Essay on Australia and Film Crocodile Dundee

Blue Back Essay Whether this is true or not, the reality is that the traditional Australian identity is no longer a real Australian image, and because of that Australians are facing an identity crisis. Thongs, Beach, sun, bush, beer or Kangaroos, images such as these have been used to describe Australia for decades, however do they truly give the imagery of the Australian national identity? The typical Australian male has been described as “tall, suntanned, blond and blue-eyed, short on words, get drunk with mates, laid-back (she'll be right, mate)”. Though when we observe the Australian society many of these images disprove reality in the 21st century, there is no sign that trying to stop this issue, instead, more and more contemporary texts are made that way nowadays to earn global interest and recognition. People need communities of similar people, they need acceptance, and nations need unity for peace. Hence, the uniqueness of Australia landscapes and cultural identity is not only reduced but is even more emphasized in Australian texts.

I have chosen a combination of two visual texts and one written text: The film Crocodile Dundee, Tourism Australia’s marketing campaign: “Where the bloody hell are you?” And novel Blue back by Tim Winton to demonstrate my point of view about the statement that Australia texts are unambiguous and self-aware of its own landscape and culture identity.

Film is a medium, which is able to transpose across cultures and nations. Often the only aspect of certain events and cultures is explored through film. Therefore the way certain cultures or events are portrayed greatly influence the way they are beheld. This is especially true of Australian films of the last few decades. Australian films contain imitation of the ‘Australian Identity’ that is seen across the world, but are these stereotypes healthy to the image of Australia? For instance, the film Crocodile Dundee directed by Peter Faiman has influenced the way foreigners think about Australia and Australians. In the film, a statement that accurately describes Dundee is: '...and drinks deeply on occasion. Though he is the world's best confidence man...’ this description represents his toughness and daily behaviors, which is believed to be applied to all Australian males by foreigners. ‘Crocodile Dundee’ is similar to the typical Australian today in his use of slang. He uses words like 'weaner' or 'shealer' and shortens some common words. Also, in the film, The 'typical Australian' is here referred to as a man because this writing is quite old and back then the male was considered more important than female and this is one of the things that has changed in Australia over time. Therefore, the images and scene it portrays in the film only focus on a small part of the truth about Australian and Australia’s culture background, thus, its self-awareness of Australian landscape and cultural identity of the film give to overseas viewers weren’t exceptionally true and mainly focused on the things commonly known to foreigners. The Australian identity is a great asset, a national treasure one might say. As I mentioned earlier Crocodile Dundee contains the Australian stereotype but is extremely exaggerated. The character in the movie has been intentionally exaggerated for the purposes of comedy. Crocodile Dundee has exaggerated the Australian identity. Stereotypes are not an accurate portrayal of identity, but rather take the key aspects of this identity and emphasize and promote them.

The image of ‘Michael’ in Crocodile Dundee has many similarities to the average Australian today but also illustrates how Australians have changed and how most are quite different now. Some Australians such as ‘Crocodile Dundee’ that spend most of their life living in the outback could be the same in the way that they are used to harsh conditions through their life and can make the best of hard situations like camping under the stars or using bush fire but this

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