Review of Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, The

Introduction

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a wonderfully camp, outrageous comedy that follows a trio of drag performers as they make their way to Alice Springs in Australia to perform a show. Their adventures along the way make for hilarious viewing, and their bus, affectionately named ‘Priscilla’, becomes a very unlikely vehicle for offroading in the Australian desert.

The film centres on a very masculine looking transsexual, played by Terence Stamp:

“Why don’t you just light your tampon and blow your box apart, because it’s the only bang you’re ever gonna get, sweetheart!”

a married bisexual (Hugo Weaving) who has a young son he has hidden from his colleagues:

“Oh my tits are falling down!”

and the young clown of the trio (Neighbours’ gym-toned and sunbed tanned Guy Pearce), who being as camp as Christmas, usually steals the scene with fab lines such as:

“All right – which one of you bitches sat on my breasts??!”

The film is full of great music, including Abba’s ‘Mamma Mia”, Ce Ce Peniston’s ‘Finally’, ‘Go West’ by The Village People, and of course that gay anthem ‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria Gaynor.

32 chapters split up the best bits nicely.

Video

This disc is disappointing in one major respect – the disc was pulled about 9 months ago, and this is a newly re-released version. But they didn’t take the opportunity to give this release an anamorphic transfer! Shame.

The outrageous costumes and make up make this a very visual film, and the video quality is relatively good given the one major omission above.

Audio

No Dolby Digital 5.1 mix here though – just Dolby Digital stereo, or of course Pro Logic. Boo!

Features

The menus are simple, but they are animated, featuring a revolving mirror ball with accompanying dance music that would not have sounded out of place on the ‘Queer As Folk’ DVD.

You only get two trailers on this disc, and the main trailer looks like it has been transferred from a VHS master – appalling quality. There are noticeable horizontal streaks on the green FBI notice reminiscent of dirty video heads!

A commentary would have been a major improvement on the previous release of this DVD, but alas this has not been included.

Interestingly, there is a hidden ‘Easter Egg’ on the main menu. If you scroll through the options, a little pink star appears above the menu options. Selecting this brings up ‘Life’s A Drag’ – a short two page textual based history on drag queens and drag roles through the ages.

There is also a comprehensive set of notes in the booklet that comes supplied with the DVD.

Conclusion

One lovely scene centres on Guy Pearce watching in the rear view mirror as he is driving their bus across the desert, waiting for the moment when Terence Stamp is putting on his lipstick, and a quick jab on the brakes send the lipstick skating across his cheek!

Also just check out the ‘Abba T*rd’…..!!! Apparently this had Abba fans in an uproar when the film was first released in 1994.

The costumes won an Academy Award in the same year of release. Wonderful stuff.

This is a really funny movie – and one that has cast actors that are certainly generally not known for these kind of roles. Consequently it works very well. Neighbours fans will be familiar with Guy Pearce (“Mike”) and Terance Stamp is also a well known face.

The DVD has missed out on several possible improvements during the re-release. They could have given us an anamorphic version, and improved the Extras, such as some sort of ‘making of’ feature, cast bios or a commentary.

Still, fans of the movie itself will be buying it anyway, and for those that have never seen it, go for it – you wont be disappointed!