The Original Crocodile
Dundee
Crocodile Dundee is a 1986 Australian comedy film set in the
Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan
as the weathered Mick Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as Sue
Charlton.
Inspired by the true life exploits of Rodney Ansell, the
film was made on a budget of under $10 million as a
deliberate attempt to make a commercial Australian film that
would appeal to a mainstream American audience, but proved
to be a worldwide phenomenon. Released on 30 April 1986 in
Australia, and on 26 September 1986 in the United States, it
was the second highest grossing film in the USA in that year
and went on to become the number one film worldwide at the
box office.
There are two versions of the film: The Australian version,
and the American/international version, with much of the
Australian slang replaced with more commonly understood
terms, and also being slightly shorter, lacking several
scenes. The international version also changes the title to
"Crocodile" Dundee, adding the quotation marks.
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The Plot
At the beginning of the film, protagonist Michael
"Crocodile" Dundee (Paul Hogan) is living in the Australian
Outback with Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) and their young
son Mikey (Serge Cockburn}. Crocodile hunting has been made
illegal; therefore Mick has been reduced to wrestling
crocodiles for the entertainment of tourists, having as his
rival in the business another Outback survivalist named
Jacko (Alec Wilson). When an opportunity comes for Sue to
become Los Angeles bureau chief of a newspaper owned by her
father, Mick and his family cross the Pacific to California.
In America, Mick and his son's encounters with the locals
cause cross-cultural mishaps. Mick becomes an amateur sleuth
helping to probe the mysterious death of his wife's
predecessor at the newspaper, while Mikey attends a local
school, where he quickly impresses his classmates and
teacher with his outback survival skills.
It is revealed that a film studio that the dead reporter had
been investigating is about to make a sequel to the action
film Lethal Agent, despite the title's previous commercial
failures. Mick becomes suspicious when several paintings
from Southern Europe are brought onto the set; although at
first he suspects drug smuggling, the pictures themselves
are revealed to be missing art from a museum in former
Yugoslavia. They are to appear in the movie as mere props,
to be publicly 'destroyed' in a scene in which they are set
on fire, at which time they will have been exchanged for
copies.
Attempting to secure one of the paintings as evidence, Mick,
Sue, and Jacko run afoul of the studio director and his
thugs. Using the studio's props and two lions used in the
filmings to defeat the gangsters, Mick and Sue solve the
case and return to Australia, where they are officially
married. Jacko brings Mikey's teacher with him. |
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