George Miller talks about his beginnings in Chinchilla, Queensland, Australia, and the impact of cinema “our one aperture to the larger world” on his childhood. Clips from his films ‘Twilight Zone - The Movie’, ‘Witches of Eastwick’, ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’.
1: Movies as Visual Music: Miller talks about his film-making, how they are edited together like “notes at a piano”. Clip of ‘Mad Max ‘ edited as a “piece of rock and roll”.
2: Movies as Public Dreaming: Miller on the international cultural resonance of the character Mad Max, a universal hero, and on the collective unconscious “When we congregate with strangers in the darkness of the cinema, it is a kind of public dreaming”.
3. Movies as Mythology: The connection between Aboriginal tribal mythology with the story of Mad Max. Interview with Joseph Campbell, mythologist, on the resonance of myths and the similarity of the human psyche through the centuries. Miller on the link with film (100 years old) as a manifestation of the “story-telling tradition that is as old as humankind”.
4. Movies as Songlines: The aboriginal concepts embodied in “The Dreaming” all contained in narrative song. Miller says movies are the songlines of whitefella’s Australia.
Song s of the Land: The expanse of landscape that is a backdrop to many Australian films. Clips from ‘Sons of Matthew’ (1949), Miller on the bush culture, clips from ‘No Worries’ (1993) , ‘The Squatter’s Daughter’ (1933) ,’ Sons of Matthew’ , Newsfront (1977), ‘The Back of Beyond’ (1954), ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ (1975).
The Bushman: characters, often men alone, romanticised figures, simple, but with a sense of irony. Clips from ‘On Our Selection’ (1932), ‘The Breaking of the Drought’ (1920), ‘The Man from Snowy River’ (1982), ‘The Shiralee’ (1957), ‘Dad and Dave Come To Town’ (1938), The Hayseeds (1933), Dad Rudd MP (1940), Crocodile Dundee (1983).
Convicts: Archival footage of convicts (unidentified), both actuality and re-enacted. Clips from ‘For The Term of His Natural Life’ (1927). The theme of convicts was a popular one for films in the twenties, a catharsis for Australia, “coming to terms with its shadowy past”.
Bushrangers: The popular figure of Ned Kelly in Australian cinema (the subject of 6 features). Clip from ‘The Story of the Kelly Gang’ (1906), Ned Kelly (1970), Malcolm (1986).
Mates and Larrikins: Naive working-class heroes in ‘The Sentimental Bloke’ (1919), ‘Stork’ (1971), The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972), Wake in Fright (1971), Let George Do It (1939), They’re a Weird Mob (1966), Caddie (1976).
The Digger: Clips from ‘The Odd Angry Shot’ (1976), Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940), Breaker Morant (1979), Gallipoli (1982), Cinesound review and the work of war cameraman Damien ?Parrow.
Demise of Australian cinema post-war. Clip from Newsfront (1977). Newsreel clips.
Pommy Bashing: Making fun of the English in Australian film, and the link with republicanism. 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), Breaker Morant.
The Sheilas: The characterisation of women, as whores (Journey Among Women (1977)), decoration (Heritage (1935), The Sentimental Bloke, Sons of Matthew), seductresses (The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934)), free-spirited country girls (The Overlanders (1946), Sons of Matthew) Other clips from Rangle River (1936), My Brilliant Career (1979), Shame (1988), Dead Calm (1986), Sirens (1994), The Year My Voice Broke (1987), The Devil’s Playground (1976).
Gays: Homosexuality in Australian cinema. Clips from Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938), The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994), The Sum of Us (1994), Love and Other Catastrophes (1996).
The Wogs: Immigrants in Australian cinema. Clips from ‘Silver City (1984), They’re a Weird Mob, Death in Brunswick (1991), Romper Stomper (1992), Strictly Ballroom (1992),.
Black Fellas: Aboriginals in Australian cinema. Clips from Bitter Springs (1950), Jedda (1955), Wrong Side of the Road (1981), The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (1978), Black Fellas (1993), Walkabout (1981).
Urban Subversion: Return Home (1990), Bliss (1985), Sweetie (1989), Muriel’s Wedding (1994), Bad Boy Bubby (1994).
Miller concludes asking questions about the next 100 years of Australian cinema.