The Sapphires

Left - The Original Sapphires today.   Right - Laurel (at left) and Lois looking glamorous in the early 70s. (Credit: Laurel Robinson).

Here's an extract from the film's Wikipedia entry:

“There had indeed been an all-female Australian aboriginal singing group named The Sapphires in the 1960s, although originally there were three of them: Laurel Robinson (the mother of screenwriter Tony Briggs), Beverly Briggs and Naomi Mayers. They performed at hotels, pubs, cabarets, clubs, parties, army barracks and universities around Melbourne. When they were invited to Vietnam to perform for the troops, Briggs and Mayers declined, as they were against the war, so Robinson enlisted her sister Lois Peeler to join her. In Vietnam, the duo of Robinson and Peeler performed backing vocals for a New Zealand Maori band they had performed with in Melbourne. It was this Maori band who introduced them to soul music; the character of Dave Lovelace, portrayed in the film by Chris O'Dowd, did not exist. Director Wayne Blair, talking about the creation of the Lovelace character, said 'That's where we went a bit Argo'. Tony Briggs said in an interview in The Age in 2004 'he found it liberating as a writer to expand the number of characters' as it made the dynamics of the story richer.”

So the Chris O'Dowd character was an entirely fictitious invention of the screenwriter, who was also the son of one of the original Sapphires.

When the DVD was released in the US the cover illustration caused a big fuss as O'Dowd was featured prominently as if he was the main character, while the Sapphires were seemingly relegated to a minor role. See this article here:

Backlash over 'sexist and racist' DVD cover of The Sapphires

There's an interview with the original Sapphires, which has some interesting detail on the way they were treated as Aboriginals,  in the Australian Geographic magazine here:
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/in-conversation-with-the-real-sapphires-movie.htm

Audience feedback score was 83%:

A	A cheerful one – for a change!
A	Great music and a strong plot. Didn't gloss over the prejudices against Aborigines in Australia. Loved it.
A	Feel good film. Loved the pictures of the 'real life' girls at the end.
A	A moving film of a true story, most enjoyable. The relationships between the ladies were played beautifully.
A
A	Brilliant... positive representations of ethnic minorities. Lovely music.
A	Very enjoyable with sufficient political xxxxx (illegible)
A	I really loved this film – like “The Commitments” but with all the interesting additions of Aboriginal life – Australia – politics of diversity – great music!
A	I loved the film and the music
B	Enjoyable film more so when it depicted the life of those women & their joy in singing
B	Cheesy MASH!!
B	Fabulous singing, very uplifting and humorous
B	Feel good film with the tragedy of Vietnam making it too realistic
B
B	I enjoyed this film very much. This is the third film starring Aborigines & they have all been excellent.
B	Great.
C
C	Quite interesting story – didn't realise it was based on a true story until the end. Bit slow in parts.
C
C	Routine stuff – lifted above the average by Chris O'Dowd & the music
C
C	Good but not very good: enjoyable romp with entertaining pieces based on believable (realistic?) characters

Online stuff:
Henry Barnes in The Guardian “a scene in which the girls sing to the war wounded – sad-eyed pups with head bandages and slings – made me long for Oliver Stone to come and blow off a limb or two”:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/may/21/the-sapphires-review

Rotten Tomatoes 77% audience rating:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_sapphires_2012/

Robbie Collin in The Telegraph “the preposterously likeable O’Dowd, who has yet to read a line he cannot make funny”:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/9664627/The-Sapphires-review.html

On-line petition which succeeded in having the DVD cover changed:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/anchor-bay-change-the-sapphires-dvd-cover-2


IMDB 6.9 out of 10:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1673697/