So Whose to blame???  Is it the audience, or the narrow minded studio execs :-), that results in the type casting of an actor????  Look at at the likes of Bruce Willis (Die Hard 3), Arnold Schwarzenegger (T2) and Helena Bonham-Carter (!!!)  These actors are stuck in a filmic rut when it comes to genres.   Bruce and Arnie are only seen as screen actioneers, whereas the very talented Ms Bonham Carter is forced to live a life in a corset.  So it's to no surprise that there is occasionally the rebellious actor that says "NO MORE".  Guy Pierce, Hugo Weaving and Terrance Stamp in a complete turnaround left this flock to put on a frock in the now Aussie cult hit, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.

Well the title pretty much says it all.   Here you have three gay drag queens taking a trip across the desert from NSW to the Northern Territory in a old Bus to put on a show at a Hotel managed by on of the drag queens ex-wives!!!!!  And of course along the way many unexpected and totally outrageous scenarios take place (ping-pong anyone!!!)  Without going into to much of the story, if you like crude and crass as your comic mixture, and have a secret desire to listen to ABBA and other 70's disco numbers (don't laugh there are many of you out there that do!!!:-) and think being "PC"  means you know how to use a computer rather than being non-offensive to others then This is probably the film for you....(sorry I've run out of things to say about this film :-)))

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up???
As someone who believes in the preservation of a films format, having seen this P&S only DVD was a big letdown from the cinematic release which presented it at it's proper ratio of 2.35:1 or "Dragorama" as it was known in theatres.  The amount of cropping is quite obvious as the director Stephan Elliott makes great use of the widescreen format, which ultimately suffers in this DVD version.  Colour saturation is generally very good, but there is far too much inconsistency with the contrast levels.   some scenes are overly bright and some far too dark,  (there are several shots on the bus that really lack detail).  There is also the odd bit of grain present that seems to be print related and not motion artifacts.  I guess with this being a DVD from the "early days" of Roadshow the amount of effort needed to produce a great DVD was ignored to some extent....pity 'cause it's the sort of flick that can really put DVD through its paces and make it shine (think Austin Powers look)...

Not only was I let down by the piccy of this DVD but the soundtrack, while sounding pretty good for Dolby Stereo, was somewhat problematic.  Quite often there was a problem with phase shifting were sound that was suppose to be locked onto the centre, came out of the rear!!!!.  If this sort of thing only happened once or twice, I wouldn't be too distressed by this (although still a bit peeved), but it happened far too often for my liking.  While I didn't listen to the DD2.0 track (seeing as thru the internal decoder of my player it drops the volume by about 10 dB on some titles with the DD2.0 track) I am only commenting on the MPEG2.0 track.  Other than this phase problem, the soundtrack was pretty good, will clear and intelligible dialogue and a great use of the rears with the music (yes even the ABBA tracks!!!)

Included on this DVD are a few extra goodies.   You have the usual from Roadshow with a Trailer and cast Bios, but you also have a "Making of" for not only Priscilla, but also another Aussie great, Muriel's Wedding!!!!.  the two are actually combined as one feature and run for a little under half an hour which is hosted by Bill Hunt, who has supporting roles in both these films.  

With a RRP of $34.95, this isn't the best example of what you can get on DVD, but is none the less an entertaining film.   Seeing as there are also problems with the region 1 release of this DVD (at least on some players), you're sort stuck between a rock and a hard place with this one......hmmmm