Crocodile Dundee
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| Crocodile Dundee | |
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| Directed by | Peter Faiman |
| Produced by | John Cornell |
| Written by | Paul Hogan (story) John Cornell (story) Ken Shadie (story) Paul Hogan (screenplay) |
| Starring | Paul Hogan Linda Kozlowski |
| Music by | Peter Best |
| Cinematography | Russell Boyd |
| Editing by | David Stiven |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 30, 1986 |
| Language | English |
| Budget | AUD$8,800,000 (estimated) |
| Followed by | Crocodile Dundee II |
| IMDb profile | |
Crocodile Dundee is a 1986 Australian comedy film set in the Australian Outback in the area around "Walkabout Creek" and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as Mick Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as Sue Charlton. It was released in the United States as "Crocodile" Dundee.
Inspired by the truelife exploits of Rodney Ansell, the film was made on a budget of under $10 million as a deliberate attempt to make a commercial Australian film that would appeal to a mainstream American audience, but proved to be a worldwide phenomenon. Released on April 30, 1986 in Australia, and on September 26, 1986 in the United States, it was the second highest grossing film in the USA in that year and went on to become the number one film worldwide at the box office.
The film was followed by two sequels: 1988's Crocodile Dundee II and 2001's Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles.
Taglines:
- He's survived the most hostile and primitive land known to man. Now all he's got to do is make it through a week in New York.
- There's a little of him in all of us.
- The Wizard of Auz hits The Big Apple!
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[edit] Plot summary
The film concerns Michael J. "Crocodile" Dundee (so nicknamed because he allegedly fought a crocodile and lived to tell the tale). He falls for Sue Charlton (newcomer Linda Kozlowski), an American journalist who comes to the outback to interview him, and returns with her to New York City, where he is faced with a culture he doesn't understand. Most of the humour is drawn from his "fish out of water" attempts to adapt to big city life, such as crowds, crime and bidets.
[edit] Getting the assignment
As the movie begins, we see that Sue is a feature writer for Newsday and is in love with her editor; or at least, he's in love with her. As the movie opens, she's half naked in a lavish hotel suite on the shores of Sydney Harbour (you can see the Opera House in the background). She's late returning to America, but gets her boss/boyfriend to give the okay for her to track down an amazing tale of a man who survived leg amputation by a crocodile.
[edit] Copter to the outback
The next scene plays over credits and Peter Best's distinctive "Crocodile Dundee" theme march, featuring kettle drums and electric guitar, as Sue rides a helicopter into the Australian wilderness where she's met by his agent/friend Walter Reilly. Dundee has a dramatic entrance planned.
[edit] Meeting the legend
As Sue chats with Walter in the local pub, she hears the tall tale of Dundee's croc encounter gradually whittled down. As she first heard it, he lost an entire leg. Walter says half a leg. A woman comes by to say the story "gets better every time" it's told. Dundee appears, apparently wrestling a croc but it's stuffed and Dundee tries to buy it a drink. Introduced to Sue, he grabs her and makes her dance with him as she stalwartly tries to begin the interview. He shows Sue his leg: intact, but scarred. Apparently there's little truth to his "legend".
A man twits Dundee about being a poacher, and Dundee knocks him out with one punch, not interrupting his dance with Sue to do so. Then he takes on Donk, who wins bets by taking a punch in the guts without spilling a glass of beer he holds on his head; Dundee defeats him by kissing his cheek, and Donk spills his beer.
Walter tells Sue, "He's not usually like this."
[edit] Encounters in the bush
The three take a scenic drive into the bush in an old jalopy, only to be stopped in the road by a water buffalo blocking their path. Dundee does a "mind over matter" horse whispering trick, and the buffalo lies down out of their way. This is Sue's first inkling that their might be some substance to the legend. They take to the water, and we are treated to breathtaking nature photography with the sorts of blues, browns and greens that city people rarely see.
Wally leaves Dundee and Sue on shore until "Wednesday", and Dundee takes the 'sheila' to the wreck of a boat. He claims a 14 or 16 foot croc bit through the wood, grabbed him, and took him for a death roll. When it relaxed its jaws to get a better grip, he slit its throat and escaped. Sue tries to interest Mick in current events, like the nuclear arms race; Mick wonders who'd "hear his voice" out here in the bush. She wants him to believe in something, so when they're awakened by drunken kangaroo hunters, Dundee scares them off with rifle shots apparently fired by a kangaroo.
The next morning, we are treated to more luxuriously beautiful nature photography. Dundee interrupts her tape recorded notes to insult Sue, calling the outback "man's country" where a sheila like her "wouldn't last five minutes". As she stalks off to meet him in the mountains in the afternoon, he condescendingly offers her his rifle (to fire shots in the air to call for his help). She cocks the rifle, shoots in the dirt inches from his foot, and stalks off.
Fortunately, Mick tracks her all the way, because she stops, strips to her one-piece thong bathing suit and wades into the water. Just as she's filled her canteen, she's attacked by a croc; or at least her canteen is. Mick leaps into action and kills the croc with his knife, and she throws herself into his arms.
That evening, just as Mick is about to give first aid to a scratch on Sue's butt, they're met by Nev, the son of a tribal elder. Mick follows Nev to a tribal dance, and Sue sneaks up to take surreptitious photos but is spotted by Mick. She wonders if he's telepathic. The next day, she asks whether he was afraid of dying (after his old croc bite), and he says no, he read the Bible: he and God would be mates. He catches a large fish in a croc-free mineral water lake. She invites him back to New York City, which he interprets as her making a pass at him. They kiss. Wally meets them, and next thing you know Sue and Mick are on board a huge Qantas jetliner taking off in a beautiful orange sunset.
[edit] Arrival in New York
The World Trade Center is the first thing we see of New York, its gigantic towers dwarfing the huge 747 from the previous shot. Sue is met by her editor (or old boyfriend), and they kiss. He's immediately dismissive about the "Jungle Jim" she's brought back. We watch an awkward moment with an escalator, which foreshadows a series of "fish out of water" incidents.
In Manhattan, as the limo stops at a traffic light, Mick tries to introduce himself to one of the 7 million friendly people who want to live together. "I'm Mick Dundee, in town for a couple of days. I'll probably see you around." Sue puts him in a huge suite in the Park Plaza, and he goes out for a walk but is stymied by the crowds and the cars. A mounted policeman finds him perched on sign pole and gives him a ride back to the hotel.
That night, Sue and Mick join the editor for dinner. He's at the bar where he's had a few, and leers at a pretty girl who passes by just before Sue walks in. He promptly insults Mick, "You're in for a treat: food you won't have to kill yourself." And, "Ain't no crocodiles out there, but a fast-moving Chevy would sure make a mess of you." Dick is being a dick, to both his employee/girlfriend and her interviewee. It's as if he wants to get dumped. Dick shows off his Italian, then baits Mick, "Perhaps our guest would like to order for all of us." Mick observes suavely that the menu is written in Italian and draws Dick's attention to "what that fat sheila over there is having" when he slyly cold cocks him. As Dick lolls back in his chair, Mick says, "Poor fella can't hold his drink".
Dropping off Dick and Sue, Mick invites his cab driver for a bout of drinking. At the "boozer" or "pub" he encounters a jive-talking black with nearly incomprensible slang and unusual gestures, as well as a female impersonator who's bona fides he checks out with a quick feel of the crotch. Outside, he gallantly socializes with two ladies of the nights, and when the pimp shows up to hustle them back to work Mick punches him out for "bad language".
[edit] Mick adjusts to city life
The next morning finds Mick in the tub, merrily washing his laundry. Sue shows up, smiling at the evidence that Mick spent the night on the floor (the bed immaculately untouched). Sue pretends to be the maid and flirts with Mick, who modestly covers his crotch with his hat.
We see a sight that will touch the heartstrings of any New Yorker: Manhattan skyline looking down from the Upper West Side past the Empire State Building to the World Trade Center towers, as the pair go off sightseeing. After buying a hot dog in Times Square, they witness a purse snatching which Mick foils by throwing a can of food at the thief from 30 to 50 yards a way, taking him down with a well-aimed blow to the head to the applause of passers-by.
Later, at a party, Mick encounters a woman with such a low voice that he "tests" her femininity the way he did in the bar before. He also shows he knows nothing about cocaine abuse, as he mistakes a man snorting cocaine for having a stuffed up nose. He mixes the powder with hot steaming water, and advises the man to lean his head over it with a towel over his head. But he does know how to handle himself in a fight. That night, they're accosted by a mugger with a switchblade and two friends. "Mick give him your wallet." "What for?" "He's got - a knife." "That's not a knife," he retorts, pulling out his 10-inch hunting blade. "THAT's a knife." He rips the young man's leather jacket, and the muggers flee. "Just kids having fun," he scoffs.
After a brief glimpse at Sue typing on a 20-year-old word processor, we discover that Sue's father is a big shot at Newsday, possibly its owner, and certainly a member of the upper class. He invites Richard and Sue to a swank party at his mansion, as well as Mick. Arriving in the limo, Mick encounters two savage dobermans but tames them with his water buffalo whispering trick. He meets an upper class dowager and likens New York to lunatic asylum into which he "fits in" but regrets his remark when Sue tells him the lady was seeing a shrink. He's apologetic because he didn't know she was crazy. When Sue explains that people see a psychiatrist to discuss their problems and "unload", Mick wonders if she doesn't have any friends. She agrees he has a point: we could all use more "mates".
At the dinner table, Richard makes a short speech welcoming Sue home from Australia and thanking Mick for saving her life. He then proposes marriage, which she may not have been expecting (or wanting to deal with so publicly), as Mick looks on somberly. Crushed, Mick has Gus drive him back to the city, where he drinks hard liquor straight from the bottles and wanders through Times Square into a back alley where he runs into the pimp he knocked out before; only this time the pimp has two bodyguards with him and is seeking revenge. Mick reaches for his knife near the start of the fight, however it is not there as he left it in the limo earlier. Mick gets the worst of the fight before Gus plows into the pimp with the limo and, breaking off the antenna to use as a boomerang, knocks out the fleeing pimp in a scene reminiscent of Mick "canning" the mugger.
[edit] Epilogue
With nothing left for him in his relationship with Sue, Mick checks out of the hotel to "go walkabout". With 7 minutes left in the movie, Mick is going down a subway in Columbus Circle, headed for Grand Central Station while Sue sheds her shoes to run and catch up with him. In a recap (or throwback) to Mick's first encounter with crowds, Sue can't reach him on the crowded platform. She asks a black man to help her talk to him; he relays his message through yet another man. The answer comes back, "What does she want?" The black man gives it a poignant twist: "What do you want?" She wants him to stay, because she loves him (and she's not going to marry Richard). Mick tries to come to her, but the people are crowded in together "like sheep". Mick climbs up and walks on the heads and shoulders of the crowd, amid growing cheers, and the happy couple embrace each other in relief.
[edit] Main cast
- Paul Hogan: Michael J. 'Crocodile' Dundee
- Linda Kozlowski: Sue Charlton
- John Meillon: Walter Reilly
- David Gulpilil: Neville Bell
- Steve Rackman: Donk
- Gerry Skilton: Nugget
- Terry Gill: Duffy
- Peter Turnbull: Trevor
- Christine Totos: Rosita
- Graham 'Grace' Walker: Angelo
- Mark Blum: Richard Mason
- Michael Lombard: Sam Charlton
- Caitlin Clarke: Simone
[edit] Awards
Award wins:
Award nominations:
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
- Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay – Paul Hogan, Ken Shadie, John Cornell
- BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay – Paul Hogan, Ken Shadie, John Cornell
- BAFTA Award for Best Actor – Paul Hogan
- Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Linda Kozlowski
[edit] Trivia
- Paul Hogan eventually married co-star Linda Kozlowski, after divorcing his first wife, Noeline.
- The amphibious vehicle Dundee uses is a DUKW.
- In the movie, Dundee drives some sort of mid-1960s-ish International Harvester truck that appears to have had a bus body at one point, that was then removed to make such a vehicle; the IHC emblem is visible on the grille in some shots.
- The most famous line from the movie is spoken when Dundee is approached by a mugger carrying a switchblade. Mick remarks, "That's not a knife", then draws a very large bowie knife and continues "THAT'S a knife". This has since been parodied in a variety of films and television shows, including twice in the Simpsons, where the family goes to Australia and a man approaches Bart and says to him "Thats not a knife, THIS is a knife." and pulls out a spoon. Bart replies "Thats not a knife, thats a spoon.", to which the man answers "Alright, I can see you've played knifie-spoonie before."
- The film was one of the greatest hits of the year, even in the non-English speaking world. In Paris a cinema had the unusual policy of screening it in two auditoriums instead of just one. Queues lined up round-the-block and the auditorium was packed.
- Australian international cricketers Rod Marsh, Dennis Lillee, Greg Chappell and entrepreneur Kerry Packer were among Crocodile Dundee's financial backers, making a handsome return.
- When Sue Charlton asks to take a picture of one of the Aborigines, he says she can't take his photo. She asks whether this is because he is afraid the photo will steal his soul, whereupon he points out that she has left the lens cap on. As she was using a single lens reflex camera, this would have been immediately obvious to her.
- All of the "crocodiles" in the film were actually alligators (Source: The making of Crocodile Dundee 1987)
- This film contains one of the most obvious uses of the American Crowd film cliché.
