Crocodile Dundee

Plot

Sue Charlton is a feature writer for Newsday (which her father owns) and is dating her editor, Richard Mason. She travels to Walkabout Creek, a small hamlet in the Northern Territory of Australia, to meet Michael J. "Crocodile" Dundee, a bushman reported to have lost half a leg to a Saltwater Crocodile. On arrival in Walkabout Creek (by helicopter due to its remote location), Dundee is nowhere to be found, but she is entertained at the local pub by Dundees business partner Walter "Wally" Reilly, who does his best to explain the town and some of its inhabitants, including the towering hulk Donk, who wins money by placing a glass of beer on his head and challenging people to try and spill the beer by punching him in the stomach (Wally explains that Donk has never spilled a drop). When Dundee finally arrives later that night (dramatically announcing his entrance by throwing his hunting knife at the bar and wrestling a stuffed dead crocodile), Sue finds his leg is not missing, but he has a large scar which he refers to as a "love bite". While Sue dances with Dundee, a group of city kangaroo shooters make fun of Dundees status as a crocodile hunter, causing him to knock the leader out with one punch. Feeling lucky, he then challenges Donk and proceeds to make him spill the entire glass, not by hitting him in the stomach, but by kissing him on the lips and thus startling him into dropping the tankard.

At first Sue finds Dundee less "legendary" than she had been led to believe, being unimpressed by his pleasant-mannered but uncouth behaviour and clumsy advances towards her; however, she is later amazed when in the Outback, she witnesses "Mick" (as Dundee is called) subduing a Wild Asian Water Buffalo, taking part in an Aboriginal tribal dance ceremony, killing a snake with his bare hands, and (at her request) scaring away the roo shooters from the pub from their destructive sport of shooting kangaroos. Mick shoots at their truck using a dead kangaroo as cover, making them think the roo is shooting at them, which in their drunken state causes them to flee (in a reference to a well known Australian television show, as Sue cheers from her hiding spot Mick puts down the dead roo and remarks "Good one, Skippy"). The next morning, offended by Micks assertion that as a "sheila" (Aussie slang for a female) she is incapable of surviving the Outback alone, Sue goes out alone to prove him wrong, but takes his rifle with her at his request. Mick silently follows her to make sure she is OK, but when she stops at a billabong to refill her canteen, she is attacked by a crocodile and is rescued by Mick. Overcome with tearful gratitude for Micks heroism, and realizing that he is at heart a true gentleman, Sue finds herself becoming attracted to him.

Sue invites Mick to return with her to New York City on the pretext of continuing the feature story. At first Wally scoffs at her suggestion, but quickly changes his mind when she tells him the newspaper would cover all expenses. Once in New York, Mick is perplexed by local behaviour and customs, but is still able to overcome problematic situations including two encounters with a pimp and two attempted robberies, the second of which includes the legendary line "Thats not a knife; THATS a knife!" after he and Sue were almost mugged by young thugs who pull out a switchblade, and Mick scares them off with his much larger hunting knife. After this Sue realizes her true feelings for him and they kiss. At a society dinner at her fathers home in honour of Sues safe return and of Micks visit, Richard proposes marriage to Sue (doing so right in front of Mick as a somewhat jealous dig towards Mick, who is sitting beside them at the dinner party table), and in a haze of confused emotions, she initially accepts in spite of Richards having recently revealed his self-centered and insensitive “true colours” during a period of intoxication (at which point in a crowded upper-class restaurant, Mick punched him after distracting Sue). Mick, disheartened at Sues engagement, decides to go walkabout around the USA, but Sue has a change of heart in the meantime and, deciding not to marry Richard after all, follows Mick to a subway station. There, she cannot reach him through the crowd on the platform, but has members of the crowd relay her message to him, whereupon he climbs up to the rafters and walks to Sue on the heads and raised hands of the jubilant crowd and embraces her.

Cast

Production

The idea to make the film came to Paul Hogan when he was in New York. He wondered what it would be like if a Northern Territory bushman arrived in town. Paul hogan

Theres a lot about Dundee that we all think were like; but were not, because we live in Sydney. Hes a mythical outback Australian who does exist in part—the frontiersman who walks through the bush, picking up snakes and throwing them aside, living off the land who can ride horses and chop down trees and has that simple, friendly, laid-back philosophy. Its like the image the Americans have of us, so why not give them one?... Weve always been desperately short of folk heroes in this country. Ned Kelly is pathetic. So are the bushrangers.

The films budget was raised through the 10BA tax concessions via Morgan Sharebrokers. Paul Hogan used his regular collaborators from TV, including John Cornell, Peter Faiman and Ken Shadie. Linda Kozlowski was imported to play the American reporter; Actors Equity Australia objected to this but eventually relented.

Six weeks of filming were spent working out of Jaja, an abandoned uranium mining camp in Kakadu National Park, with an additional week in Cloncurry. There was a further six weeks filming in New York. Filming finished on 11 October 1985.

A number of minor changes were made to the film for its US release.

When the film finished Hogan said he expected it would make millions of dollars around the world. Hogan also said of the film, "Im planning for it to be Australias first proper movie. I dont think weve had one yet—not a real, general public, successful, entertaining movie."

Critical reaction

The film has a rating of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is currently ranked the fifth best film of 1986 on a poll.

James Berardinelli of Reelviews.net gave the film three stars out of four stating, "What the storyline lacks in ambition, it makes up for in sheer, unfettered likability."

Box office

Crocodile Dundee debuted at #1, and was a worldwide box office hit. The film grossed $47,707,045 at the box office in Australia, which is equivalent to $104,001,358 in 2009 dollars.

The film was released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures in September 1986. It grossed $174,803,506 at the domestic box office. It was the second highest-grossing film that year (after Top Gun) for both the studio and the United States box office.

Sequels