Pure Shit (1975)

This 1975 Australian film follows 48 hours in the life of heroin users (two girls and two guys) in Melbourne and their search for a hit.

Only a handful of the cast were professional actors (the four main actors were paid $50 per week during shooting) while the majority of the non-professional cast members were immediately rooted in the Melbourne drug scene and essentially reproducing their own experiences in front of the camera. As a result, the film feels out of control.

It is certainly more harrowing than either Romper Stomper or Bad Boy Bubby. There is a gruelling scene in which Lou (Garry Waddell) shows the preparation of an injection, and then has a couple of goes inserting the needle, with the fluid in the syringe becoming more tainted with his blood.

Referred to in newspaper advertisements euphemistically as Pure S, much space was devoted in the local press at the time to the film (the Melbourne Herald called it “the most evil film ever made”), both for the explicit drug use and the portrayal of establishment authority figures as antagonistic, brutal and/or stupid and the police as power-crazed bionic morons.

Many of the cast members reportedly consumed actual drugs in many of the scenes. One cast member, hungry for a fix, actually left the set during filming to rob a nearby pharmacy while wearing a Gene Simmons KISS mask.

Sandy
Anne Hetherington
Gerry
Carol Porter
Linda
Dawn Bensing
Keryn
Gena Brookes
John
John Laurie
Lou
Gary Waddell
Harry Behind the Door
Zoran Vimposhek
Walker the Dealer
Greig Pickhaver
Mick
Mick Duncan
Wilson
Abe Frankel
Jo the Speed Freak
Helen Garner
Willy the Chemist Burglar
Willy Kerr
Toby
Wilfred Last
Ed the Coke Dealer
Phil Motherwell
Sylvia
Alison Hill
Dr Harry Wolf
Max Gillies
Blonde Girl with Robot
Sally McNee
Long-Haired Shop Assistant
Doc Smith
Teddy Bear Thief
Wilhelmena Castricum

Director
Bert Deling

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