It's really great to see an Australian story told on the big screen. Based on a true event. The cinematography is stunning, starring the spectacular real Parkes satellite dish in rural New South Wales, while the lovely town of Forbes stands in for nearby Parkes. Perhaps due to the dry subject matter, the humour is sometimes laid on too thickly, and I suspect more drama was added to the plot than what happened in real life. The actors' eye- rolling and eccentricities are also over-done. The costumes are beautiful, and the soundtrack is a reminder of why 1969 was a fantastic one for pop music. There are enough technical references for the technicians' dialogue to be plausible without being boring. I.e. I felt I could follow the dialogue. We can't really comprehend what it must have been like for the public to absorb that man could walk on the moon, and that technicians in Parkes could talk with astronauts and Mission Control in Houston. The dish would have seemed light years ahead of what most Australians knew. The film largely succeeds in being a light-hearted look at an overlooked event in our history.
Review of The Dish
