Lived It

Main: Heath Ledger’s breakout film Two Hands owns our hearts

Episode Summary

We’re turning back the clock to ‘Two Hands’ — starring Heath Ledger and Rose Byrne in breakout roles as young Sydney teens embroiled in a crime caper — in all its grubbiness, silliness, and proud Australiania. We also get a little emotional in an ode to the late, great Heath — tissues recommended...

Episode Notes

Episode Transcription

Gen Fricker:

If I had to write an essay about it, it'd be the use of C word in Two hands and how that is Australian culture in a nutshell.

Gen Fricker:

Good day there. I'm Gen Fricker.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And good day, I'm Alexi Toliopoulos.

Gen Fricker:

Welcome to the Big Film Buffet.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

A podcasts for pop culture fans and people looking for what to watch recommendations.

Gen Fricker:

And today, it's our main course. So we have a Netflix film for you to watch this weekend or right bloody now, wherever you are.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Wherever you are right now, this is an all time favourite for me. The movie is an Aussie iconic classic. It is the Heath Ledger starring, Two Hands.

Speaker 3:

I got a new job and you can say I'm moving on.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, what are you doing?

Speaker 5:

Everyone down! I's a fucking hold up!

Speaker 3:

I'm...

Speaker 5:

Open your drawer. Open your fucking drawer. All of you, open your drawers!

Speaker 3:

I'm working for a guy. Just doing odd jobs here and there.

Speaker 4:

Right.

Speaker 5:

Give me your keys! Oh, god!

Gen Fricker:

Alexi, I know this is one of your favourite all-time films.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely.

Gen Fricker:

So I'm going to let you take the lead on this. What is Two Hands? What's it about? Why is it so iconic?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think it's iconic for many, many reasons. But what it's all about, it is an Australian, Sydney set, crime classic from 1999. It stars Heath Ledger and Rose Byrne, as they're just about to pop off and become big movie stars. Heath Ledger stars as a strip club promoter in Sydney's seediest end of the CBD, Kings Cross at that time, who gets hooked up with some gangsters, played by the iconic Bryan Brown, who plays Pando in this movie. People probably know him from Sweet Country or from Cocktail, his break out movie with Tom Cruise. And he gets sent off to deliver 10K on a job, but he gets distracted. Something happens, he can't do it. And that money gets stolen by a pair of teenagers. And the gang comes after Heath Ledger himself to take him out in repentance for that money being lost. So it's one of those great crime films where things take a turn for the bad and then escalate getting worse and worse, just by happenstance, happening over and over again.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. It's quite similar to a Cohen Brothers movie, one small mistake leads to another bigger mistake, which leads to catastrophe.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think that's really spot on. This is an early film for Gregor Jordan, who is a filmmaker that went on to do Buffalo Soldier with Joaquin Phoenix and a few other high profile pictures.

Gen Fricker:

He also directed Ned Kelly, again with Heath Ledger.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think that Cohen Brothers one too, is so good because what makes this movie feel so special for me is that it has this really incredible sense of place. It really does feel like 1999 Sydney, so vibrantly.

Gen Fricker:

Yes. We both grew up in Sydney in the nineties, so there's just flashback after flashback. There's a whole sequence that's set around the Monorail. Which if you don't know, RIP the Monorail, the world's most expensive railway by [inaudible 00:03:22].

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And it only went around probably six or seven blocks in Sydney.

Gen Fricker:

It just was a single rail that-

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Hence the name Monorail.

Gen Fricker:

Monorail. That went around Darling Harbour, I think it was built during the eighties as one of the like, "This is what the future's going to look like." And now one of the carriages is a meeting room for Google.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. It's pretty cool.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Things like that. It's such a Sydney film. Everyone's constantly sweating. I feel like one of the major complications of this film is largely due to how hot it gets. It's set on a 35 degree day in Sydney and Heath Ledger just needs a bloody swim. He needs to. I can sympathise with the guy.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think you're hitting on something else I think is so perfect about this movie and why it has a long lasting legacy, is that it has this very unique tone that I think we were hitting in the 1990s with stuff like the Cohen Brothers, with stuff like Quentin Tarantino's work, where it would be high stakes crime, but with the underbelly of a comedic feeling around it. This is also quite a funny movie because the characters are just... Their day job is being crimps and it kind of captures almost this grimy, yet funny. They're not the smartest people in the world, in a high stakes situations. So they can't always really handle themselves in it.

Gen Fricker:

They're legends in their own lunchboxes.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh my God. I love that.

Gen Fricker:

They're the biggest fish in the smallest pond. And that's what's so funny about it.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely.

Gen Fricker:

Deeply distressing as well because these people make these huge high impact decisions about each other.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Truly. And I think that is one of the coolest things about this film is that it just has a beautiful and brilliant Australian cast that are all firing on all those cylinders, creating really interesting characterizations of what Australian crime is. Because you have this idea of who is the Godfather? Who is the Don of this crime family, of this mob? And you think about people like Marlon Brando, The Godfather, or Goodfellas, where they're all suited and booted.

Gen Fricker:

Quite elegant.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. There's a kind of sexiness of crime, but like you're saying in this film, because it takes place in a hot, hot summer in Australia, all these criminals are wearing stubbies, forties shorts, polos. They've got little thongs on. Some of the times they're not even wearing shoes during these crimes scenes.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. There's something really grubby about it.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah, absolutely. I think you've got Bryan Brown as Pando, who is the leader of this gang and he is just absolutely sublime in this movie. Because it hits on exactly who his persona is, right?

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. Warmth, funny. But then an edge of psychotic coldness that just sits at the edge of his character and you're like, "Oh yeah, no. This man is capable of doing some really, really crooked things."

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely. I think Bryan Brown would never star as an Australian bad boy in the comedy Along Came Polly if it weren't for this movie. That's one of my other iconic Bryan Brown performances. But this Pando, just even the physicality of that character, just his costuming is brilliant in this film. Where he's wearing these polo shirts, sitting on top of some kind of tarten or tan shorts. He's got these socks that fall down into his loafers. And it just feels so Australian, when he's got that handlebar moustache.

Gen Fricker:

Oh, the moustache. The moustache is so good.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

But he just captures that intimidating-ness of someone, while still also being very funny throughout. In a way that is funny within the movie, but then transcends the film itself as well.

Gen Fricker:

What I really like about this movie is that, as you said, it really captures a time and a place. And I think it could only exist in this time and a place and it could only be an Australian film. And what I'm trying to say is the liberal use of the C word in this film is kind of Australian culture in a nutshell, it's a word of affection and it's also an insult and it's literally just an inflexion or a facial that changes the meaning of that. And I think that's why this is a comedy drama.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

[crosstalk 00:07:56] that's so good.

Gen Fricker:

If I had to write an essay about it, it'd be about the use of C word in two hands and how that is Australian culture in a nutshell.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

The bomb can be dropped as a bomb of love that explodes the heart or a bomb that will destroy the soul of any criminal.

Gen Fricker:

It's so Australian to me and not in a way that feels cloying or patronising. It's not trying to be like, " [inaudible 00:08:22], we all know this is what a Australia is like." It's more just like you know these people, these people talk like people you know, but obviously you don't want to be any of these people.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

It's like never hokey or anything like that, really. I think in this era in Australian filmmaking, we've been getting that sense of gritty dramas with maybe a touch of lightness, but also just really capturing that sense of place that is so uniquely Australian. There's another film that I recommend on Netflix that does that so well, which is Head On by Ana Kokkinos, which stars Alex Dimitriades as a young gay Greek guy, coming to terms with himself in Melbourne. And that movie just feels so like just a sister film to this. It feels like they're capturing what urban Australia really is.

Gen Fricker:

I would recommend, off the back of this, The Dish, because I love my Australian comedies. But also because it features one of the lead actors from Two Hands, Tom Long. So in Two Hands, Tom long plays Wally, he's one of the goons for Bryan Brown.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

A henchman.

Gen Fricker:

A henchman. Nails that classic warm, comedic tone, but then also can act violently at any point.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I just love Tom Long. We lost him last year to an illness. Fantastic actor from Sea Change as well, capturing that warmth. I think that's one of the best things about this movie is that little gang of henchmen. We've also got David Field who plays Acko in this. David field is a bit of an icon of Australian character actors, especially in this genre of Australian crime. He's in Chopper, he's a bit of a villain in Chopper, when they're in prison. He is an icon for me. I love David Field. And I think that gang having this dynamic of playing with the status where we've got Pando, Bryan Brown as the leader, and then this hapless trio of different levels of Aussie Boganism around him, it works so well.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

This cast is so beautifully well-rounded and it's all led by this incredible chemistry between Rose Byrne and Heath Ledger. I love the way their dynamic plays in this movie as these two young people. And they're young as well, they're probably between the ages of 18 and 22 in this. They're such bright talent, bursting with so much charisma, that feels very in place and very real. But what I love between the, interplay between them, is they've both got this real giggly, giddy energy between them. Where they're a little bit shy around each other.

Gen Fricker:

Really vulnerable.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes.

Gen Fricker:

There's an edge where it feels so intimate, you don't want to look at it. Because they're just dead nervous, because you can see them kind of falling in love with each other.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

It's really that young puppy love as well, which feels so unique in a crime movie like this. To have sweet, almost teenage, love story building out of it.

Gen Fricker:

And for it to feel real. Yeah.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. It feels so real. As well, they're different acting styles almost. Whereas I think Rose Byrne brings such a sweetness to this role. Heath does too, in a really different way. We can't talk enough about what an iconic actor he is. But there's one scene in particular, which for me is the scene of the movie, which is he's been given that 10K by Pando to deliver. He can't get in contact with the person that he's meant to give it to. And then he goes to Bondi Beach instead. We see the beautiful pavilion in the background and he's just looking out into the ocean trying to cool off. And he sees who he believes to be Rose Byrne in a bikini going in there. You see it all playing out on his face as the camera slowly zooms in on him, the thought process of, "Should I go in? What should I do?" And just his acting when he decides to bury that envelope of money into the sand, leave it underneath his clothes as he gets into his tighty whities to jump into the water.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

We just see it play off and the nervousness of his ticking hands and deciding how he should do it and then deciding to play it slowly. Like, "Okay, I'm going to do it subtly, how I'm going to drop this money into this hole." Just is maybe my favourite Heath Ledger moment ever. Just that slow zoom in, seeing everything play out on his face and then cutting to these two teenage kids looking at him, knowing what he's dropping in there. Magnificent tension building. And in a Hitchcockian way where Hitchcock talks about the difference between surprise and tension, where two people are having conversation over a table and then it blows up. That's surprise. But if two people are having conversation over a table and you hear or see a ticking clock attached to a bomb underneath them, that's tension. And I think this scene really nails that Hitchcockian idea of what tension is. Because you see those teenagers looking on, knowing that he's going to drop that money. And it builds up the escalation of where this film is really going to go.

Gen Fricker:

I feel like this movie is part of a one-two punch for Heath Ledger, where he brings this kind of serious, dramatic role that you see those moments in. And it comes out at the same time as Ten Things I Hate About You, this big Hollywood teen movie. So he gets that face recognition as well. You get these two sides where he could easily have just been reduced to a hunk in 10 Things I Hate About You. But then you do have this depth to him. And it's so nice to watch these things and be able to chart this development of an actor up into these more iconic roles like The Joker or Ennis.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think that's also the thing that makes Heath such a legend, if you will. Heath Legends.

Gen Fricker:

Heath Legend.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Heath Legend. That what makes him Heath Legend is because he becomes this movie star, but he does it by defying what a persona of a movie star is. A movie star usually has a signature role that they can bring out and do those movie star performances. But even the biggest films of Heath Ledger, they're not movie star performances. They are stuff like The Joker. They are stuff like Ennis in Brokeback Mountain. Where he really embodies a person. And there's nothing that links them together, apart from this deep souled nature of Heath Ledger. What he's able to bring to the screen is, I would say, deeply affecting authenticity that makes him feel so immersed and so real.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. It makes me wonder what he would be like now in an age of social media. Because for me, what I love about Heath Ledger and his roles is that he is. As an actor, so mercurial. So it's like he's just pulling these threads to the surface that are always contained within him. And then he can just pull these different things out. So he is very chameleonic in that way and that he can truly immerse himself into these roles. And then I wonder now with social media, whether that would even be possible to protect that, in a way? Because social media is all about being authentic online or being performative online and having a presence and stuff like that. And God, I would never want to see him doing ads for alcohol. You know what I mean? Like trying to sell us anything. I think that's part of his genius in a way. And it is so lucky that we have all these films from him where you can just see these kinds of multitudes that he contains.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely. I remember when he passed away was truly the first time I ever felt devastated by a celebrity death. I guess, because he wasn't really a celebrity. He was an artist, a public artist, if anything. And I would have been 13, maybe 14 years old. And just being so torn up by it. My best friend, Georgia, called me up in the morning. Because it's summer holidays, summer school, holidays here. And it was just like, a summer for me when I was young and a teen. It wasn't really like... You don't go out as much, you're just a teen, what do I do? I don't have a fricking life, I was a little boy. And I remember I would take my mattress down from upstairs and bring it into the lounge room. I would just have a summer in front of the TV. It would just be my sleepy summers is what I would call them.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And my friend Georgia called me up as I'm lying down on this mattress and she's crying. She's like, "Heath Ledger died." I couldn't believe it. I'm like, "Are you serious? What are you talking about?" She's like, "Heath Ledger died." And I had to turn on the TV to Sky News and I watched fricking seven hours of just them covering his death because I was like, "I can't cope. I need to hear about it." And even now as I'm talking, I'm [inaudible 00:17:28] well up a little bit or just feel like... Go back to like that feeling of just being so devastated. I'm tingly right now, thinking about it.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. When he died, it really felt like everyone knew him, in a way that was nice. Because he just seemed like some guy, in the end.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think as well, for us as young Australian kids that wanted be creatives, that wanted to be artists like you and I, I think that he represented something so powerful for us. He represented something so real and tangible in that you could have all this artistic integrity and be making all these great films and all these great choices and not falling into the trappings of celebrity and just being so earnest and so sweet and so sincere and delivery of such beautiful and powerful work.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. That's also what I love about this movie. Just the stories of it being made...

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Off passion, if you will.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. Off fumes, basically. Rose Byrne made this Instagram post about how she bleached her own hair for the movie, she's wearing her own dress. That kind of thing, it wasn't like a big Hollywood production. It wasn't what you imagine a movie to be. It was just a bunch of people who really wanted to make it, making it. The purple car that Acko's character owns was actually Gregor Jordan's actual car.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Really?

Gen Fricker:

That he just lent out for the film. And then, fun, interesting fact from IMDB facts who famously, we cannot verify. But after that movie, Gregor Jordan sold that car and it ended up being owned by Merrick Watts.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

My God. Australian comedian Merrick Watts?

Gen Fricker:

Yes.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Acquaintance of ours? Former radio DJ Merrick Watts?

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. According to IMDB trivia, so it needs to be verified.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I reckon that can be close to true. Because I know Merrick is a car fiend. He's a bit of a rev head. He also has encyclopaedic knowledge of all the cars from the Mad Max films. So I believe this. I believe he owns the Two Hands car.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Here's some actually verifiable trivia for you. One of the actors in this movie, Steven Vidler, who plays Heath Ledger's older brother, who is this almost like a Shakespearian soliloquies in character. He's the ghost of his passed on older brother who is underground for a lot of the movie, has decomposing makeup on. Really, I think that's what makes this film so unique is that it has this comedic quality, this gritty quality, but then sitting above all of that is this surreal, magic, realism quality to it as well. He's like a ghost haunting the film. Fantastic actor, Steve Vidler. He also directed Heath in Black Rock, just before this film.

Gen Fricker:

Oh, the Nick Enright one?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely. But more famously, he was my screenwriting teacher at film school.

Gen Fricker:

Wow. Okay.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think he's just a really cool guy. And I remember it was in classes, going, "Man, that's the guy from Two Hands. That's the guy from Two Hands." Just being a little bit shy around him. But he's a really, really cool guy. Like really, really fascinating teacher as well. So his knowledge has been imparted onto me as well.

Gen Fricker:

In a way, he haunts you, the ghost of your screen writing teacher. Who's, knock on wood, still alive?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah, absolutely.

Gen Fricker:

Oh my gosh.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Still making movies and stuff like that.

Gen Fricker:

Great, great, great.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

But also the teenage girl who is very key to the plot of this movie, played by another friend of mine, Mariel McClorey. But she's also a makeup artist now working in film and TV too. So a huge shout out to Mariel. Great young performance from her.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. She's brilliant in this.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. She's those two kids, that teenager angst of them, that captures so much of that young, inner city vibe of being trapped in the violence or threats of being in the inner city.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. They seem like Hauser kids. Just hanging out on the street, getting into trouble, that kind of thing. Yeah.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely. So cool.

Gen Fricker:

Something I really loved about this movie, watching it as well, apart from all the Sydney nostalgia, the nineties nostalgia. From the get-go, the opening title's with Powderfinger. Fricking Powderfinger soundtrack in it. A couple of Powderfinger songs through it. But just again, really reminded me of such a time and a place. I think Gregor Jordan ended up directing a documentary for Powderfinger, one of their live performances. But it really feels like family. We've talked about it before on this podcast, how you've got these little, I'm going to say cartels, filmmaking cliques. It feels like it's a lot of love in it. It's a lot of people backing each other and that kind of thing. It makes this movie feel so warm.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. I think that's really what it is. This film, while being a gritty crime film, there's an undeniable warmth about it. I think that's why it's had this legacy that's built over time. Because it was a hit in Australia. But I think over the last few years, the cult of love for this movie has really built with the nostalgia for Sydney, with Rose Byrne and Heath Ledger becoming quite iconic stars around the world. And then of course, Bryan Brown having Pando, that iconic role. I love the way that he says Pterodactyl instead of Pterodactyl. You can point to so much of why the love for Two Hands has built and why it has endured this everlasting legacy. I think it's probably more popular now than it has ever been.

Gen Fricker:

I would agree.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

If you want a really in-depth look into Two Hands, a dear friend of mine, Blake Howard, has a podcast called Three Hands, where he talks to the director, Gregor Jordan, over several episodes about his career, about working with Heath. But in particular, focusing on this film and it's an absolute scream to listen to it.

Gen Fricker:

You can stream two hands right now on Netflix and let's see what else. If you love gritty, Australian crime dramas, what should you get into?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

There's some really cool ones on Netflix at the moment. There's Goldstone, starring Aaron Pederson. It's a sequel to Mystery Road, I know our guests liked the prequel to the TV series, Mystery Road, as well. But that is a great of modern, Western, gritty crime drama, detective noir story. Fantastic movie. My love for that movie has only grown since it's come out. I'd also give a recommendation to the Jack Irish films. They're on Netflix too as well right now, they star Guy Pearce and they're in that same pulpy, urban world as Two Hands. Couldn't recommend those highly enough. And there's another one. It's a bit of an oddity, but it was a very important film for me as a teenager, it's actually directed by one of the stars of Two Hands, David Field. It's called The Combination and it's about gangs in Western Sydney in the mid two thousands. And it was a controversial movie when it came out.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

But I think that there's something really valuable in going back and watching that film and that's on Netflix as well. It was really hard to find for a long time. So it's been one that has been interesting for me to revisit recently. I'd also give a shout out to a new film called Baby Teeth. I'd like people to keep their eyes out for it because it's the first film that reminds me of that energy that Two Hands has. Because it's got some great performances by Eliza Scanlen and the other lead performance is Toby Wallace. And I felt like, for the first time, this could be the next Australian Heath ledger. So keep your eyes out for Baby Teeth. Great film that came out just last year here in Australia.

Gen Fricker:

And if you enjoyed this podcast, please like and subscribe. Leave us a little review, we love to read them wherever you get your podcasts.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

This episode was hosted by me, Alexei Toliopoulos, and Gen Fricker.

Gen Fricker:

Produced by Michael Sun and Anu Hasbold.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Edited by Geoffrey O'Connor.

Gen Fricker:

Executive produced by Tony Broderick and Melanie Mahony.