The Dish

:"The Dish is also the common name for the radio telescope in the hills above Stanford University."

Infobox Film
name = The Dish


imdb_id = 0205873
writer = Santo Cilauro,
Tom Gleisner,
Jane Kennedy,
Rob Sitch
starring = Sam Neill,
Kevin Harrington,
Tom Long,
Patrick Warburton
director = Rob Sitch
producer = Santo Cilauro,
Tom Gleisner,
Michael Hirsh,
Jane Kennedy,
Rob Sitch
editing = Jill Bilcock
distributor = Roadshow Entertainment (Australia)
Warner Bros. Pictures (U.S.)
released = September 15, 2000 [Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
]
October 19, 2000 [Theatrical release in Australia.]
runtime = 101 mins
country = flagicon|AUS Australia
language = English
music = Edmund Choi
budget =

"The Dish" is a 2000 Australian film that tells the story of how the Parkes Observatory was used to relay the live television of man's first steps on the moon, during the "Apollo 11" mission in 1969. It was the top grossing film in Australia in 2000.

Tagline: "The first step on the moon nearly stumbled on Earth."

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Plot

The radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales, Australia, was used by NASA throughout the Apollo program to receive signals in the Southern Hemisphere, along with the NASA Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra.

The film tells a somewhat fictionalised story of three Australian technicians (Neill, Harrington, Long) and their American NASA representative (Warburton). It had been decided quite late in the planning for "Apollo 11" to include a television camera to broadcast the first steps on the Moon. Due to the timing of this, Australia would be the prime receiving station. The film tells of the three dealing with a variety of problems, from a power outage wiping their computer memory, to high winds that could cause the whole telescope to collapse. After the "11" crew decide to walk immediately after landing on the Moon, Parkes thinks they have lost their chance to be the prime receiving station. But due to delays on the Moon and problems with Goldstone they achieve the distinction at the last minute.

Production

Although based on true events, the film uses fictional characters and alters historical details for dramatic effect. NASA's Honeysuckle Creek and Goldstone stations both had the signal, but Parkes' signal was far superior and was used from soon after the beginning of the moon-walk. No power failure occurred, there was no friction with the NASA representatives (of whom there were several, not just one), and Prime Minister John Gorton visited Honeysuckle Creek, not Parkes. They did however operate in very high winds, risking damage to the dish and even injury to themselves to keep the antenna pointed at the moon during the moonwalk.

Much of the film was shot on location; the "cricket match" and "hayride" scenes were indeed shot on the real dish. Researchers often postponed experiments to position the dish for photography. The set reconstructing the 1969 control room was extremely accurate, even down to small details like ashtrays. Some of the "props" were in fact original NASA equipment used during the "Apollo 11" landing, left behind in Australia as too heavy to ship back. Staffers from that era expressed amazement at seeing the set; they said it was like walking into a time warp.

"The Dish" was written by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy and Rob Sitch and directed by Sitch.

Apart from the radio telescope scenes, the majority of the movie was actually filmed in the small town of Forbes 33km south of Parkes because of its old historic buildings, and also in Old Parliament House in Canberra, and Crawford Studios in Melbourne.

Cast

(in order of appearance)
*Sam Neill .... Cliff Buxton
*Billy Mitchell .... Cameron
*Roz Hammond .... Miss Nolan
*Christopher-Robin Street .... Damien
*Luke Keltie .... Graeme
*Naomi Wright .... Melanie
*Ben Wright-Smith .... Nicholas
*Beverley Dunn .... Secretary v/o
*Grant Thompson .... Mr. Callen
*Bille Brown .... Prime Minister John Gorton
*Bernard Curry .... Newspaper reporter
*Kevin Harrington .... Mitch
*Tom Long .... Glenn Latham
*Patrick Warburton .... Al Burnett
*Roy Billing .... Bob McIntyre
*Andrew S. Gilbert .... Len Purvis
*Matthew Moore .... Keith Morrison
*Kerry Walker .... Pearl
*Denise Roberts .... Bronwyn
*Jeff Keogh .... Ray
*Jason Ritterman .... Adrian Hobbs
*Alexander Zent .... Lead guitarist
*Stephanie Boadle .... Rhythm guitarist
*Rowan Macartney .... Trumpet
*Anna Stewart .... Trumpet 2
*Aidan Macartney .... Trombone
*Jarrod Factor .... Drummer
*Oliver McGill .... Pianist
*Genevieve Mooy .... May
*Marilyn O'Donnell .... Melva
*Jane Menelaus .... Gwen
*Lenka Kripac .... Marie
*John Flaus .... Ron
*Carl Snell .... Billy
*Eliza Szonert .... Janine
*Tayler Kane .... Rudi
*Neil Pigot .... Journalist
*Darren Davidson .... Camera person
*Simon Donaldson .... Sound person
*John McMartin .... US Ambassador
*Frank Bennett .... Barry Steele
*Randall Berger .... Ambassador's aide
*Charles 'Bud' Tingwell .... Reverend Loftus
*Mal Walden .... ABC journalist v/o
*Rod McNeil .... Radio newsreader v/o
*Alister Paterson .... ABC TV newsreader
*Colette Mann .... Betty the Bush Poet
*Susan Ward .... Female print journalist
*Roger Crisp .... Male reporter
*Oliver Rees .... Male reporter 2
*Tim Gunn .... Milk Supplier

External links

* [http://thedishmovie.warnerbros.com/ The Dish] Official Warner Bros. Website
*
* [http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/apollo11/introduction.html The Apollo 11 Story] on the Parkes Observatory website
* [http://www.outreach.atnf.csiro.au/visiting/parkes/looselybased.html "The Dish": Fact versus Fiction — a quick comparison]
* [http://www.afc.gov.au/GTP/mrboxausttop5.html Top five Australian feature films each year, and gross Australian box office earned that year, 1988–2005]
* [http://www.pcug.org.au/~mdinn/TheDish/ The Truth about "The Dish"]

Notes