The Interview (1998 film)

The Interview is a 1998 Australian psychological thriller film from writer-director Craig Monahan, and is the first of three films directed by Monahan: The Interview, Healing, and a 2024 adaptation of David Williamson's The Removalists. Almost the entire film takes place in a police interrogation room, with some short flashback sequences, and the cast consists primarily of three key actors—Hugo Weaving, Tony Martin, and Aaron Jeffery.

The Interview
Film poster.
Directed by	Craig Monahan
Written by	Craig Monahan Gordon Davie
Produced by	Bill Hughes
Starring	Hugo Weaving Tony Martin Aaron Jeffery
Cinematography	Simon Duggan
Edited by	Suresh Ayyar
Music by	David Hirschfelder
Distributed by	Sullivan Entertainment The Cinema Guild Umbrella Entertainment
Release date	20 August 1998 (1998-08-20)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Box office	$556,264

Plot

Edward Rodney Fleming (Weaving) is a man living alone after losing his job and wife. One morning, Detective Sergeant John Steele (Martin) and his subordinate, Detective Wayne Prior, break into Fleming's apartment. They rough Fleming up, ransack his belongings, and take him to the police station in handcuffs.

Steele and Prior question Fleming in an interrogation room. The police claim a witness saw Fleming with Andrew Beecroft, the owner of a stolen car. They also claim Fleming's handwriting matches the writing on some forged sales correspondence between Beecroft and a fake buyer, and that the fake buyer's alias matches an alias Fleming used as a teenager to steal a car for a joyride. Fleming denies any knowledge of the theft and only meekly asks for food, as he has not eaten since the previous day. Steele offers false expressions of empathy, while Prior intimidates Fleming when the recorder is off.

In between questioning, Detective Inspector Jackson orders Steele to deal with an intrusive reporter, Barry Walls. Steele complains to Walls about how his reckless reporting has previously interfered with police work. Walls shares that he overheard Prior questioning Steele's skills behind his back, to convince Steele he can be useful in return for information. Steele confronts Prior in private, pins him to the wall, and warns him against future disloyalty.

As the interrogation proceeds, Steele reveals to Fleming that the car's owner is missing. Fleming correctly guesses he is suspected of murdering the car's owner, and that the police believe the theft is related to other missing persons cases reported in the news. Fleming asks for a lawyer. While Fleming's lawyer advises him to say nothing until he is released in a few hours, Steele convinces Jackson to give him more time with the Fleming.

Fleming's demeanour grows in confidence. Despite his lawyer's advice, he expresses his belief that the missing persons were murdered, and mocks the police for chasing some kind of overarching motive. Fleming hints that he might have more to share after eating. When Steele finally provides food, Fleming proudly details how Beecroft picked him up while hitchhiking. He decided to kill Beecroft on a whim. He bludgeoned Beecroft after they drank together, and then he took Beecroft's car and wallet after disposing of the body. Fleming also casually admits to killing five or six other victims starting from a few years ago, claiming he cannot be bothered to remember the details although he always beat them to death after hitchhiking with them. Fleming agrees to provide a video-recorded confession as well.

However, during the videotaping, Jackson walks in and asks to speak to Fleming. Fleming immediately recants everything and says he only told Steele and Prior what they wanted to hear because they brutalized him, threatened him, and refused to feed him. Jackson forces Steele and Prior to end the questioning.

Later, Steele is informed that the entire day's interrogation was being filmed without his knowledge, due to an investigation by a police ethics committee after too many suspects made formal complaints about his conduct. The officer in charge of the ethics review, Detective Hudson, determines that Steele's entire interview is inadmissible in court due to suggestions, false promises, intimidation, and other questionable techniques by Steele and Prior.

Steele blames Jackson for ruining the interview and failing to stand up for him, although Jackson offers to testify that Steele tried to reel in Prior's aggression. Convinced of Fleming's guilt and outraged that he will walk free, Steele arranges to secretly give the entire case info and the audio recording of the confession to Walls. Steele tells Walls he does not care about the consequences since he believes he will be fired anyway. Afterwards, Hudson interviews Steele using another audio recorder. Steele accuses Hudson of a personal grudge, as Hudson led previous ethics investigations against him too. Hudson turns off the recorder, angrily insults Steele, and tells him he will make sure he is fired. Unbeknownst to Hudson, Steele had his own recorder running and recorded Hudson's abusive comments. Steele is last seen planning how to use his recording of Hudson to defend himself.

Fleming leaves the station with an ambiguous grin. In the final scene, Fleming is shown hitchhiking again.

Cast

• Hugo Weaving as Edward Rodney Fleming
• Tony Martin as Detective Sergeant John Steele
• Aaron Jeffery as Detective Senior Constable Wayne Prior
• Paul Sonkkila as Detective Inspector Jackson
• Michael Caton as Barry Walls
• Peter McCauley as Detective Hudson
• Glynis Angel as Detective Robran
• Leverne McDonnell as Solicitor
• Libby Stone as Mrs. Beecroft
• Andrew Bayly as Constable Prowse
• Doug Dew as Andrew Beecroft

Accolades

Award	Category	Subject	Result
AACTA Awards (1998 AFI Awards)	Best Film	Bill Hughes	Won
	Best Direction	Craig Monahan	Nominated
	Best Original Screenplay		Won
		Gordon Davie	Won
	Best Actor	Hugo Weaving	Won
	Best Cinematography	Simon Duggan	Nominated
	Best Editing	Suresh Ayyar	Nominated
	Best Original Music Score	David Hirschfelder	Nominated
	Best Sound	Peter Palankay	Nominated
		Peter D. Smith	Nominated
		John Wilkinson	Nominated
		Steve Witherow	Nominated
	Best Production Design	David Hirschfelder	Nominated
FCCA Awards	Best Film	Bill Hughes	Nominated
	Best Director	Craig Monahan	Nominated
	Best Original Screenplay		Won
		Gordon Davie	Won
	Best Actor	Hugo Weaving	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor	Tony Martin	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Simon Duggan	Won
	Best Music Score	David Hirschfelder	Won
Flanders International Film Festival Ghent	Student Jury Award	Craig Monahan	Won
Montreal World Film Festival	FIPRESCI Prize – Special Mention		Won
	Grand Prix des Amériques		Nominated
	Best Actor	Hugo Weaving	Won
Torino Film Festival	Prize of the City of Torino for Best Feature Film	Craig Monahan	Nominated

Alternate ending

An alternate ending of the film was featured on the DVD release. In this version, Eddie Rodney Fleming is seen hitchhiking along a desolate road. A car stops and Barry Walls (Caton) offers him a ride. Fleming accepts and they drive away, followed at a distance by Steele (Martin) on his motorcycle, no doubt intending to enforce some vigilante justice.

Box office

The Interview grossed $556,263 at the box office in Australia.

Home media

The Interview was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in July 2011. The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as audio commentary by Craig Monahan, deleted scenes, the alternate ending and cast and crew interviews.

See also

• Cinema of Australia

External links

• The Interview at the National Film and Sound Archive
• The Interview at IMDb
• The Interview at Oz Movies
• The Interview at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Interview at AllMovie
• The Interview is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive