ONE NIGHT STAND (1984)
Article #1738 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-17-2005
Posting Date: 5-16-2006
Directed by John Duigan
Featuring Tyler Coppin, Cassandra Delaney, Jay Hackett

Several teens hide out in the Sydney Opera House while waiting for the onset of World War III.

Before I get started, I need to go on a little bit about the title. Not that the title is bad, mind you; it’s just that within the last thirty years, nine different movies were made that share that title, and when you’re doing movie-hunting, it makes things difficult to find the right one. Several months ago, I purchased the wrong one, and ended up watching the whole movie before I realized it wasn’t the one I was looking for, so I spent some extra time making sure the next time I bought the movie, it would be the right one.

As for the movie itself, the best way I can describe it is as a cross between ON THE BEACH and a Brat Pack movie. This may or may not be a recommendation, depending on how you feel about the Brat Pack. Granted, the teens in this movie are unknowns, but they’re pretty much working in the same mode. Fortunately, it’s like one of the better Brat Pack movies like THE BREAKFAST CLUB; despite the fact that some of the characters are cocky and annoying and that some of the scenes are of the type designed to appeal to teens, the emotional resonance is there and quite real at times. It also helps that I actually am familiar with the two songs that serve as set pieces for a couple of scenes; “Short Memory” is performed by my favorite Australian band, Midnight Oil, and the music video / dance sequence is performed to an infectious garage rocker from the sixties, “Friday on My Mind” by the Easybeats. The latter is played while we see footage from METROPOLIS, which also pops up again in during the rush to the shelters near the end of the movie. The anti-war message is obvious, but for the most part, the movie focuses on the human aspects of the story, and is quite successful in that regard.