Goodbye Paradise
Goodbye Paradise
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Goodbye Paradise

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Goodbye Paradise

Goodbye Paradise is a 1983 Australian film directed by Carl Schultz starring Ray Barrett. It has been called "the greatest Queensland film ever made."

On Queensland's Gold Coast, a disgraced former cop, Michael Stacey, is writing a long-delayed book exposing police corruption. To make some money he accepts a job from an old acquaintance, Senator McCredie, to locate the senator's missing daughter Kathy.

He encounters a series of unusual characters, including members of the Queensland secession movement and a cult led by Stacey's old army friend Todd.

The idea of doing a Raymond Chandler-type story set on the Gold Coast came from Denny Lawrence. His original idea was to have an ex-police officer working as a private investigator who investigated a quasi-religious commune run by a charlatan that ended with the deaths of many of the commune's followers. Then the Jonestown Massacre happened and Lawrence backed away from this idea.

He then pitched the idea to Bob Ellis, who liked it and the two of them agreed to work together. Ellis said Lawrence "came to me and simply said, 'Surfers Paradise. Ray Barrett. Raymond Chandler.' And that was it."

They always envisioned Ray Barrett in the lead role as the private eye Stacey and the three of them got some money from the NSW Film Corporation to go up to Surfers Paradise for a week to research and write the script.

Many of Ray Barrett's characteristics found their way into the character of Stacey. Barrett:

Bob is a great observer, and when I finally read the script, I thought "You bugger; you've observed Barrett!" But I didn't mind. I was flattered because Stacey is a living person. He is a failure, really, but a loveable failure; a kind man at heart. Yet everything's slipped by him and he hasn't achieved the things he's wanted to. The character relates to a lot of people, including myself. Bob's put the finger on it. He's brilliant.

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