Dogs in Space

{{for|the 2021 Netflix animated series|Dogs in Space (TV series)}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Dogs in Space

| image = Dogs in Space (film) poster.jpg

| caption = Original theatrical poster

| producer = Glenys Rowe

| writer = Richard Lowenstein

| starring = Michael Hutchence
Saskia Post
Nique Needles
Chris Haywood
Deanna Bond
Tony Helou
Laura Swanson
Emma de Clario

| music = Ollie Olsen
Michael Hutchence

| cinematography = Andrew de Groot

| editing = Jill Bilcock

| distributor = Hoyts

| released = {{Film date|1986|12|18|df=y}}

| runtime = 103 minutes

| country = Australia

| language = English

| budget = AU$2 millionDavid Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990, pp. 142–143.—$3 million"Australian Productions Top $175 million", Cinema Papers, March 1986, p. 64.

| gross = AU$367,351

}}

Dogs in Space is a 1986 Australian drama film set in Melbourne's "Little Band" post-punk music scene in 1978. Written and directed by Richard Lowenstein, the film stars Michael Hutchence as the drug-addled frontman of the fictitious band from which the film takes its name.

Plot

Dogs in Space centres on a group of young music fans sharing a house in the inner Melbourne suburb of Richmond. Sam (Michael Hutchence) and Tim (Nique Needles) are the key members of a band called Dogs in Space, and share a house with a variety of social misfits, including Sam's girlfriend Anna (Saskia Post), a university student called Luchio (Tony Helou) and a transient and apparently nameless teenager known only as The Girl (Deanna Bond).{{cite web |title=The Aussie Film Database: Dogs in Space |url=http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/links/pascho.htm |publisher=Australian Cinema Unit at Murdoch University |access-date=9 April 2016}}

The film's minimal plot traces the day-to-day existence of the characters, particularly the relationship between Sam and Anna, and is largely made up of a sequence of party scenes involving live music and drug use. In between, there are trips to Ballarat (at the time, the closest town to Melbourne with a 24-hour convenience store) and humorous encounters with an aggressive neighbour (Joe Camilleri) and one character's fast-talking, chainsaw-wielding uncle (Chris Haywood), who simply turns up one afternoon with his family (the baby in this scene is Lowenstein's niece Robyn). There is also a minor incident in which the characters burn some rubbish in a plan to claim it as a piece of Skylab for a local radio station. In the end, the group's dysfunctional and hedonistic lifestyle claims a victim when Anna dies from a heroin overdose. Footage of Sputnik 2 is intercut with the narrative, focused largely on Laika (the first dog in space), and can also be seen on television in the background of several scenes.

Cast

Michael Hutchence as Sam
Saskia Post as Anna
Nique Needles as Tim
Deanna Bond as The Girl
Tony Helou as Luchio
Chris Haywood as Chainsaw Man
Peter Walsh as Anthony
Laura Swanson as Clare
Hugo Race as Pierre
Alannah Hill as Anna's girlfriend
Edward Clayton-Jones as Nick
Noah Taylor as Bowie fan
Adam Briscomb as Grant
Michele Bennett as Grant's girl (as Michelle Bennett)
Lian Lunson as Grant's girl

Production

File:Berry Street Richmond.jpg

The script was based on Lowenstein's personal experiences of living in a shared house in Melbourne in the late '70s. Prior to making the film, Lowenstein had made a series of promotional clips for songs from the INXS album The Swing and wrote the lead role with singer Michael Hutchence in mind. Funds were raised through the Burrowes Group.Kathy Bail, "Putting the Bite Into Dogs in Space", Cinema Papers, January 1987, pp. 14–18. The production company was Central Park Films Pty Ltd (Lowenstein's production company)

The central character Sam is based on Sam Sejavka from the band The Ears, with whom Lowenstein lived in the 1970s. Chuck Meo, who plays a drummer in the movie, also lived with the pair. The house, at 18 Berry Street, Richmond,{{cite web |url=https://www.realestate.com.au/property/18-berry-st-richmond-vic-3121 |title=18 Berry Street Richmond |work=realestate.com.au |access-date=16 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170306035319/https://www.realestate.com.au/property/18-berry-st-richmond-vic-3121 |archive-date=6 March 2017 |url-status=dead}} was the same house Lowenstein and Sejavka shared and was rented from its new owners and modified at considerable expense for the film. The Heritage Victoria listed Pelaco Sign appears in scenes throughout the film.{{cite news |last1=Philippa Hawker (journalist) |title=Shoot! What a great place to film the end of the Earth |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/shoot-what-a-great-place-to-film-the-end-of-the-earth-20130618-2ofgh.html |access-date=29 March 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=28 June 2013}} Lowenstein wrote himself out of the film and several of his exploits were attributed to the character Tim (Nique Needles). Sejavka has a brief cameo in a party scene as a character called Michael.{{Cite web |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/12709-films-for-music-dogs-in-space-revisited |title=Films For Music: Dogs In Space Revisited |last=Nield |first=Anthony |date=9 July 2013 |website=The Quietus |language=en-us |access-date=11 April 2019}} Sejavka was upset by the fictionalisation of parts of his life, saying, "Even though it's an interesting time that should be documented, I find it hard to believe Richard could do this to his friends. It's just Richard's version of what happened. It's not the correct version."{{cite magazine |magazine=Countdown Magazine |title=A Dog's Life |author=Chrissie Camp |issue=38 |date=September 1986}}

Music

The soundtrack was released on Chase Records in February 1987 (CLPX14), featuring several tracks from reformed "little bands" and other contemporary tracks of the time.

The album came in two versions: a censored version in a white sleeve with the band name "Thrush & the Cunts" bowdlerised to "Thrush and the C**ts" and possibly-offensive song vocal tracks removed, and an "R"-rated version in a black sleeve with all band names in full, movie dialogue between the songs, and all vocal tracks in full.{{Fact|date=August 2024}} The album's liner notes were written by Clinton Walker.

Chase Records went out of business soon after and, despite much effort, the record has never been reissued and has remained unavailable since. It is now a collector's item, commanding high prices. It was only available on LP and cassette and was issued on CD – at least the censored version appeared on discount bins in shopping malls in Lisbon, Portugal, somewhere around 1996–1997.

The Hutchence tracks were his second official solo recordings, after releasing a single in 1982 titled "Speed Kills" from the soundtrack to the film Freedom, and his first with Ollie Olsen. They would later collaborate on the Max Q recordings.

Side One:

"Dog Food" (Iggy Pop)
"Dogs in Space" (Michael Hutchence)
"Win/Lose" (Ollie Olsen)
"Anthrax" (Gang of Four)
"Skysaw" (Brian Eno)
"True Love" (Marching Girls)
"Shivers" (Boys Next Door)

Side Two:

"Diseases" (Thrush & the Cunts)
"Pumping Ugly Muscle" (The Primitive Calculators)
"Golf Course" (Hutchence)
"The Green Dragon" (Hutchence)
"Shivers" (Marie Hoy and friends)
"Endless Sea" (Iggy Pop)
"Rooms for the Memory" (Hutchence)

;Charts

class="wikitable
scope="col"\| Chart (1987) !Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report){{cite book \|last=Kent \|first=David \|author-link=David Kent (historian) \|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 \|edition=illustrated \|publisher=Australian Chart Book \|location=St Ives, N.S.W. \|year=1993 \|isbn=0-646-11917-6 \|page=284}} \| style="text-align:center;"\| 46

class="wikitable

scope="col"| Chart (1987)

!Peak
position

Australia (Kent Music Report){{cite book |last=Kent |first=David |author-link=David Kent (historian) |title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 |edition=illustrated |publisher=Australian Chart Book |location=St Ives, N.S.W. |year=1993 |isbn=0-646-11917-6 |page=284}}

| style="text-align:center;"| 46

Release

=Box office=

Dogs in Space grossed $367,351 at the box office in Australia.{{Cite web |url=http://film.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/AA4_Aust_Box_office_report.pdf |title=Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office |access-date=8 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218045303/http://film.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/AA4_Aust_Box_office_report.pdf |archive-date=18 February 2011 |url-status=dead}} The movie's box-office prospects were affected by being given an R rating by the OFLC. It was re-classified MA15+ for subsequent DVD and Blu-ray releases.

=Home media=

Dogs in Space was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in September 2009. The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as the original theatrical and Director's cut trailers, various audio commentaries, a featurette titled We're Livin' on Dog Food, a making-of, rehearsal vision, a screen test, behind the scenes, still galleries, interviews, and short films.{{cite web |title=Umbrella Entertainment – DVD |url=http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-1845-dogs-in-space.aspx |access-date=23 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125225347/http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-1845-dogs-in-space.aspx |archive-date=25 January 2012 |url-status=dead}}

In March 2010, Umbrella Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray.{{cite web |url=http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-2405-dogs-in-space-blu-ray.aspx |title=DOGS IN SPACE - (BLU-RAY) |website=Umbrella Entertainment |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508061058/http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-2405-dogs-in-space-blu-ray.aspx |archive-date=8 May 2012 |url-status=dead |access-date=23 May 2013}}

References

External links

{{IMDb title|id=0092904|title=Dogs in Space}}
[http://www.ozmovies.com.au/movie/dogs-in-space Dogs in Space] at Oz Movies
[https://www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2014/aug/08/dogs-in-space-rewatched-michael-hutchence-in-a-couch-crashing-classic Dogs in Space rewatched – Michael Hutchence in a couch-crashing classic]
[http://theconversation.com/friday-essay-dogs-in-space-30-years-on-a-once-maligned-film-comes-of-age-56288 Friday Dogs in Space, 30 years on – a once maligned film comes of age]
[http://www.michaelhutchence.org/index.php?page=273 The Dogs in Space house] (MichaelHutchence.com)
[https://archive.today/20121127010356/http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=33094;querytype=;rec=1;resCount=10 Dogs In Space at the National Film and Sound Archive]
[http://rarebird9.net/hutch.html Michael Hutchence] (Rarebird)
[http://maps.google.com.au/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=-37.819217,144.997988&spn=0.003831,0.006781&z=17&layer=c&cbll=-37.819228,144.998101&panoid=yHe4x5V6UZ1YJGPdJlgEoQ&cbp=12,252.18,,0,-2.71 Googlemap view of the Pelaco sign], from 18 Berry Street, Richmond, the Dogs in Space house
{{discogs master|38340}}