Whether you are a true blue Aussie reflecting on your iconic history, or a visitor to the great sunburned land. A selection of films about Australia and Australian culture may be enough to fill your heart with Aussie pride or make you cringe.
They may fill you with love and share a giggle or shed a tear and move your world.
What's your favourite Aussie film?
Here's a few of my suggestions to get your Aussie juices flowing:
Australia
A heart warming story of survival and struggles for women in the outback of Australia. Portraying the differences with indigenous culture versus White man, it is a heart warming movie that fills you with compassion of the injustices that took place in Australian history.
Welcome to Woop Woop
Now you may never have heard of this movie, and to try and describe it is actually pretty hard. It's a movie that will offend many people and seem incredibly unrealistic. However, having grown up living underground on opal mining townships, I can 'get' the characters this movie portrays. From oversized kangaroos to kidnapping husbands, and bodies that explode from natural gases, it's going to give you something to talk about if nothing else.
Red Dog
An Aussie tale of loyalty and a dogs search for his master in the outback of Australia.
Priscilla queen of the desert
Drag queens take on the desert plains in a outlandishly decorated bus. You'll laugh and cringe at their trials in the Australian outback.
Breaker Morant
Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant was a drover, horseman, poet, soldier and convicted war criminal whose skill with horses earned him the nickname "The Breaker". During the Second Boer War, he was involved with several controversial executions which led to his own court-martial and execution for murder. Since then, Morant has become a folk hero.
Mad Max Series
Whilst not really about Australia at all, the mad max series were filmed in the outback of Australia. The dusty barren plains take on a different energy when surrounded by 100s of filthy kids and actors.
I was one of them. At 6 years old, living near where they were filming, the directors needed more children and came asking if we would like to be in a movie they were making called Mad Max, hence quite a part of my childhood was spent in 'the thunderdome'.
Picnic at Hanging Rock
A haunting mystery that remains unsolved to this very day.
Set to burn into peoples minds forever it was a day never forgotten when a group of schoolgirls were taken to share a picnic at hanging rock, in Victoria. No one knows what took place or where the girls went, yet they were never seen again.
Gallipoli
Every year Australians will honour Anzac day and the service these men gave so we may have the lifestyle we enjoy today.
Gallipoli is filled with Aussie patriotism, the larrikinism of the Australians training in Egypt, mateship that borders on homosexuality and the futility of the Gallipoli campaign. It highlights the senseless deaths and the story of mateship, courage and bravery. Mixing political sensitivity, it manages to appease the anti-war activists, along with the old veterans. A movie to understand the heart of many Australians.
Razorback
You know those movies that part of you says could not possibly be true, yet somehow, like jaws, they haunt you for years (I still don't swim comfortably in open oceans). Razorback may well be one of those. A wild, vicious pig terrorizes the Australian outback, with people brought in for trial of murder, the story unfolds of the true killer being a beast in the wilderness.
Cry in the Dark, aka Evil Angels
The story that continues to divide a nation. Did she, didn't she, is she telling the truth, people have definite lines drawn in the sand. The only certainty is that it gave us something to talk about for years as to whether a dingo really could snatch a baby in the outback of central Australia.
I spent months involved in filming of this movie and to this day, even I can't be sure either way.
Shine
Geoffrey rush plays an amazing role in shine. Set in Australia it shows the talent and the humour of a genius soul tormented by a less than perfect body.
Muriel's Wedding
An hilarious look at a girls desire to get married. Coming from a working class background in Australia, this movie portrays a depiction of life for many in Australia. Laugh, cry or cringe, it is well loved by many.
Ned Kelly
An iconic part of Australian history, Ned Kelly is one of australias most well known bushrangers. This movie tells the story of his life and part of history that makes up Australia.
Puberty Blues
For some this movie may seem far fetched, for others who lived thought the 70s beach culture and growing up in these times (as I did), it will hit all those familiar chords of past that you really never wanted to reflect upon again. Some won't 'get it', others will find it a diary of their years. Either way it is a part of australias beach history and growing up in uncomfortable times.
Do you have a favourite Aussie movie?
We would love to hear about it, please share your suggestions here:
