Thursday 20 February 2014
3 Mile Limit
Tonight I went the the premiere of the movie 3 Mile Limit. It's a New Zealand movie based on a true New Zealand story, the story of how in the 1960s four young men set out to break the government's monopoly on radio broadcasting by setting up a "pirate" radio station on a boat in international waters in the Hauraki Gulf. Lack of funds and government obstruction made their project extremely difficult but they were ultimately successful. This story is special to me because my father, Denis "Doc" O'Callahan, was one of the four and I am immensely proud of him. My father played an important role in the project, being the original radio engineer and also the first skipper of the boat, the Tiri. The movie's "Morrie" character is based on him.
You can tell from the trailer that the movie's a bit cliched, but I enjoyed it more than I expected. I found the production design evoking 1960s Auckland quite lovely --- parts of it reminded me of early childhood memories, and some parts remind me of Auckland today. A lot of the story has been rewritten for dramatic purposes, and the changes mostly work. The core theme of young rebels fighting to bring rock music to the public is completely true. The movie opens on March 6 and I hope it has a good run.