We’re still under full lockdown. Complete social isolation mode. I get it, the less said about it, the better. So here’s a little something to take your mind off it for a breezy 97 minutes: Crocodile Dundee. It feels like a good time to keep it light with our movie selections and it doesn’t get much lighter or easier watching than this 1986 fish out of water, adventure, romantic comedy. Fun little fact for you: Crocodile Dundee was the second highest grossing movie of 1986, behind only Top Gun. Could that many people have been wrong in 1986? I think there was a lot of cocaine being snorted back then… but what the hell, I buy it. And you should too. The movie, not cocaine.
Crocodile Dundee can be broken into 2 parts, the safari through the Northern Territories in Australia and a trip to New York. We first meet Sue Charlton, an adventurous journalist from Newsweek played by Linda Kozlowski, as she is arriving by helicopter in Walkabout Creek in the Northern territories of Australia. She is on her way to write a story about Michael J. “Crocodile” Dundee, or Mick to his friends, played by Paul Hogan. Mick was alleged to have lost half his leg to a crocodile and to have crawled miles and miles all the way back to town. Sue quickly learns this story is exaggerated and that Mick only has some severe bite marks on his leg. Despite this exaggeration, she quickly becomes impressed with his survival skills and his charming, laid back nature as the traverse the multi day trek to see the spot where the crocodile attacked him. Along the way Mick also makes an offhand comment about Sue only being a “sheila” and that she couldn’t survive alone out there in “man’s country”, which obviously greatly offends her and causes her to go on ahead and meet him at the next resting spot. Mick is clearly fascinated and impressed that this city woman would even think to go off on her own like that. He ends up having to rescue her from a crocodile, and this is where their mutual respect and affection is kindled. Mick respects that she would have the guts to go off into the bush all on her own, and Sue gains an understanding of just how dangerous it is out in the bush and just how good Mick is to survive out there. Out of newfound affection and respect for Mick, Sue asks him to come back with her to New York to finish the story.
When Sue asks Mick if he’s ever been to a city, he replies that he’s never been anywhere, so obviously New York is going to be a very interesting place for Mick Dundee. Mick makes new friends everywhere he goes in the Big Apple, with his laid back, small town, back country charm. His innocence and obliviousness to New York culture and big city life are sure to win over the audience and anyone he meets… well almost anyone. Sue’s editor and supposed fiance to be is none too thrilled with the charming, laid back bushman from down under who may be moving in on his girl. Richard tries to big shot and belittle Mick and his backward country ways, and Mick not being one to back down from a challenge, responds in kind. So we get to the main conflict of the second half of the movie: will Sue choose her newspaper editor, yuppie 80s man fiance, or will she be won over by Mick’s easygoing charm and innocence? Mick’s backcountry innocence is on full display when he mistakes a pair of prostitutes for just some overly friendly ladies, or when he wastes a few hundred dollars of a man’s cocaine because he thinks he’s trying to clear up a stuffed nose. Yes, that’s right, there was even cocaine IN the movie. But I digress. The centerpiece of the movie really is this incredibly charming, folksy, easygoing persona that Hogan has created and emanates through his performance as Mick Dundee. That and his palpable chemistry with Kozlowski, whom he actually ended up marrying in real life. Kozlowski really sells the smart, tough, modern, independent woman, and it’s hard not to be enamored with her in this movie.
So you need to break up the boredom of one of these days spent in isolation, just a lighthearted distraction to let you escape it all for about an hour and a half? You could do much worse than Crocodile Dundee. I invite you to take a trip to the back parts of the Northern Territories of Australia and then on to New York with Mick Dundee and Sue Charlton for some adventure, quite a few laughs, some romance and just a little escape. After all, could audiences in 1986 really have been wrong? Please don’t do cocaine.
As of this writing, Crocodile Dundee is available for your viewing pleasure on Netflix