The Castle

This week we are reviewing The Castle, the 1997 Australian comedy directed by Rob Sitch and starring Michael Caton as Daryl Kerrigan — a loveable, utterly ordinary Australian bloke who lives with his family in a weatherboard house next to Melbourne airport and thinks it is the greatest home on earth.

When the government issues a compulsory acquisition notice and offers him $70,000 to leave, Daryl says no. Not about the money. It is his castle.

What follows is one of the most beloved David and Goliath stories in Australian cinema history.

This one has been a long time coming. The Aussie has wanted to do this episode for the better part of two hundred podcasts, and when it finally arrives he is practically vibrating. The Scotsman rewatched it without much enthusiasm and ends up enjoying it far more than he expected — which, if you know him, tells you a great deal.

The pre-film chat this week finds the Scotsman at a networking event he hated every second of. Walking in alone, holding a coffee, trying to break into conversations, standing like a weirdo while exactly one person came over to him. The Aussie, who loves networking and has no shame whatsoever, finds this baffling. It is a funnier exchange than it has any right to be.

Then they get into the film — and this is where the episode really takes off. The Aussie runs through the lines that have embedded themselves into the Australian language. "Tell him he's dreaming." "How's the serenity." "This is going straight to the pool room."

Lines that Australians use without even thinking about where they came from.

The Scotsman, twenty years into living here, admits he probably says them without remembering they came from this film.

There is a lovely moment where they sit in that together.

But the standout moment of the episode comes when the Scotsman explains the Mabo connection — the 1992 High Court ruling that recognised native title and overturned terra nullius. The argument Dennis Denuto cannot make and Lawrence Hamill can. The idea that connection to land, built through living and loving and belonging, is real and cannot simply be overridden by government or commercial interest. Daryl Kerrigan making the same argument about his weatherboard house that Eddie Mabo made about Murray Island. It reframes the entire film — and the Aussie goes quiet in a way he rarely does.

They work through the performances, the comedy, the warmth of the Kerrigan family dinner table, the fake chimney that adds a bit of charm, the gates still attached to the car when the police arrive, the speed camera that just paid for itself, and the moment a man digging a hole is celebrated like he has cured cancer.

The Scotsman notes that you are laughing with this family, never at them — despite everything. 

Rohan Reminisces covers 1997 — and the Aussie turns up to his own segment without the music link he has been waiting all week to play.

What happens next is a lesson in chaos management. They cover the films, the Oscar winners, Princess Diana, Google starting as a corner store, South Park, and a story from the Scotsman involving tens of thousands of people on Hogmanay in Edinburgh that has absolutely no business being as funny as it is.

Trivia includes the $750,000 budget, what the film actually made, the eleven-day shoot, the three-week script, what happened to the real house at 33 Dagonet Street, Eric Bana's film debut, and a final fact about the pool room that is more perfect than it has any right to be.

Aussie: 4.2 out of 5. Scotsman: 3 out of 5. Both of them land the final line. You will know it when you hear it.

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