I rewatched George Miller's Australian entry into the BFI's Century of Cinema series,
40,000 Years Of Dreaming last night and these were the films mentioned by it.
The documentary is divided into a number of themes. It begins with films that sing a 'song of the land': Sons Of Matthew (1949), The Squatter's Daughter (1933), No Worries (1993), Newsfront (1977), The Back Of Beyond (1954) and of course Picnic At Hanging Rock. (The Back of Beyond looks particularly interesting)
This gave rise to the Bushman ("a romantic figure for the urban Australian and also a figure of fun"), portrayed through the following film clips: On Our Selection (1932), The Breaking of the Drought (1920), Man From Snowy River (1982), The Shiralee (1957), Dad and Dave Come To Town (1938), The Hayseeds (1933), Dad Rudd, M.P. (1940) and of course Crocodile Dundee! (The film I'd most like to see from this collection would be The Shiralee, directed by Leslie Norman)
Next comes the 'Convicts' section with a short clip from what looks to be a fascinating silent film For The Term Of His Natural Life (1927).
Then to 'Bushrangers' with clips from two of the six versions of the Ned Kelly story, one which Miller describes as 'arguably the world's first feature length movie' The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) (which in the short clip shown is incredibly damaged in a Decasia-fashion, and similarly to Decasia the damage actually makes the clip even more fascinating), and Ned Kelly (1970) with Mick Jagger. This spirit, the documentary goes on to say, lives on with behaviour in films like Malcolm (1986) which brings the programme to...
'Mates and Larrikins' ("Vulgarity used as a defence against pretension"), with clips from The Sentimental Bloke (1919), Stork (1971), The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972) (first appearance of Dame Edna!), and Wake In Fright (1971) (Wake In Fright is another film I'd like to track down and the clip from the silent Sentimental Bloke is very funny too!)
This leads to 'Alcohol' illustrated by clips from Let George Do It (1939), They're A Weird Mob (1966) and Caddie (1976).
Then the War section ("the larrikin goes off to war and becomes the digger") - The Odd Angry Shot (1979), Forty Thousand Horseman (1940) (the clips of men on horses running through no-man's land before being cut down by machine gun fire from the opposite trench is quite spectacular), Breaker Morant (1979) and of course Gallipoli (1981) ("in which the Anzac digger becomes the stuff of legend. Because Australia had no movies with the healing power of The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now or Platoon, Gallipoli had to serve not just for the First World War but also as a stand in for the nation's experiences in Vietnam")
Damien Parer's role as a Second World War cameraman is mentioned, along with some of his footage ("His collaboration with Ken Hall on Cine Sounds newsreels won the first Australian Academy Award". It is not mentioned in the documentary but John Duigan made a TV film about Parer called
Fragments of War in 1988)
"For a quarter of a century after the war there was no national cinema due to lack of finance, political will and the dominance of US cinema - the job of telling the nation's story was left to newsreels."
Clips from Newsfront both illustrate this point and serve to show the re-emergence of Australian cinema.
The documentary then moves on to 'Pommy Bashing' - depictions of the Englishman in Australian films mostly as a "monocled nincompoop", and suggests the main point behind such films were to show the English being thought of as pompous by the Australians and the Australians being considered disposable by the English. Clips from Splendid Fellows (1934), The Adventures of Algy (1925), My Brilliant Career (1979), Gallipoli, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, It Isn't Done (1937) and Breaker Morant illustrate this section.
Next come 'The Sheilas', first showing portrayals of women on the transports from England in Journey Among Women (1977) and Heritage (1935), to a portrayal of the woman who "when she is not being fought over, is being rescued" in Thoroughbred (1936), Son of Matthew and The Squatter's Daughter.
Stronger female roles start appearing - a clip from The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934) is shown, which portrays a fallen woman, a seductress tempting a man of the cloth (the clips from this film look particularly interesting!). The Overlanders (1946) and Son of Matthew shows strong willed country girls "but they didn't stand a chance [against love plots]!", shown with a clip from Rangle River (1946) in which the man has to take over when the woman makes a mess of things.
The change is tracked to My Brilliant Career and Judy Davis' rejection of Sam Neill's marriage proposal in that film. Clips from Shame (1988) (in which a woman beats up her intended assaulters) and of course Dead Calm (1989) are shown. Also Sirens (1994) "This film is fascinating for its exploration of female sexuality apart from male desire - however for a lot of people it was just a celebration of Elle MacPherson's breasts!"
"The Australian cinema is not overly preoccupied with sex but when they do explore it, it is usually in films about growing up". Clips from films in the coming of age section come from The Year My Voice Broke (1987) and The Devil's Playground (1976).
The portrayal of homosexuality is illustrated through clips from Dad and Dave Come To Town, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), The Sum of Us (1994) and Love and Other Catastrophes (1996).
Next comes race relations with clips from Silver City (1984), They're A Weird Mob, Death In Brunswick (1991), Romper Stomper (1992) and Strictly Ballroom (1992).
"Pluralism now is taken for granted, with one exception:"
'Aboriginies'. Clips from Bitter Springs (1950), Jedda (1955) (This is the film I most want to see in full, according to Miller's commentary this was also the first Australian film shot in colour), Wrong Side of the Road (1981), The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (1978), Black Fellas (1993) and of course Walkabout (1971).
"Most of the population are gathered in cities on the coastal fringe and mostly remain oblivious to the inequities. It has become the land of the long weekend, hedonistic to the point of apathy - the urban Australian has made leisure an art form."
This leads into the final 'Urban Subversion' section of the documentary - "If cinema is dreaming, it may be a mark of developing maturity that we are beginning to dream the more toxic dreams."
Clips here are from Return Home (1990), Bliss (1985), Muriel's Wedding (1994) and Bad Boy Bubby (1992).
I hope this run down of Miller's documentary has been helpful. If anyone has any more information to add about some of the films (especially Jedda and For The Term Of His Natural Life), I'd be fascinated to hear more about them.
