Case Histories in Supervision: Jack Thompson

A young Jack Thompson stars in an episode of Case Histories in Supervision, training films produced for the Commonwealth Public Service. By-Pass, from 1970, asks a surprisingly subversive question: Should you break the chain of command if your supervisor is unreasonable? 

Ructions are afoot in an architectural office, where young gun Mike (Thompson) can’t get his stuffy boss even to look at his fresh ideas for a plumbing system. Mike plays the by-pass card and takes his plans to a higher boss, who has himself been struggling with blocks from above.  

A poster for the hippie musical Hair on the wall and Mike’s flowered shirt sound counter-cultural notes in an era that valued youthful energy and disruption of the status quo – even in the workplace. Thompson’s assurance and forthright delivery in this role prefigure the macho swagger he’d become famous for. In 1972, he was the first nude male centrefold in Cleo magazine, and his film roles in Wake in Fright (1971), Breaker Morant (1980) and The Man from Snowy River (1982) each, in their different ways, explored traditional Australian masculinity.