the film. All outtakes are presented in 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound.

Theatrical Trailers
This section contains three trailers, the US theatrical trailer, the US theatrical teaser trailer and the original Australian theatrical trailer. The Australian trailer is the best, the American version is almost identical, but it doesn’t sound quite right with an American voice actor. All three trailers are presented in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. Running time is 2.30 minutes, 1.05 minutes and 2.59 minutes, respectively.

Ladies Please - 1994 Featurette
This 47 minute long documentary takes a look at the lives of three real life drag queens, Mark Fitzhugh (Strykermeyer), Richie Finger (Cindy Pastel) and Stuart Gaske (Lady Bump). The documentary looks at their background and explores how they got into drag. These three performers discuss what their families think, one of them even discusses being a father. We seem them rehearsing, performing and going to the Cannes Film Festival to promote the film. The documentary is presented in 1.33:1 full framed with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound.

Cast and Crew Biographies
Here you will find biographies and filmographies for actors Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and Bill Hunter. Also featured are numerous crew members, writer/director Stephan Elliott, director of photography Brian J. Breheny, composer Guy Cross, costume designers Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel, film editor Sue Blainey, production designer Owen Paterson, art director Colin Gibson and producers Al Clark, Michael Hamlynand Rebel Penfold-Russell.

SUMMARY

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is one of those classic Australian films, kind of like Strictly Ballroom and Muriel’s Wedding. The film is almost ten years old but it hasn’t lost any of it’s charm. The story in a nutshell; three drag-queens travel via bus to Alice Springs to perform their cabaret act. The DVD has a reasonably good visual transfer given its age and the audio transfer is surprisingly very good. There are also a number of excellent extras including a rather interesting 45 minute featurette.