MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
6 Mad Max (1979)
Kennedy Miller Productions
Arguably the most important film in Australia’s post-war movie boom was Mad Max whose success has been credited for opening up the global market to Australian New Wave films. Unlike the other movies in the franchise, which became progressively more expensive to produce, culminating in 2015’s Road Fury costing an estimated $170 million, the original Mad Max was shot on a shoestring budget. Reports estimate the total cost of movie to just a few hundred thousand dollars, compared to the $100 million it made internationally at the box office, making it one of the most profitable movies of all time in terms of box office revenue to budget ratio. Mad Max was directed by Australian-born George Miller and starred a then widely unknown Mel Gibson. Gibson plays “Mad” Max Rockatansky, a police officer-turned-vigilante in a near-future dystopian Australian wasteland. The action is surprisingly impressive considering the budget and technological constraints of the time and what it does lack in massively expensive action set pieces, it more than makes up for in atmosphere and tension.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
5 Animal Kingdom (2010)
Porchlight Films
Animal Kingdom is a 2010 Australian crime drama that wears its noir influences proudly on its sleeve. Animal Kingdom was written and directed by Australia native David Michôd and stars Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, and Jacki Weaver. It is based on true events which involved the Pettingill criminal family of Melbourne, Victoria when in 1991, two brothers Trevor Pettingill and Victor Peirce (along with two other men) were acquitted in the 1988 shooting murder of two Victorian police officers. Michôd’s brutal and captivating depiction of Melbourne’s criminal underbelly earned the picture 18 nominations at the 2010 Australian Film Institute Awards, across all major feature film categories—a record achievement. Jacki Weaver even received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 2011 Academy Awards.
4 Wolf Creek (2005)
403 Productions
This 2005 Australian horror film written and directed by Greg McLean could have easily fallen by the wayside and been written off as just another subpar entry into the overcrowded post Saw/Hostel ‘torture porn’ genre that was so prevalent at the time. Thanks to its unique setting in the Australian outback and John Jarret’s unsettlingly convincing portrayal of the deranged, sadistic, xenophobic serial killer Mick Taylor, however, Wolf Creek has gone onto break free of those constraints and become a certified cult classic. While the plot is simple—there’s a killer on the loose picking up tourists in a multitude of gruesome ways—it’s the constant sense of foreboding dread punctuated with short bouts of extreme violence that make it such a viewing pleasure. Loosely inspired by real-life murders of backpackers by Ivan Milat in the 1990s and Bradley Murdoch in 2001, the movies spawned a sequel and a spin-off TV Show with, more significantly, a third movie reportedly in production.
3 The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert (1994)
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
This 1994 gem, written and directed by Stephan Elliott, follows two drag queens, played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, and a transgender woman, played by Terence Stamp, as they journey across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named “Priscilla.” Along the way, they come across all sorts of interesting and odd individuals and find themselves in a range of outrageous situations. While mainly a comedy, the drag and transgender aspects of the film are handed thoughtfully and never played for lazy laughs, with its positive portrayal of LGBTQ+ individuals helping to introduce LGBTQ+ themes to a mainstream audience. At its core, it is a tender and thoughtful road trip movie with some brilliant performances from its main cast. To top it off, the outfits are fabulous, with the movie winning the Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 67th Academy Awards.
2 Snowtown (2011)
Screen Austrailia
Another film based on true events; the Snowtown murders (also known as the bodies in barrels murders) which were a series of murders committed between August 1992 and May 1999, in and around Adelaide, South Australia. Snowtown is an exercise in brutality and bleakness. The harrowing events are brought realistically to life by the frighteningly grounded performances from the whole cast, who at the time were relatively unknown. The gritty, almost documentary style in which the movie is shot, perfectly encapsulates the darkness of the broken community in which this evil emerged. In recognition of the film’s mastery, it was nominated for dozens awards of which it won many including the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards for Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Editing and Best Sound.
1 Crocodile Dundee (1986)
Rimfire Films
When you think of Australia, for many, Crocodile Dundee is one of the first things that springs to mind. In fact, Crocodile Dundee is so synonymous with the country that the actor Paul Hogan, who played the titular character, has been actually used in Australian Tourism videos, urging people to visit his homeland of Australia. This iconic action comedy is a film of two halves. The first is set in Australia and follows fish out of water, New York reporter, Sue Charlton played by Linda Kozlowski, as she spends time with Michael ‘Crocodile’ Dundee in the Australian Outback for a feature she is writing. During her time with Dundee, she encounters an array of a dangerous animals, hunters and witnesses an aboriginal dance ceremony. Impressed by Dundee’s handling of these situations, she begins to fall for him, despite his rather crude attitude towards romance. The second half of the movie takes place in Charlton’s hometown of New York and now Dundee is the fish out of the water. Completely foreign to any big city, hilarity ensures as he attempts to navigate this urban jungle, witnessing things he could never have imagined in his wildest dreams.
