Freedom/Fun Facts

• The color, make and model of the sports car seen in the film that Ron steals to go on his freedom trip was a silver Porsche 930 Turbo. The 930 refers to a "type number" for the pre-964 generation 911 Turbo, which was produced during the years 1975 to 1989, and is usually pronounced as "nine thirty". At the time of this film, the car was valued at $80,000 [Australian]. A silver Porsche 930 Turbo also appeared in another 1982 film, the action movie The Soldier (1982).

• This was the first film from the South Australian Film Corporation to be entirely written and directed by South Australians, i.e. the first since its inception eight years prior to the film, in 1973.

• Second theatrical feature film of actor Jon Blake. Blake's first was Early Frost (1982). This film was Blake's first starring role and first theatrically released movie as Early Frost (1982) went straight to video. The picture is also considered as Blake's breakthrough film.

• First theatrical feature film of director Scott Hicks. It's Hicks' third though if one counts Hicks' short-features The Wanderer (1974) and Down the Wind (1975) as features.

• Second and final film to date of Australian actress Jad Capelja who had at the time recently co-starred in the Bruce Beresford teen movie Puberty Blues (1981). Capelja has never made another feature film after appearing in this movie. Capelja's first name Jad is actually an abbreviated form of the name Jadranka.

• A production still showing actors Jon Blake, Candy Raymond and 'Charles Bud Tingwell' having a drink in a bar type scene was published in the Australian film magazine 'Movie 82' (No. 2) but no such scene is actually seen in the actual movie.

• Jon Blake received top first billing, Candy Raymond received second billing, Jad Capelja received third billing, Charles 'Bud' Tingwell received fourth billing, Max Cullen received fifth billing, Chris Haywood received sixth billing, Reg Lye received seventh billing, John Clayton received eighth billing and Greg Rowe received ninth billing.

• Final cinema film of actress Jad Capelja.

• The film's opening title card reads: "South Australian Film Corporation and Endeavour Communications Corporation Limited present".

• Director Scott Hicks has said of this film in an interview with Peter Malone of publication 'Signet' published in 1996 on 5th August and 7th September, that this movie was: "A very mixed experience. On the one hand, it was heady and exciting and intoxicating to be making your first feature film but, on the other, there were difficulties in the way the production was organised. The writer, John Emery, and I were kept separate from each other. In retrospect this was a huge blunder because the film was never totally focused in its vision, and I think that's reflected a little in the sort of schizophrenic nature of the film. Of course, it received very mixed reviews and it didn't do much at the box office. But there were elements about it of which I'm still extremely proud. And then there are things which, if we had worked this material better as writer and director together, we could have done something more substantial. So it was a mixed experience and a little scarifying in the end that it didn't work. And, you know, the director really cops it for good or ill...It's such a long time ago now. I think at the heart of it there was a character that I liked and that I recognised, someone with enormous frustration - not unintelligent, but obsessed with cars and in some ways constrained by the unemployment experience that was so rife then and indeed is, of course, now. So it was about someone trying to break free and trying to define himself. It had shades of Walter Mitty about it as well."

• In an interview with Peter Malone of publication 'Signet' published in 1996 on 5th August and 7th September, director Scott Hicks said: "I used the word 'schizophrenic' before. 'Freedom' was a story that fell into two parts: one was about the whole environment, the whole milieu that Ron [Jon Blake] had grown up in; the second was about his hitting the road. When he tried to realise his dream, stole the Porsche, found the girl [Jad Capelja], and did hit the road, it became another movie, and I don't think those two elements were ever fully reconciled. So you had some people who loved the first half and hated the second and vice versa. When you have that happening with an audience, it's hard for it to jell. This may be irrelevant, but I was looking for locations for 'Sebastian and the Sparrow' [1989], [and] I drove across the Nullarbor [Plain] and I stopped at various petrol stations along the way, and twice people said to me as they were pumping petrol into the car, 'So, what are you doing?' I said, 'I'm looking for locations for a film'. 'What have you made before?'. 'I made this film called 'Freedom'. 'Oh, my favourite film!'. So there were people out there who really got something from it but, in broad terms, it simply didn't work. Sometimes that happens."

• According to the 'Oz Movies' website, of the movie's funding and financing, they state: "Filmco is alleged to have tipped in private investor 10BA finance, but they don't make it into the film's credits" and its budget was "reported in the Adelaide Advertiser to be [Australian] $1 million+. Bob Sanders of Filmco, which was interested in investing in the production, put the budget at [Australian] $1 million in the March-April 1981 edition of [Australian film magazine] 'Cinema Papers'."

• One of at least five film collaborations of actor Chris Haywood and director Scott Hicks. The films are: 'Shine' (1996), 'Freedom' (1982), the short 'No Going Back' (1981), 'The Boys Are Back' (2009), and 'Call Me Mr. Brown' (1990) in which Haywood had the starring role.