| “Before Mad Max There Was STONE” |
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Stone
2 DVDS/APPROX. 95 MINS/1974/AUSTRALIA R18+
2 DVDS/APPROX. 95 MINS/1974/AUSTRALIA R18+
9.5
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Sandy Harbutt’s Stone is a bonafied cult classic biker film that came out in the early 70s in Australia. There is no doubt any Aussie kid or teenager
growing up, hasn’t seen this film or walked past the VHS in a video shop. When I was growing up (14yrs old), my mates and I use to have spent all
weekend watching movies, while we all sat around eating pizzas, and knock back a 6 pack of homebrew. Even this very day I can still remember
watching this movie when I was a teenager, Stone is one of those films when you watch it for the very first time, you can never ease it from your
memory. If anyone asked me what are my top 3 Aussie movies of all time, it would simply be Mad Max, Razorback and yeah, you guessed it Stone.
Stone is about a notorious motorbike gang called The Gravediggers led by their Satan worshiping leader The Undertaker (Sandy Harbutt). The
Gravediggers don’t like to follow the rules, or bide by their governments laws, though they have a code which they all live by and that is their
loyalty, mate-ship and honour. That’s until one of their own fellow members (who’s under the influence of drugs) named Toad (Hugh Keays-Byrne)
witnesses a political assassination. A couple days later, the assassin begins to knocking off a member from The Gravediggers. The police chief
wants answers, but The Gravediggers won’t tell the pigs anything, they’re out for blood, and blood they’ll get. Then comes a young long haired
undercover drug squad cop named Stone (Ken Shorter) who talks The Undertaker into allowing him to join his gang after saving gang member
Midnight (Bindi Williams) from a crossbow attack in their local watering hole (Bar). The Gravediggers all put it to a vote and Stone is allowed to ride
with the pack, but he must follow there rules, or he will pay the consequences dearly by being kicked to death like a mongrel dog. Stone agrees to
the biker’s terms and rides out with the pack to find who is exactly behind this monstrosity, before the bikers take things into their own hands.
Damn, I would just about give anything to be able to be a teenager of the early 70s. To me that era would have been the right time to live life to
the fullest. The music was unbelievable, psychedelic drugs, free love, pot smoking little hippie beauties and the greatest era of filmmaking. You had
so many new upcoming filmmakers from all over the globe beginning to create some of the most memorable movies of all time. For example Wes
Craven created The Last House on the Left (1972), martial arts legend Bruce Lee was explodes on the big screen with Enter The Dragon
(1973), porn director Gerard Damiano blowing our minds and pants with Deep Throat (1977). While over here in Australia director Sandy Harbutt
was releasing Stone, which strangely smashed the box-office charts and became an instant favourite on VHS. I cannot recall how many times in my
childhood years I have rented this movie out, watched it with family and friends, and now once again I am able to relive those memorable
childhood moments once again. I cannot praise Sandy Harbutt enough for making this movie, and I will say this, it did change my life and
introduced me to the biker genre.
Not only did director Sandy Harbutt direct Stone, he also co-authored the screenplay, designed the costumes and cast himself as the biker leader
The Undertaker. This can be a lethal move for most filmmakers, because it can really put a great deal of damage on a movie, even though they can
be great behind the camera, they can end up sucking so badly in front of it. Though luckily for Harbutt, this wasn’t the case. The guy definitely
knew how to walk the walk, talks the talk and gave 110% biker attitude right throughout the movie. It’s just sad that after an outstanding movie,
Harbutt didn’t still proceed in filmmaking. Actor member Hugh Keays-Byrne who you all know probably from another Australian cult classic film called
Mad Max (1979) as Toecutter, is also cast in this film. I believe if it wasn’t for Stone there probably wouldn’t even have been a Mad Max, because
both characters (Toad and Toecutter) from both films do kind of resemble each other. And how can I forget about gorgeous actress Helen Morse
who plays Stones girlfriend Amanda. Miss Morse has the body that would make any man whimper like a baby, the brains and acting skills to make
any character come to life. After being cast in Stone, Miss Morse was able to land roles in Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975) and in Caddie (1976)
where she won several awards in Best Actress in a Lead Role at the Australian Film Institute and at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
I would really love to praise this film and not fault it one bit, but Stone does have its faults as much as it’s good. For a bunch of bikers they really
don’t do much but drink, crash political events and then scream out stupid crap, steal tomato sauce bottles from diners, turn up jukebox, just like
any average teenager would do. Some scene will show some bikers have L plates on there bikes, which kinda gets you thinking “what the fuck?”
But considering the time this was made, and what Harbutt had to work with, you got to give the guy some credit.
Nowadays bikers are instantly stereotyped by everyone especially by the media as a group of hairy tattooed rugged men riding motorbikes,
breaking jaws in bars, drug dealing, raciest, disrespectful, raping women and don’t care one bit about the law. This isn’t really the case, yes you
might have a few members from some clubs that like to go wild from time to time, but they are always pulled back in line. But nilly all biker clubs
just enjoy getting on this piss, banging a few birds as they can, while riding with there mates. Hell Angels Australia MC are one particular club that
get a bad wrap over there patch, but they have been one of the most well known fund raising clubs to raise large amounts of those with
disabilities within Australia. Either though, Stone does come across very tame to other biker films such as Hell Angels Forever (1983) or Hell’s
Angel 69 (1969) it’s still a tremendous movie every biker fan can enjoy.
In the DVD extra’s department on Disc 1 you get to watch the full featurette of Stone (95mins), a Theatrical Trailer and a handful of trailers from
Umbrella Entertainment. Stone’s original theatrical cut ran for approximately 132 minutes, but it is reported that Harbutt wasn’t too happy with the
outcome of the movie, so he decided to cut back the film, but still able to reflect his original vision, when it was first released by Roadshow Home
Video on VHS. On Disc 2 you get 1 hour documentary called Stone Forever (62mins) which celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Stone that managed
to gather over 30,000 motorcyclists in Sydney in 1998. You also have other extras that are presented on the disc called The Making of Stone
(22mins), Stone Make-up Test (8mins) and a Directors Slideshow - Sandy Harbutt (21mins).
Australia’s Umbrella Entertainment has finally released a 2 Disc Special Edition DVD of this 70’s exploitation biker cult classic Stone. This DVD is
without a doubt a must have for any exploitation biker fan, and no to mention in my books, the superior of all biker movies. If you haven’t yet
heard or seen this film, well forget reading the rest of this review and just go and buy the DVD tight now. You’ll never seen a much better release
than this release, I use to treasure the Magna Pacific version for a quite of number of years now, but after viewing this release, well sorry to say
but it looks like its going straight onto eBay for that release. Stone is also playable on any DVD player in the world, so if you’re not from Australia,
well you have no need to worry cause this DVD is a region 0 format.
growing up, hasn’t seen this film or walked past the VHS in a video shop. When I was growing up (14yrs old), my mates and I use to have spent all
weekend watching movies, while we all sat around eating pizzas, and knock back a 6 pack of homebrew. Even this very day I can still remember
watching this movie when I was a teenager, Stone is one of those films when you watch it for the very first time, you can never ease it from your
memory. If anyone asked me what are my top 3 Aussie movies of all time, it would simply be Mad Max, Razorback and yeah, you guessed it Stone.
Stone is about a notorious motorbike gang called The Gravediggers led by their Satan worshiping leader The Undertaker (Sandy Harbutt). The
Gravediggers don’t like to follow the rules, or bide by their governments laws, though they have a code which they all live by and that is their
loyalty, mate-ship and honour. That’s until one of their own fellow members (who’s under the influence of drugs) named Toad (Hugh Keays-Byrne)
witnesses a political assassination. A couple days later, the assassin begins to knocking off a member from The Gravediggers. The police chief
wants answers, but The Gravediggers won’t tell the pigs anything, they’re out for blood, and blood they’ll get. Then comes a young long haired
undercover drug squad cop named Stone (Ken Shorter) who talks The Undertaker into allowing him to join his gang after saving gang member
Midnight (Bindi Williams) from a crossbow attack in their local watering hole (Bar). The Gravediggers all put it to a vote and Stone is allowed to ride
with the pack, but he must follow there rules, or he will pay the consequences dearly by being kicked to death like a mongrel dog. Stone agrees to
the biker’s terms and rides out with the pack to find who is exactly behind this monstrosity, before the bikers take things into their own hands.
Damn, I would just about give anything to be able to be a teenager of the early 70s. To me that era would have been the right time to live life to
the fullest. The music was unbelievable, psychedelic drugs, free love, pot smoking little hippie beauties and the greatest era of filmmaking. You had
so many new upcoming filmmakers from all over the globe beginning to create some of the most memorable movies of all time. For example Wes
Craven created The Last House on the Left (1972), martial arts legend Bruce Lee was explodes on the big screen with Enter The Dragon
(1973), porn director Gerard Damiano blowing our minds and pants with Deep Throat (1977). While over here in Australia director Sandy Harbutt
was releasing Stone, which strangely smashed the box-office charts and became an instant favourite on VHS. I cannot recall how many times in my
childhood years I have rented this movie out, watched it with family and friends, and now once again I am able to relive those memorable
childhood moments once again. I cannot praise Sandy Harbutt enough for making this movie, and I will say this, it did change my life and
introduced me to the biker genre.
Not only did director Sandy Harbutt direct Stone, he also co-authored the screenplay, designed the costumes and cast himself as the biker leader
The Undertaker. This can be a lethal move for most filmmakers, because it can really put a great deal of damage on a movie, even though they can
be great behind the camera, they can end up sucking so badly in front of it. Though luckily for Harbutt, this wasn’t the case. The guy definitely
knew how to walk the walk, talks the talk and gave 110% biker attitude right throughout the movie. It’s just sad that after an outstanding movie,
Harbutt didn’t still proceed in filmmaking. Actor member Hugh Keays-Byrne who you all know probably from another Australian cult classic film called
Mad Max (1979) as Toecutter, is also cast in this film. I believe if it wasn’t for Stone there probably wouldn’t even have been a Mad Max, because
both characters (Toad and Toecutter) from both films do kind of resemble each other. And how can I forget about gorgeous actress Helen Morse
who plays Stones girlfriend Amanda. Miss Morse has the body that would make any man whimper like a baby, the brains and acting skills to make
any character come to life. After being cast in Stone, Miss Morse was able to land roles in Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975) and in Caddie (1976)
where she won several awards in Best Actress in a Lead Role at the Australian Film Institute and at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
I would really love to praise this film and not fault it one bit, but Stone does have its faults as much as it’s good. For a bunch of bikers they really
don’t do much but drink, crash political events and then scream out stupid crap, steal tomato sauce bottles from diners, turn up jukebox, just like
any average teenager would do. Some scene will show some bikers have L plates on there bikes, which kinda gets you thinking “what the fuck?”
But considering the time this was made, and what Harbutt had to work with, you got to give the guy some credit.
Nowadays bikers are instantly stereotyped by everyone especially by the media as a group of hairy tattooed rugged men riding motorbikes,
breaking jaws in bars, drug dealing, raciest, disrespectful, raping women and don’t care one bit about the law. This isn’t really the case, yes you
might have a few members from some clubs that like to go wild from time to time, but they are always pulled back in line. But nilly all biker clubs
just enjoy getting on this piss, banging a few birds as they can, while riding with there mates. Hell Angels Australia MC are one particular club that
get a bad wrap over there patch, but they have been one of the most well known fund raising clubs to raise large amounts of those with
disabilities within Australia. Either though, Stone does come across very tame to other biker films such as Hell Angels Forever (1983) or Hell’s
Angel 69 (1969) it’s still a tremendous movie every biker fan can enjoy.
In the DVD extra’s department on Disc 1 you get to watch the full featurette of Stone (95mins), a Theatrical Trailer and a handful of trailers from
Umbrella Entertainment. Stone’s original theatrical cut ran for approximately 132 minutes, but it is reported that Harbutt wasn’t too happy with the
outcome of the movie, so he decided to cut back the film, but still able to reflect his original vision, when it was first released by Roadshow Home
Video on VHS. On Disc 2 you get 1 hour documentary called Stone Forever (62mins) which celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Stone that managed
to gather over 30,000 motorcyclists in Sydney in 1998. You also have other extras that are presented on the disc called The Making of Stone
(22mins), Stone Make-up Test (8mins) and a Directors Slideshow - Sandy Harbutt (21mins).
Australia’s Umbrella Entertainment has finally released a 2 Disc Special Edition DVD of this 70’s exploitation biker cult classic Stone. This DVD is
without a doubt a must have for any exploitation biker fan, and no to mention in my books, the superior of all biker movies. If you haven’t yet
heard or seen this film, well forget reading the rest of this review and just go and buy the DVD tight now. You’ll never seen a much better release
than this release, I use to treasure the Magna Pacific version for a quite of number of years now, but after viewing this release, well sorry to say
but it looks like its going straight onto eBay for that release. Stone is also playable on any DVD player in the world, so if you’re not from Australia,
well you have no need to worry cause this DVD is a region 0 format.
| BUY DVD @ UMBRELLAENT.COM.AU |
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