‘Crocodile Dundee’ or the croc(k) of gold

n Being Very, Very as an art form and that there blockbuster filmmakerpar ex- Popular is no point in shutting our cellence, and, nearer to home, eyes to matters of commerce Crocodile Dundee. They Whatever else there is to be in relation to an art form so were chosen not because said about Crocodile Dundee capital-intensive. they were necessarily critical (Peter Faiman, 1986), there is favourites (though each had no getting away from its sen- A few years ago I was teach- a share of complimentary sational popularity. It made ing a course on ‘Popular Nar- reviews) but because, in pull- the most money at Australian rative Fictions’. The course ing such huge crowds, they box offices ever, displacing worked its way through were clearly answering mass E.T. (Steven Spielberg, 1982), ballads belonging to the oral needs. and overseas it broke the tradition, crime fictions of the issue 40 records for Australian films nineteenth century, science As phenomenon and indus-

previously established by Mad fiction and detective stories of try product, then, Crocodile S CREE N ED U C A Max (George Miller, 1979) and the twentieth, and it seemed Dundee is undoubtedly im- The Man from Snowy River logical to end the course with portant. It is not easy to gain (George Miller, 1982). In ap- film, the supremely popular reliable figures about box- proaching the film as a text, narrative fiction of the twenti- office takings, but for what T I O N it may be useful to start by eth century. The films chosen they are worth the statistics asking why the film has been were Steven Spielberg’s Raid- quoted by the website IMDb 123 brian so popular, keeping in mind ers of the Lost Ark (1981), as claim that the film, reputed mcfarlane that film is an industry as well an example of the work of the to have cost less than US$10 the-world news as the stars or other – action adventure, him with such American film turned out in force. science-fiction, gangster heroes of the period as Indi- films, epics, family comedies ana Jones (Harrison Ford) or Dundee himself, Paul Hogan, and so on. The very idea of Rambo or Rocky (both Syl- said at the time of the ‘genre’ suggests a coalesc- vester Stallone),2 it is true to film’s release: ‘It’s no good ing of proven ingredients, say that Dundee is as physi- making, as some people re-jigged to provide another cally brave but that he is not million to make, had taken described it before seeing it, airing in which the familiar a hulk. He has more humour US$174,803,506 in the US a send-up of Raiders of the provides reassurance and than those American heroes, by 1987, and US$360 mil- Lost Ark. You can’t compete the unexpected elements and this no doubt derives lion worldwide by the same with Hollywood money on maintain our curiosity. I’ll from audience expectations date.1 These figures far out- that sort of thing.’ Well, if return shortly to genre ele- of Hogan. Mick has a repu- rank those for Mad Max or it couldn’t compete with ments at work in Crocodile tation for courage: indeed The Man From Snowy River, Raiders money as to input, it Dundee: at this point I want his nickname, ‘Crocodile’, which had been hailed for certainly did so at the other just to signal their impor- is a salute to past exploits, their success in taking new end of the production-dis- tance to the film’s popular though we’re never sure Australian cinema to off- tribution spectrum. In trying reception. how far he has burnished shore audiences. There were to account for the popular- his own legendary status. reports of crowds scram- ity of Crocodile Dundee we A Very Australian However, when he tells the bling for seats at the huge may make some headway in Hero? American reporter, Sue, Leicester Square cinema in understanding how it works about his famous escapade, issue 40 London, where the grateful and why it is as it is. The et us consider first there is a likeably self-dep- distributors were said to be sorts of figures referred to what sort of hero Mick recating touch. In the space S CREE N ED U C A thinking of changing their above make clear that this LDundee is, and in this of the film’s plot (i.e., how name to 20th Century Crocs. is not an art-house cult suc- respect it won’t be pos- the events of the story are And when the (dismal) cess reaching segmented sible to separate him from presented on the screen), we T I O N sequel, Crocodile Dundee audiences but a big mul- the persona Paul Hogan do see him facing up to the II (John Cornell, 1988) had tiplex job. And what most had already created in his kangaroo-shooters, killing its Los Angeles première in often succeeds in the latter television appearances. a snake and dealing with a 124 early 1988, it made round- is usually a film of one kind First, though, if we compare mugger in New York, so that crocodile dundee

He knows how to promote and maintain his own legend, but has little idea of social organization, as his response to class matters in New York suggests.

it is not just a matter of hav- simply ing to accept his reputation confused on the basis of the ‘pre-film’ about run-in with a croc. any but the most conventional relationships Mick’s sense of humour, between men and women, then, may be myth-deflating or has the screenplay (by but he does act like a hero Hogan, producer John just the same. He is innocent Cornell, and Ken Shadie) not but not naïve: he may not really thought through the know what a transvestite is, extent and nature of Mick’s but he can spot a phoney, innocence and/or ignorance like Sue’s fiancé Richard. He of the world? is shrewd but not sophis- ticated: for example, he He is a peculiarly Australian knows how to promote and hero; there is absolutely no maintain his own legend, but question of his nationality. has little idea of social or- A New York Times reviewer ganization, as his response wrote at the time of the film’s to class matters in New release: York suggests. It is perhaps issue 40 arguable that the film is not … he seems to represent the

wholly consistent about the newly proud Australian, the S CREE N ED U C A degree of his naivety: in this man who doesn’t apologise respect, consider his deal- for not being born English, ings with the transvestite who relishes his own, very Gwendoline, whom he treats pronounced, classless ac- T I O N with swift brutality, and with cent and vocabulary, and the two prostitutes whose who celebrates skepticism pimp he knocks out. Is he and the old frontier values 125 almost simultaneously.3 tradition of westerns, from the film’s narrative structure of lean, bronzed Australian My Darling Clementine (John that she (like Indiana Jones’s manhood, and as Dun- To Australians, he is perhaps Ford, 1946) to McCabe and girlfriend) must prove herself dee he’s dressed to stress less likely to recall ‘old Mrs Miller (Robert Altman, a ‘good bloke’ and a survi- his lithe muscularity, with frontier heroes’, of the kind 1971) and Pale Rider (Clint vor in the world of outback sleeveless leather jacket and celebrated by, say, James Eastwood, 1985), the film Australia. Compare this with all-Australian akubra. Linda Fenimore Cooper or Mark has a hero who starts with a what’s asked of Mick in New Kozlowski as Sue is equally Twain in Huckleberry Finn, reputation that is part-true, York: he just cuts everybody an icon of pretty, sexy wom- or of myriad Western mov- part-myth; he fascinates an down to size, and effortless- anhood, dressed in ways ies, than the heroes of bush intrepid girl who, at first, is ly too. There’s an interesting that emphasize the conven- ballads, such as ‘The Man ready to be sceptical about comparison here with the tional fetishization of the from Snowy River’. He’s like his prowess; she succumbs famous Frank Capra social female body in films. Think, a descendant of the brave, to his rough-hewn charms comedy–dramas, Mr Deeds as one example, of her leathery, good-humoured after seeing him effortlessly Goes to Town (1936) and Mr bathing costume. The other bushman, with a touch of dominate in his own – and Smith Goes to Washington characters signify Australian- the larrikin about him, but in her – territory; he tends to (1939), in which the heroes ness in simple ways: Wally, he’s seen ’em come and make opposing males look are played by Gary Cooper ‘Mr Dundee’s business part- go in the years since Banjo merely ordinary as he and and James Stewart respec- ner’, is all sly courtliness in Paterson. He knows about the girl head for the inevita- tively. In these two film clas- long white socks and safari tourists and how to give ble ending. sics, rural innocence teaches suit; Ida’s peroxide-blonde, them their money’s worth city slickers a thing or two, hard-bitten barmaid is a – and to fool them at the She, on the other hand, maintaining integrity in the stereotype of many Austral- same time. In some ways, has to subdue her own process, just as Dundee ian films. And others signify this combination seems independence (feminists, does in the face of all the Americanness: Richard and more essentially Australian where were you when the corruptions of New York. As Sue’s father, in their designer than the simple manly vir- box offices of the world a narrative, then, Crocodile suits, incarnate two versions tues celebrated in ‘The Man were doing such a roaring Dundee fits easily into the of big-business, big-city from Snowy River’, either trade in 1986?); she has to genre of comedy–adventure, success; and the other as poem or (deeply stupid) be seen to need his protec- moving irresistibly towards Manhattan types, like the film. As a hero, Mick Dundee tion, to come to value his the expected heterosexual coke-sniffer, the pimp and is a simple, tough, decent simpler approach to life, romantic finale. This recog- the prostitutes, the party bloke, more knowing than her independence having nizable genre pattern may phoneys and the black driver he sometimes lets on, who only got her into danger very well be a key element in Clarence announce their attracts a more sophisti- and dodgy company. ‘You the film’s huge success. This character functions initially in cated woman and wins her wouldn’t last five minutes is not a quirky, one-off art- visual terms. over – and away from her on your own. This is a man’s house film, but one which city-bred fiancé. And there is country,’ Mick tells Sue early offers in structural terms a As for the iconographic rep- a whole tradition of Holly- on; and, towards the film’s narrative package with the resentation of places, there wood male-centred narrative end, in the evening streets pleasures of expectations is above all the obvious behind this scenario. of New York when Mick usually gratified. contrast of rural Australia despatches a mugger, she and the urban mayhem of The Narrative Package reinforces his superiority The Look of Things New York. Australia is a by telling him: ‘I’m all right matter of the clean, clear ogan memorably when I’m with you, Dundee. … or to give it its proper outback, with great vistas claimed that with Why do you always make name, iconography. Just as of mountains, plains and HCrocodile Dundee me feel like Jane in the reassuring as the structures rivers (remember the sudden he wanted to make a ‘proper Tarzan comics?’ Hollywood discussed above is the cut at the film’s start from movie’, ‘as opposed to the genre movies, westerns, way the film reinforces its New York to Walkabout Australian “arty” films he so comedies and others have popular narrative moves Creek; a blunt statement of issue 40 despises’,4 and with this in been endemically structured with equally popular visual opposition indeed). It is also mind he is not doing any- about women subduing their representations. The two a place of crude pubs, the S CREE N ED U C A thing very original in terms of intelligence and aggressive are inseparable in dictating rundown Never Never Safari screen narrative. He is really instincts in the interests of our responses to the film. To van, and there is a sense conforming to a narrative maintaining the concept of take the people first: Hogan, of its prevailing emptiness, T I O N structure to which classic male rightness in important from his TV show to his Aus- the sparsity of human life Hollywood cinema had long matters. tralian tourism ads telling us and its signs. (I’ll return in a habituated audiences. For to ‘throw another shrimp on moment to what this kind of 126 instance, recalling a long However, it is also built into the barbie’, has been an icon visual account of Australia crocodile dundee

suggests about the filmmak- just a sort of ready-reckoner the notion that Australian in Crocodile Dundee. Take ers’ sense of their audience.) for the mind. However, I do men are real men – and once blacks for example: Gulpilil’s New York is a place of per- wonder how many films that again women are thankful Nev (and the very name, petual smog, skyscrapers, are really radical in relation for it. with its characteristic Oz jostling crowds, limousines, to the prevailing mores, abbreviation and its seeming posh hotels and bars. The which usually means mid- Third, the fairytale ending distance from Aboriginal life, contrast of the two loca- dle-class mores in Western couldn’t be more con- seems intended to be read tions is reinforced constantly democracies, have been servative. The foregoing as comically out-of-whack) in iconographic terms – in, wildly popular. One that comments about gender is a black who finds tribal life for instance, such specific leaps to mind is Easy Rider relationships are really ir- ‘a drag’ and is prepared to opposites as the outback (Dennis Hopper, 1969), that relevant, because at the end mock it. Clarence, the New camp and the Manhattan drug- and sex-fuelled road- of Crocodile Dundee we York hotel doorman, who be- hotel suite. movie that unexpectedly gal- are just required to accept comes Mick’s devoted sup- vanized a vast cinema-going that the prince has found porter, is not ‘tribal’, he tells Everything about the film’s audience and not just the his princess and triumphed Mick in reply to his question. structural and iconographic stoned and the stroppy. over obstacles in his path. All right, one can be too packaging – the way the (Vladimir Propp’s famous earnest and humourless, but plot’s action is structured Nevertheless, that is prob- analysis of folktales would it’s hard not to discern an and how it looks as it is ably an exception to a have had no trouble in easy-going, careless white put before us – caters to working rule that the most accommodating this film racism in such moments. accepted notions about the popular films are so because – nor the film his narra- way mainstream films are they are conservative, tive taxonomy.)5 In the final There is nothing disturbing put together. It also caters to because they comfort and scene on the crowded New in either the narrative moves how we as Australians like confirm rather than disturb York subway platform, mes- or ideological stances of the to think of ourselves (and and distress. Look at some sages of love are relayed film – unless one chooses to others), and, given the film’s of the specific ways in which by waiting passengers, and read back ‘across the grain’ international success, how Crocodile Dundee fits this Mick literally tramples over to consider what insights others like to think of Aus- paradigm. First, as sug- anyone who comes between are being suppressed in this tralia. This leads me inevi- gested above, in narrative him and his princess. Again, parade of stereotypes. Like, tably to my next contention terms it belongs absolutely it needs to be noted that the for instance, the real plight about the film’s all-conquer- to the models laid down by film is working in a genre in of Aborigines in Australia, ing popularity. classical Hollywood cinema, which romantic consumma- or the real suppression of and more particularly to the tion is the goal (you might women in male-dominated A Very Conservative structures of the comedy- recall Richard Gere as the Oz mythologies. Film adventure genre. Second, in knight climbing the fire es- its representation of sexual cape to rescue his princess Advance Australian rocodile Dundee relationships it follows the at the end of Pretty Woman). Fair is absolutely a film well-worn path on which Audiences will not usually Cof the 1980s. Think the choices available to the be pleased to find the male Crocodile Dundee gives vast of such other hugely popular independent, intelligent Sue and female leads in such Australian audiences the successes as Raiders of are narrowed down to the films walking off in different images of Australia which the Lost Ark, Rambo: First creep Richard and the sub- directions, both literally and they like, and represents us Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 1982), macho Mick. You might well metaphorically. to the world at large in ways E.T., Three Men and a Baby speculate on how Sue and we like to be represented (Leonard Nimoy, 1987), Mick will occupy the long The film is also very conserv- and ways in which the world or Pretty Woman (Garry winter evenings of their life ative in the ways it responds likes to imagine us. One Marshall, 1990) at the end of together; not, probably, in to aspects of the prevailing writer felt that it created the decade. These belong conversation anyway. Think ideology. There are jokes ‘what the world thinks we do to very different genres, but too of the rough treatment of about prostitutes and trans- best – cracking jokes, eating issue 40 what they have in com- women at the party. This is vestites (crudely masculinist bush tucker and being basi-

mon is that each reinforces not to imply that Dundee is these jokes are too), about cally naïve to technology and S CREE N ED U C A rather than interrogates a misogynist film, only that muggers and drug-us- the culture of the civilised the dominant values of the it endorses the most clichéd ers, and blacks. Any one world’.6 Visually, the film can’t period, perhaps as a reac- attitudes to male-female of these groups of people resist the beauty of the out- tion against the more radical relationships. Producer/co- might have been supposed, back: it lingers over sunsets T I O N 70s. It’s of course danger- screenwriter Cornell and by the mid-1980s, to have and sunrises, over lovely ous to think of decades in director Peter Faiman seem gone beyond the realm of vistas ‘of sweeping plains/ Of this rather arbitrary way: it’s to be entirely at home with mere stereotype, but not so ragged mountain ranges’ as 127 D orothea Mackellar celebrat- is seen as a subject for than a series of episodes Kid Knowall’, The Herald, 14 ed in her poem ‘My Country’. humour in the first half,but – sketches really – strung January 1987. We need to consider the sta- Mick is also a hero and this loosely together. It centres 2 It might be instructive, too, tus of this footage. Much of it is reinforced in the New York on a hero we’re meant to to compare him with recent seems little more than like a half, where no other man is identify with and it means heroes exhibited in epics travelogue in its effect, lack- remotely his peer. In ideologi- to keep us so preoccupied such as Troy and Alexander, ing serious dramatic function. cal terms the film plays up that we won’t have time to or in comic-strip films such Anyway, it’s what Sue and the comfortable notion that ask troubling questions. The as Spider-man and Batman we are encouraged to value the outback is the repository questions to leave you with Begins. Different periods cre- – and it is of course meant of Australian virtues, while include: Are you happy to ate/require different heroes. to be physically superior to cities are the scene of vulgar accept this soothing view? 3 Nina Darnton, ‘Crocodile New York. competitiveness, myriad cor- Are its images of Australia Dundee’, New York Times, 26 ruptions and falsities. Never ‘true’ to your concepts? And September 1986. Psychologically, the film mind that Australia is one of whatever one may feel about 4 Geoff Mayer, ‘Crocodile Dun- both espouses our national the most urbanized countries such issues, there is no dee’, in Brian McFarlane et al myths and slyly undercuts in the world. denying the importance of (eds.), The Oxford Companion them. That is, it satisfies our international success in es- to Australian Film, Oxford chauvinism at the same time Ultimately, I am torn between tablishing a national cinema. University Press, Melbourne, as letting us think we’re on to the idea that Crocodile Dun- Should we just settle for the 1999, p.90. this and not taken in by it. We dee is peddling a wildly out- idea that everyone knows 5 Vladimir Propp, Morphology come out on top either way. dated vision of Australia and about Crocodile Dundee, of the Folktale (1928), trans. The cutting-down-to-size the fact that the film is made and be glad? Laurence Scott, University of humour is seen as enough in with great skill. It is slickly Texas Press, Austin, 1968. the way of critique of the na- accomplished and good- Endnotes 6 Ramona Barry, ‘Learning to tional psyche. For example, humoured in its superficial 1 See www.imdb.com. Also, walk all over again’, Overland, the Australian male image way, even if it is little more Victor Davis, ‘The $350m 1994, No. 135, p.9. issue 40 S CREE N ED U C A T I O N 128