The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert - EXTRA FRILLS EDITION

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

In the early 1990’s, the outlandish and still by-and-large underground allure of the drag queen had exploded internationally into mainstream culture. The main catalyst for this wider window was the incredible success of the 1994 Australian road movie The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, which is now available on DVD in an all-new “Extra Frills Edition”.

In Australia, Anthony “Tick” Belrose (Hugo Weaving) and Adam Whitely (Guy Pearce) are mere vessels for Sydney drag queen cabaret sensations Mitzi Del Bra and Felicia Jollygoodfellow. Bernadette Bassinger (Terrance Stamp) is a transsexual weathering the recent storm of the death of her lover Trumpet.

When an ex-girlfriend of Tick’s offers him and Adam a cabaret gig at an Alice Springs casino, they invite Bernadette to join them. Buying a dilapidated “budget Barbie camper” Adam christens as “Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert”, the trio set out on the road across the Australian outback.

On their travels, the trio often encounters friendly folk who give them a hand such as a tribe of Aborigines, as well as a working-class mechanic named Bob (Bill Hunter), who eventually accompanies the girls after he inadvertently drives away his mail order bride Cynthia (Julia Cortez). They also occasionally face peril against often rough crowds of bigoted country folk not as taken with their unique personas, as they are determined to reach the highest echelon of the Outback and reach their destination.

Priscilla undoubtedly introduced the film world to the stylish allures of the drag queen when it made an international splash in 1994. The film has since endured as a cult classic with the GLBT community and it’s not difficult to see why.

Stephan Elliot’s script does not only score with its often witty and hilarious banter, but with an undercurrent of tenderness and great idiosyncratic main characters. They present a more three-dimensional portrayal of the GLBT world than what had been previously captured on film at the time. Bolstering these characters is the fantastic casting of the film’s three main stars.

Hugo Weaving brings a great mix of sensitivity and a garish look to Tick/Mitzi and Guy Pearce is a lively hoot as Adam/Felicia. However, it is veteran actor Terrance Stamp, who brings an alternately deadpan and dignifiedly eloquent pitch-perfect performance as the aging transsexual Bernadette, who shines the brightest.

Topping off the film are the incredibly colorful Oscar-winning costumes and stunning drag show performances. Both of these take the world of the drag queen to incredibly theatrical and artistic new heights and are the icing on the cake to an incredibly delightful, if a bit lightweight, comedy adventure.

The DVD's picture quality is in the 2:35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, with the sound quality in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. The new Extra Frills Edition also comes packed with plenty of special features.

The first is audio commentary by director/screenwriter Stephan Elliott. While Elliott has a tendency to occasionally lose focus of the going-ons of the ...