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Full-Text Articles in Film and Media Studies
Kenny And Australian Cinema In The Howard Era, Lisa Milner
Kenny And Australian Cinema In The Howard Era, Lisa Milner
Dr Lisa Milner
The “battler” figure has been a popular and enduring character in the Australian cultural imagination, of literature and screen, from the time of The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and then featured in the Dad and Dave films (1932-1995). It was later “ockerised” for Bazza McKenzie, “Crocodile” Dundee and others. It is a deeply engrained identifier in the national memory, this ordinary citizen, workingclass, well-intentioned, hard-working, the underdog who struggles against the world to overcome troubles through an essential integrity. The symbol of the battler has been used to reflect what we hope we are as Australians. My paper is about two …
Bastardising The Waterfront Dispute: Production And Critical Reception Of The Bastard Boys Mini-Series, Lisa Milner, Rebecca Coyle
Bastardising The Waterfront Dispute: Production And Critical Reception Of The Bastard Boys Mini-Series, Lisa Milner, Rebecca Coyle
Dr Lisa Milner
This article examines the production and reception of Bastard Boys, a television mini-series broadcast on ABC TV in May 2007 that depicted aspects of the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute. Our research concerns how the dramatisation of such a union dispute (and historical moment) informed the final outcome as a media product. Employing commonplace fictional devices as well as seemingly factual referents, the series offers a link to the original events via four 'personal' storylines. We scrutinise the critical reception of the series and argue that the supposed 'reality' and ethics of the dispute have been confused with those of the …
Kenny: The Evolution Of The Battler Figure In Howard's Australia, Lisa Milner
Kenny: The Evolution Of The Battler Figure In Howard's Australia, Lisa Milner
Dr Lisa Milner
This article explores ways in which the low-budget mockumentary film Kenny (Clayton Jacobson, 2006) evolves the figure of the Australian battler, from its earlier incarnation in The Castle (Rob Sitch, 1997). A surprise hit on Australian screens, Kenny is the quietly humorous story of a portaloo worker, one of the 'ordinary Australians' that the Howard government claimed it spoke for. But whilst Kenny brought some old-fashioned toilet humour to the box office, he was overworked, underappreciated and apprehensive. The article maps the film from the perspective of its Australian audience, to suggest ways in which this comic but uneasy version …