Crocodile Dundee: An 80s Classic That Doesn't Get Enough Love

jump back to the year 2020 infamously now known as the year of covid-19 one Friday morning I'm at home doing my work when I get a phone call from Australia and the voice on the other side of the line is instantly unmistakable Michael J crocodile D ah yes that accent that me and my childhood friends all imitated as we called each other mate as children and said that's not a knife that's a knife it was none other than Paul Hogan who at the time was promoting his film the very excellent Mr Dundee which despite the name I have to say was not very excellent but I digress in the movie Hogan played himself getting canceled on the eve of his nighting Jacob bordi from Euphoria played his son before he got super famous you have a knife but mine's bigger that's not the line yes that's not the line I've been doing this for 20 years I think i' know as I said the movie wasn't great but Hogan himself was a gem and amazing to talk to with him chatting to me much longer than he had to telling me a bunch of stories from his career such as when he was hiking in LA and came across some folks being menaced by a snake they all assumed quite incorrectly that he would be able to deal with uh ever isn't he well like all God's creatures they just want to ride to rme Across the Earth and be left in peace naturally we spent a lot of time talking about Crocodile Dundee a movie I watched over and over and over again as a kid and I'm still incredibly fond of people may not realize it now but Crocodile Dundee is one of the most profitable films ever made it was shot for only $8 million in Australian currency and made $336 million at the global box office which was equal to about $800 million now it was the second highest grossing film of 1986 just coming in a hair under Top Gun there are no points for second place it led to an American fascination with Australia that was memorably lampooned on one of the best Simpsons episodes ever this is a knife that's not a knife that's a spoon all right all right you in I see you pled knifey spoony before and it got two sequels one of which crocod dund 2 was a massive hit that actually beat Rambo 3 at the box office on Memorial Day Weekend 1988 and I got to say as a six-year-old that was the movie that I went to see that weekend Mick you're back yeah you're back I missed you I know that drink her on the house Paul Hogan became a pop culture icon with crocodile and d one of the most instantly recognizable Heroes of the80s up there with Indiana Jones and Rambo Nick D Day from Australia how are you I'm fine how are you I think in town for a couple of days proba me see you around bye yet Hogan's MC dunde is a much gentler and perhaps misunderstood humor for all its stereotypical Australian trapping such such as a love of Fosters beer and Hell raising with the sprawling Outback a treacherous but exciting playground for Mick and his love interest the American Su Charon played by Paul Hogan's eventual wife Linda kazlowski to fall in love in it's kind of forward thinking in a way lots of people don't appreciate so if you go online you could probably find a million think pieces that call Crocodile Dundee racist or homophobic maybe from a modern lens the movie is a bit problematic but then again this was made in 1986 and things were simply different back back then and I think that Paul Hogan's intentions were always pretty good looking for a good time honey always looking for a good time for one thing dunde in the film is shown to love and appreciate Australia's Aboriginal population which in both films are actually portrayed quite heroically the movie also has a strong anti-p poaching message while it suggested that Mick himself is poaching crocodiles in the third film he actually becomes a conservationist and there's a pretty famous scene in the film film that shows a bunch of Australian businessmen going crazy in the bush and shooting up a bunch of kangaroos which is depicted as monstrous Mick grabs his rifle after suit kind of baits him and using a kangaroo corpse he calls Skippy as cover he shoots up the poachers sending them home licking their wounds in a scene that as a kid I thought was the coolest thing [Music] ever good one Skippy doesn't kill anyone though even in the sequel which is more of an action film dundy never takes a life and in fact the only one who actually kills anyone in the second film is Sue who takes out the main bad guy at the end of the film and a recurring gag for the movies is that she's always been presented as this very very capable Marx woman despite the fact that she's a big city gal in fact I kind of like that about the movies because Sue could have been portrayed as just hysterical running around the Outback screaming whenever she sees a snake but in the movie she actually shown to actually absolutely love the Outback and to be very capable sure Mick does save her a couple of times but she also saves saves him several times in the sequel and really seems much more at home in the whole surrounding than well Mick does when he goes to New York later in the movie which makes it kind of a great Fish Out of Water comedy doesn't it some ni which put two dunnies in it one dunny one B it's for um after you you um you know you figure it out as Hogan himself told me though he wanted to make an action hero that well didn't really kill people mix didn't have any superpowers his only superpower was that he had a great sense of humor although I don't know in this movie and especially in the sequel he does kind of have superpowers he seems very in tune with nature and with animals almost to the point that he's magical Jesus he did single out though the famous knife scene the that's not an off scene that's an off in a lot of movies as he said he would have pulled out the knife and stabbed a few people but he didn't he dismissed the situation with humor and that was the intention as I told him I felt like Mick could have probably gone for a couple beers with those youths that hassled him with the knife afterwards and he laughed and said yeah sure probably would have so Dundee Never Kills anyone but I maintain that Hogan throws probably the best punch of the 80s with amazing fully work backing up any sequence where he punches out bullies High Society types and even a vicious pimp and his goons indeed crocod dundi works on a lot of levels it's a really interesting take on the fish Out of Water comedy with Mick himself taking on the role in the second half of the film as he goes to New York Hogan never presents Dundee as two ultra Macho either there's a great scene early in the movie where he dismisses a brawl by kissing a guy on the lips something that no other leading man at the time probably would have done and there's nice little throwaway Ms such as when he pretends to shave with his knife but actually has a big razor he has hidden in his belt that he prefers there are so many great scenes in crocodile dunde especially when Mick gets to New York and has to try to win over Sue who's torn B between her love of Mick and her desire to marry into High Society she actually seems to be playing some kind of cruel games with him early on with her flirting and Romancing him only to surprise him with the fact that she's engaged to another man the hotel Mick yeah g a wife a Lor store it all comes to a great ending though with Sue coming to terms with the fact that Mick well he's the man for her and it ends with her having to win him back on a famous scene on a subway platform where they're all communicating messages back and forth tell them don't leave she's never marry Richard don't leave I'm not going to marry Richard it's a movie it's a scene that I absolutely loved when I was a child and I think it still holds up now it always makes me [Music] smile now it could be noted of course that there are certain things about the movie that maybe haven't aged quite as well and I have to say it's probably mix let's say curiosity when he meets a few gay characters now it could be argued that his intentions in the film are very naive and not malicious I've been trying to tell you all night that girl she's a guy a man dressed up as a girl and Hogan himself told me when I asked him about jokes that haven't aged well that well there were some attitudes that have been around forever and shouldn't be but I never do anything with bad intentions some of the racer jokes in the movie are are still kind of funny though such as when he mistakes a cokehead out a party for a guy with a cold and accidentally ruins his stash it's interesting because the first film is actually very casual towards drugs but the sequel is super a product of the War on Drugs with Hogan himself taking on a Pablo Escobar style bdy and leading him to his Doom in the outback with him and his aigal Palace having their way with him overall crocodile dunde remains a favorite movie of mine as it's just so damn positive has it aged super well no there are a couple bits in the movie that could be be construed as homophobic and don't really add anything to the movie but I also again don't think that Hogan himself was necessarily racist or homophobic I think that the attitudes of the time were simply the attitudes of the time and again I think that it's actually quite Forward Thinking in its depiction of the aboriginals although perhaps people from the region might disagree with me nice to meet you sue bye n I'll catch up you if you can get over these facts though I have to say Pro and D is still kind of a great movie I watched again to prepare for this column and I had a blast watching it I really think it's a lot of fun and one of the things that I always liked about these films isn't that dundy superpower is how well he hurts people but rather the fact that he makes friends so easily as they come to his rescue when needed such as a great sequence at the end of the movie when his chauffeur played by a pre- Die Hard Reginal V Johnson beats up on The Pimps that got the upper hand on Mick you sure you're not Pinon J tribe no man H wall I can't help but love this movie and if you haven't seen it in a while you know given that it's a film of its time give it a watch I think you'll have a [Music] [Music] blast [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: JoBlo Originals

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Id: LcZwBenEITE

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2024