Pulling No Punches is the tale of a local-Aussie boy done well. By most people’s standards, Rod Taylor had a pretty great career, including starring roles in Hitchcock’s The Birds and the original The Time Machine and all the way through to working with Tarantino. Before the likes of Russell Crowe et al here was an Australian who looked at Hollywood and thought yeah, he could do that too. This documentary tells of how Taylor’s journey took him from his home country to America to seek fame and fortune. He’d work with Hitch and act opposite Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Maggie Smith, as well as a few high-profile relationships that found him featured in the press. Along the way in recounting all this we get plenty of recent input (Taylor died in 2015) from a spry and entertaining Rod himself, and it’s evident that apart from a slight American twang he remained in large part unaffected by a long time spent in the USA.
Pulling No Punches manages to draw together a lot of people who obviously had a lot of affection for Taylor. Smith is gracious and appreciative for her time spent working with him. It was some of her earliest roles and by all accounts, he helped her feel comfortable and was supportive in their scenes. There are contributions from the likes of Angela Lansbury, Tippi Hedren, and Veronica Cartwright. The most interesting aspects, however, come from his fellow Australians. Actors like Bryan Brown talk about the effect it had on them knowing Taylor was also Australian and had gone to Hollywood and made it big. Directors like Stephen Elliott (who Taylor acted for in Welcome to Woop Woop) and Baz Luhrmann similarly describe the impact Taylor had on them, encouraging them to believe they could do it too.
It’s no salacious biography, so you’re not going to find any mention of scandal or any dark side to the dream Taylor went after. It’s instead more a celebration of his achievements and as such is going to be of most interest to Taylor’s fans. That’s not to say it isn’t a well-made, captivating enough film to have broader appeal, but more the inevitability of any documentary that focuses on one subject. As for the disk, the picture is fine for all recent interviews and it comes with a couple of supplements. One is a short joint interview with Taylor and Hedren where it’s clear there was plenty of affection between the two. The other is a Q&A from the Burbank film festival in 2017 with some of those behind the film that runs for about 15 minutes. Overall, worthwhile for fans of Rod.
ROD TAYLOR: PULLING NO PUNCHES / CERT: E / DIRECTOR: ROBERT DE YOUNG / SCREENPLAY: STEPHEN WELLINK, ROBERT DE YOUNG / STARRING: MAGGIE SMITH, TIPPI HENDREN, ANGELA LANGSBURY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
