Review Of The Film 'They Re A Weird Mob'

In the 2011 Australian film ‘Red Dog’ directed by Kriv Stenders many issues relating to Australian identity are addressed including the stereotypical Australian values such as conflict with authority and mateship. Stenders uses skilful camera and visual techniques to portray a realistic 1970’s context throughout the movie. Throughout the movie it is evident that Stenders portrays his values and attitudes such as rebellion against authority that abuses power and independence.

People affected by Cronulla Riots in any manner were ‘out of the frying pan, and were into the fire’, when the documentary displayed Prime Minister John Howard declaring the riots as “un-Australian”. He made us believe that his view was optimistic and disagrees that there is underlying racism in Australia.

Australian people and culture are often stereotyped in the media in different forms, one of them being film. The two films being examined, ‘Red dog’ (2011) and the ‘Sapphires’ (2012), are an example of the Australian identity but from different points of view. ‘Red dog’ shows the kind and positive side which exemplifies mateship and loyalty. The film ‘Sapphires’ ,which takes place in the 1950’s through to the 1960’s, shows a negative and racist view towards the indigenous people. Both the films show different aspects of the Australian identity, not all insights of the films accurately represent contemporary Australian identity as the Australian identity has changed by the evolution of people and their lifestyle.

the incessant brutality of racism in the 1920s. Rolf de Heer’s 2002 art house feature film The Tracker, represents one of the most “unspeakable aspects of Australian history” (Smaill, 2002, 31), explicitly depicting the extreme racism, violence and inhumanity the egotistical European invaders inflicted on Aboriginals, whilst at the same time glorifies and treasures aboriginal culture and intelligence through film.

Although released over 17 years ago, Rob Sitch’s comedy The Castle remains an incredibly popular film that portrays an ‘Aussie Battler’ family, the Kerrigans, in suburbia. Film writer Ian Craven states that the Kerrigans possess “the qualities of a simple good-heartedness family, with human decency and dignity”, all of which can be easily recognized by the audience throughout the film. The Castle takes a satirical look at Australian suburbia in order to manipulate traditional stereotypes, gender constructions, themes, identities, ideologies and cinematic techniques as a means of altering the positioning of the audience.

Australia is filled with many different aspects in which makes it the country it is today. I believe it is important to study texts that explore aspects of Australia by studying texts such as ‘The Club’, by David Williamson, a play written in 1977 about an Australian football club and movies such as “The Castle”, directed by Rob Stitch in 1997, about the daily life of an Australian family when their happiness is threatened when developers attempt to buy their house to expand the neighboring airport. Both these texts show us what Australian life was like in the past. By us looking at themes such as language, tradition and the mateship shown we are able to explore different aspects of Australia that make it what it is today.

Migrants and immigrants are from a whole different world, although many authors in Growing up Asian in Australia were born in Australia and while their customs and traditions are seen as the norm to them they are seen as different by many Australians. These cultural traditions and practices are far from what the majority are used to and so are neither known nor understood. This result usually in people misunderstanding migrant’s individuality and can cause unfair exclusion. Governed was horrified when the school bully accused her of wiping her “butt with her hands” on the terms of her Indian background and as a result had to deal with constant teasing and taunts

Charlie articulates how he “never understood why you would ever feel the need to shoot the fish in the barrel… (if) they’re in a barrel, you’ve already caught them… they can’t escape... why bring guns into it?” Silvey’s use of characterisation and first person point of view portrays Charlie’s realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards ‘the other’. The “fish” is symbolic of Charlie and how he is different to the people of Corrigan; who are like vultures – constantly seeking the chance to attack those that are considered the ‘minority’. Charlie’s close friend, Jeffrey Lu, is a gifted and committed cricket player who persistently tries to get himself in the local team, however, due to his Vietnamese background, “he’s ruthlessly bullied and belted about by the boys at school.” The emotive imagery and alliteration of “bullied” and “belted” further depict Charlie’s internal conflict in addition to his realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards the peripheral of society. The use of emotive imagery positions readers to realise the extent to which powerful words can have; causing readers to recognise how crude and harrowing humankind can be towards the marginalised. Thus, Silvey effectively conveys to the reader how the indigenous race were isolated from ‘white Australian’ society; how intelligent individuals were ostracised; and, how groups of people with racially different backgrounds were isolated from mainstream Australian society.

Australia’s identity has always been a complicated one. Starting with Aboriginal genocide, 1800’s cowboys and villains, two world wars and a bunch of poems describing them, it makes it difficult to conclude on what being an ‘Aussie’ really is. Thankfully, the two thought-provoking poems Nobody Calls Me a Wog Anymore by Komninos Zervos, and My Country by Dorothea Mackellar both use their discerning selection of themes to reflect modern attitudes in some extent. Along with their themes, Nobody Calls Me a Wog Anymore and My Country both use their story to capture the attributes modern Australians possess to some degree.

As well as emphasise on the faults within the stereotype, the use of recognisable characters in a production of The Removalists allows for an effective comment on the faults within Australian society. Through the use of stereotyped characters, the play provides a deeper insight into the serious personal and societal issues within the Australian community, without the distraction of character complexity. These themes, which are explored through stereotypes, are violence, abuse of authority, and sexism and sexuality.

Captivating,thought provoking and a classic. These words can all be used to describe Francis Ford Coppola's take on S.E Hinton's “The Outsiders”. Almost right away,you feel as if you can be inside the movie. The way that everything is put together is a nice blend and seems very realistic. The movie does justice to the book,yet downplays it.

During The Great Depression in Australia, thought the 1920s, unemployment and hardship was the reality for thousands of Anglo-Australians. Throughout this same time, racism towards aboriginals was a daily practice by many white Australians, demonstrating their Eurocentric values. Jack Davis’ play, No Sugar (1986), set in Western Australia during 1929 - 34, conveys the racist and hypocritical nature in which the white authority figures treated the indigenous Australians, such as the Monday-Millimurra family. David harnesses dramatic conventions to challenge the dominant paternalistic, Eurocentric perspectives of the Anglo-Australians, that were prevalent in 1930s Australia. He invites his modern audience to read the play with a post colonial perspective of the injustices and oppressive policies, that viewed aboriginals as inferior.

Strategically the show utilizes the stigma of MOB as an instrument to add dramatic effects upon a premise about inferiority in the foreign casts. On the contrary to their arguments that they are not interested in green card, but seeking love, portrayals of their behaviors indicating their unculture plant a seed of doubt in their claims,

Prior to white settlement, Australia representations were that of a primitive place whose inhabitants were a nomadic barbarous doomed race. Such imagery was the birthplace of an unconscious bias foundational to the historical contrast that divides Australian society. The volume of this irrational prejudice through the perpetuation of dominant western ideologies includes Indigenous people as treacherous, ignoble and unscrupulous. The riveting Rabbit Proof Fence film released in 2002, directed by Philip Noyce eschews bigotry by illuminating a dense history of racist and distorted Aboriginal representations. Furthermore, it chronicles the ordeal of the Stolen Generations which included the abduction of “half-cast” Aboriginal children; Molly, Gracie, and Daisy from their families which was blinded by assertions of white supremacy to prevent the “creation of a third unwanted race” through the continued infiltration of white blood with the intention of stamping out black colour. The director of this film has provided an oppositional reading of dominant western ideologies surrounding Aborigines hoping an audience will find a reparative attitude in relation to the effect the Stolen Generation.

Odd Thomas is a thriller novel that was published in 2003 and later became a movie. The actor Anton Yelchin played the role of Thomas. The protagonist is a 20-year-old male by the name of Thomas who lives in a small town in California. Thomas works as a cook who is dating his long-term girlfriend. At the beginning of the movie, Thomas was approached by the ghost of a young girl who was brutally murdered. Thomas had a unique ability, which was to understand the dead and help the police unmask their killer. Due to his abilities everyone in town referred to him as odd Thomas or just odd. When Thomas was a child his mother had the same unique abilities that he did. When he was young his mother lost touch with reality because she was unable to separate