Spotswood (film)

Spotswood is an Australian drama film directed by Mark Joffe, made in 1990-1991, released in 1992 in some locations; also known as The Efficiency Expert in the United States.

"The Efficiency Expert" redirects here. For the 1921 novel, see The Efficiency Expert (novel).

Spotswood
Directed byMark Joffe
Written byMax Dann
Andrew Knight
Starring
Music byRicky Fataar
Edited byOffshoot Films
Production
company
The Australian Film Commission, Australian Film Finance Corporation, Film Victoria, Meridian Films, Smiley Productions
Distributed byMiramax
Release date
  • 23 January 1992 (1992-01-23)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$3.4 million[1]
Box officeA$1,505,884 (Australia)

Plot

In late 1960s Melbourne, Errol Wallace (Anthony Hopkins) is a financial business consultant whom we meet in the course of his being hired by the board of Durmack, an automotive component manufacturer, where he assesses a large work force redundancy and recommends major layoffs.

Balls, a moccasin factory located in the Melbourne suburb of Spotswood, is his next client. Mr. Ball (Alwyn Kurts), the owner of the company, is affable and treats his employees benevolently. Wallace on a factory tour finds the conditions wanting with shabbiness, old machinery and the workers lackadaisical.

A young worker at Balls, Carey (Ben Mendelsohn), who is finding his place in the world and life, is asked by Wallace to assist in his review, compiling worker condition and performance information. Carey is reluctant until he learns that Mr. Ball’s daughter Cheryl (Rebecca Rigg), whom he fancies, is part of the review staff.

Wallace learns that there is an instigator in the midst, his colleague Jerry (John Walton), who leaks the Durmack report, inflating the quantity of sackings as a means to demoralise the union.

Kim (Russell Crowe), a salesman at Balls who also has his sights set on the boss's daughter, shows his ruthlessness and ulterior motives when he comes to Wallace's home one night with a complete set of the company financial records that detail non-existent profit for years and reveal that Ball has been selling off company assets to keep the outfit afloat.

Wallace realises that whatever productivity improvements have been implemented are not enough to save the company even with an elimination of workers and yet that is his recommendation. Mr. Ball responds, "It’s not just about dollars and cents. It’s about dignity, treating people with respect.”

Wallace's mind set starts to change when his car is vandalised and some Ball workers come to his aid, workers who then start to include him in their off-hours activities. Mr. Ball announces the work force redundancies and Wallace is clearly uncomfortable seeing them, knowing that it was his recommendation that sealed their fate.

The union at Durmack capitulates and management celebrates with a party at which Wallace becomes disenchanted by rash sackings and realises that product diversity can potentially make the company profitable since the skills set is in the workers.

Carey realises he has feelings for his work mate and friend Wendy (Toni Collette) and together they climb up onto the roof of the factory and hold hands as they look out over Spotswood.

Cast

Box office

Spotswood grossed $1,505,884 at the box office in Australia,[2] which is equivalent to $2,348,887 in 2009 dollars.

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gollark: They'll probably say "lambdas are evil" because python hates functional programming a lot of the time.
gollark: *considers creating an esowiki page for haskell and golang*
gollark: ``` func AddInt32(addr *int32, delta int32) (new int32) func AddInt64(addr *int64, delta int64) (new int64) func AddUint32(addr *uint32, delta uint32) (new uint32) func AddUint64(addr *uint64, delta uint64) (new uint64) func AddUintptr(addr *uintptr, delta uintptr) (new uintptr) func CompareAndSwapInt32(addr *int32, old, new int32) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapInt64(addr *int64, old, new int64) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapPointer(addr *unsafe.Pointer, old, new unsafe.Pointer) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapUint32(addr *uint32, old, new uint32) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapUint64(addr *uint64, old, new uint64) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapUintptr(addr *uintptr, old, new uintptr) (swapped bool) func LoadInt32(addr *int32) (val int32) func LoadInt64(addr *int64) (val int64) func LoadPointer(addr *unsafe.Pointer) (val unsafe.Pointer) func LoadUint32(addr *uint32) (val uint32) func LoadUint64(addr *uint64) (val uint64) func LoadUintptr(addr *uintptr) (val uintptr) func StoreInt32(addr *int32, val int32) func StoreInt64(addr *int64, val int64) func StorePointer(addr *unsafe.Pointer, val unsafe.Pointer) func StoreUint32(addr *uint32, val uint32) func StoreUint64(addr *uint64, val uint64) func StoreUintptr(addr *uintptr, val uintptr) func SwapInt32(addr *int32, new int32) (old int32) func SwapInt64(addr *int64, new int64) (old int64) func SwapPointer(addr *unsafe.Pointer, new unsafe.Pointer) (old unsafe.Pointer) func SwapUint32(addr *uint32, new uint32) (old uint32) func SwapUint64(addr *uint64, new uint64) (old uint64) func SwapUintptr(addr *uintptr, new uintptr) (old uintptr)```Seen in standard library docs.

See also

References
  1. Andrew L. Urban, "Anthony Hopkins", Cinema Papers, May 1991 p8-10
  2. Film Victoria – Australian Films at the Australian Box Office
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