Joh: Last King of Queensland

2025

Biography / Documentary

IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 46 46

australian politics queensland, australia joh bjelke-petersen queensland

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Plot summary

Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen reigned over Queensland for 19 tumultuous years (1968–1987). Hugely popular, he presided over enormous growth, but corruption raged under his tenure, as did electoral manipulation and often violent suppression of dissent. This film tells Joh’s story through rare archival footage and revelatory interviews, exploring a life shaped by a hard yakka, god-fearing upbringing on his family’s farm. Trump’s spectre is evoked in Joh’s famously mangled and meandering way of speaking – brilliantly dramatised by Richard Roxburgh – alongside his unyielding execution of power and the desperate denial of his final days in office.

Director

Kriv Stenders Photo
Kriv Stenders

Top cast

Richard Roxburgh Photo
Richard Roxburgh as Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Joh Bjelke-Petersen Photo
Joh Bjelke-Petersen as Self
Matthew Condon Photo
Matthew Condon as Self
Bob Katter Photo
Bob Katter as Self - Leader of KAP
2160p.WEB.x265
4.4 GB
3840*2160
English 5.1
NR
us  
25 fps
1 hr 38 min
Seeds 100+

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AshleyR-67 9 / 10

Excellent investigative doco

Fine quality documentary from a Queenslander who has done their research. The comparisons to more recent leaders and their authoritarian tendancies is insightful in showing how the "playbook" for an oppressive regime remains the same, decade after decade.Having lived through the Joh-time, south of the border, it was hard to understand why Queenslanders would keep on voting for such a nakedly corrupt leader and his minions. This doco goes a long way to explaining the psychology of his faithful and why it still resonates today.Colourful stories, wildly improbable events and well stitched together footage. Richard Roxburgh makes a fun appearance as Joh in between a number of sequences.Entertaining and thoughtful. Will upset any number of right wingers who still miss him.
Reviewed by hillary-kerner 3 / 10

Interesting biopic but fails the easiest political comparison

A fascinating watch with behind-door insight into the inner workings of the halls of power and real historical archival evidence. However, language framing and comparison to Trump fail to address the very real Australian domestic comparisons that are far more straightforward and legitimate. The daily pressors, the expanding control, the silencing of debate and use of police, the narrative construction and amplification tactics involved aligned media, the attempts at legislating language control, the ramp and corruption (mis allocation of funds, CFMEU, over budget missing money) ....These are all overt comparisons with the actions of Victorian premier Dan Andrews (2015-2023) and failure to tie such failings of governance to an Australian specific example and reach instead for populist figure Trump calls into question motives for this film.
Reviewed by instagav 8 / 10

Multi-layered investigation into what made Joh tick

Fascinating blend of archive, interviews and an abstract interpretation of Joh's thoughts as he sat locked in his office refusing to resign when the end finally came. Kriv Stenders inspired telling of the Book of Joh starts with Joh as the pastor farmer's son, moves through the farmer who ran the state like a dictator with the support of a corrupt police force, all the way through to him being the farmer who thought he could run the country. There's a few references to more recent politicians in other countries who've got some similar attributes but really this is an Australian story, interestingly told.
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