The Adventures of Barry McKenzie - Movie Review Example

The Adventures of Barry McKenzie The Adventure of Barry McKenzie is a 1972 film produced in Australia and starred by Barry Crocker alongside Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) (Moran 15). The film has the role of Barry Mckenzie has a simple and loveable Australian lad who is to visit Britain upon getting $ 2000 so as to find out the cultural implications from the motherland as captured in the sentiments “further the cultural and intellectual traditions of the Mc Kenzie dynasty” (Coslovich 19). This film depicted the wide cultural gap between the Australians and the Britons which portrayed Australia in a manner that was unprecedented or rather anticipated. Though comic works had been going on the same, the film project received varying views and perceptions about the image of Australia. The Adventure of Barry McKenzie was the first film to be funded by the newly Australian Film Development Corporation at cost of $ 250,000 (Coslovich 47). Indeed it proved to be a worthwhile undertaking since it was widely received and made outstanding profits in the Australian Film Industry. This in fact made a swift change in the cultural perceptions between the Britons and Australians. Things became different since then and the Aboriginals tent started being mounted outside Parliament House agitating for land rights, the women’s movement gained momentum and consequently the Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam became victorious to forming the federal government after a tedious trend of being in opposition for 23 years (Coslovich 58). The Australian political took a paradigm shift from the Old ways of British mandate and hence propounded new sense of belonging by formulating new policies and doing away with outdate policies such as the White Australia policy. It was a high time that social transformation was perceived in general. Therefore this work will examine the independence gained by the Aussie as emanating from the Adventure of Barry McKenzie contribution. Based on the film, Humphries and Beresford made the use of ocker mask of Bazza to deal squarely with pertinent issues touching the society’s way of life. Specifically making comment on sex, class, religion, politics and race among others (Coslovich 88). The film captivated the production of more films which tried to display the Australian culture and national identity for instance the film The Man from the Snowy River bring out clearly the same issues (Rayner 97). The Adventures of Barry McKenzie tough was based on the famous cartoon series which has long been featured in the London weekly as satirical Private Eye ( Maclyntyre 88). The comic was gained prominence in England while it was censured in Australia. But eventually Humphries made a remarkable move by using the film to captivate the audience and in the same time “mock the Australian government’s cultural patronage: he has Bazza visiting an expatriate mate in Paris and telling him: ‘Don’t let this clapped out culture grab you, mate. I mean back in Oz now we’ ve got culture up to our arseholes” ( Maclntyre 13). Australia is perceived as a country that offer the free space for everyone to engage and hope for new development in the sphere of life despite the ingrained and much rooted suppositions in the manner of cultural interaction , sexual orientation and class stratification which is part of the stereotypical tendencies of the past (Rayner 47). With the foregoing exposition it would be a strong indication that the way of life in the wake call for change had been for a long time been a struggle between the colonial masters incumbent hold on power and influencing the way of life of the natives at a large. Barry in the film display the masculinity that was part and parcel of the male way of life probably being engaged in beer drinking and rowdy tendencies. The captivation from the film is brought out in that the long inclination to the lifestyle and belief of the Aussies had been long on the edge but it was high time to come out in the more equally bound train and search for independence from exploitations and undermining of the cultural comprehension (Rayner 61). The film depict Barry as having been caught in “both old-fashioned in its circumscription of both nationalities, and contemporary in its attitude towards the vestiges of the British heritage” (Rayner 76). The Adventure of Barry McKenzie is what captured the new nationalistic look that displayed the satirical emphasis that elevated Whitlam to power (Pender 71). The film brought about highlights of the way of lifestyle the Australian had been leading and battling out for the many years in the past which had formed part of their culture identity. This film is much referred as stylistically resembles “a cartoon-like filmic version of the Private Eye comic strip” (Craven 91). Therefore, the character demonstrated by Barry McKenzie is captured in a form that works out in a serial manner than the sequential manner. This puts more emphasis on the “gag rather than on narrative progression” (Craven 31). The film makes Barry to run through the events in a characteristic Australian way that captures his vernacular, which subjects a strong narrative that gives a notion of identity. At the time of the production of the film the Australia accent was nowhere in the screening world in such a degree that was later displayed by the film the Adventure of Barry McKenzie. Then the humor and cultural representation was made open in the film and indeed this was meant to bring out the nationalistic stances that asserted the move away from the British predominance. The Success of the film was based on “Barry’s many colloqualisms- many devised by Humphries and Beresford for the film and then passing into the vernacular” (Craven 63). The film is praised for its contribution in liberating the Australian form the much rendered services from the British Empire which was as a result of the struggle to do away with the colonialism and bring about the modern perception of change and a new image of Australia (Pender 76). The outcome of the film was the display in a comedy form the dislike surrounding the Englishman (Moran et al. 47). The film made popular the ocker comedies, which portrayed in Barry the Australian who travelled to England. The inheritance obtained from his father’s behest enabled him to go and experience life in a different fashion from the ordinary Aussie way. What the Adventure of Barry McKenzie capture is the clash between the two cultures in the British Empire and that of Australia which specifically can be highlighted in the manner they went into the adventure with a much more ignorant and complicated Aunt Edna. In the film Barry has made a distinctive tendencies of the Australia common way of life that tends to depict a struggle with the life line between the native people and those from abroad which comes out clearly when he comes out dressed in a manner suggesting to be a convict and then a couple of Australian Aboriginals in hot pursuit of him. Australia comes out has a land not belonging to the colonialist. The interaction in the film between Barry and the pair of sub-continental doctors shows a share of historical outcomes being a migrant and being a native Aussie (“Screen” 2010). The perception envisage as to the Australians Abroad and at home had change tremendously since the release of the films in that the nationalistic and cultural identity had been cemented form the innocence earlier portrayed by the Aussies ( Rayner 99). In the film Adventure of Barry McKenzie the way of life depicted was far much different from those lived by the Britons which of course fomented a move towards the solidarity perspective towards the Aussies who as displayed by Bazza and his colleagues are bigots born of ignorance. The image created to the British audience was that of rural atmosphere entangled with roughness, rowdiness and beer-drinking tendencies (Coslovich 27). But for the Aussies it was an identity of the reality to their way of life and they identified with it hence promoted the sense of patriotism to the Aussies. Today the Aussies have come of age and the point of contention in recent times was the Australian Flag which was perceived as promoting the long gone sign of Anglo superiority (Coslovich 58). The changes longed for by the Aussies still take effect to date and a good attribute portrayed by the Adventure of Barry McKenzie film has influenced in part the removal of the wording multiculturalism and substituted by the renaming relevant departments as the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (Coslovich 27). The Adventure of Barry McKenzie is based on the an Australian Barry, going to England to extend the cultural value he already had and on reaching England, he experienced great adventures and at one time he had pondered to marry the daughter a middle class family. The extent of his interaction with the new world in his sphere was characterized by engaging in beer drinking and cultivating conversations based on jokes entangled in the functions of the body as well as on sexual orientation and inexperience (Coyle et al. 66). In the film, the Australians are captured as being drunkards whereas on the other hand the British are being portrayed as the most perverts and corrupt. Furthermore the film depicts his Auntie Edna as being kidnapped in France as a reason of mistaken identity as being the Queen of England yet in the real sense she was a just a housewife back in Australia. This film indeed tries to captivate “ the innocent abroad and coming of age themes” which on the other hand tries to bring out what “ is narratively more complex but thematically less coherent, playing more obviously with film genre conventions of gothic comedy and comic melodrama” (Coyle et al. 42). The Australian identity abroad was capture in the film with the need to provide a scheme to offer a variance in the cultural and national identity which was far more against the British (Rayner 46). The Adventure of Barry McKenzie film used music elements that give ride to the nature of Struggle in cultural identity which is based solely on the “reference to familiar songs and western/Anglophone musical items and popular music’s role in Australian culture” (Coyle et al. 57). The music places the film in different sets of historical circumstances. At some point in time the Australians had come of age in the relationship perceived between them and the British which had some elements of stereotypical competing interests (Rayner 66). The film has in fact made contribution in sailing the Australians through the burden of shifting power form the oppressive colonialists. The Australians had for a long time agitated for the independence and as a result had come of age in understanding and appreciating what the forces of change was demanding. From the historical perspective the need to improve on the well being of the Aboriginals and the implementation hindrance of the 1967 constitutional referendum has stack its neck out (Maclntyre 68). Those who aided the mischief suffered the consequences of being voted out and in came the modernity away the traditional coalition rule. Therefore it is plainly put forth by (Maclntyre 56) that “over the past two decades, the new leader proclaimed, Australia had conducted itself as ‘insignificant, racist, militaristic, sycophantic, a timid and unworthy creature of the great powers to whom it had surrendered its identity’.” The Adventure of Barry McKenzie Came in handy to supplement what had been the political changes in the sphere of Australian political landscape. This was indeed a move into the nationalism that allowed the identity and attributes of the Aussies to be known internationally. A strategy had been embraced to facilitate the promotion of the nationalism which is captured in the need to expand support for the Australian contents in the artwork that need to be presented in television and other historic site (Maclntyre 73). As concluding remarks what was captured from the film Adventure of Barry McKenzie is a remarkable cementing of the move from the colonial tendencies to the nationalistic image of the Australians with the changes in political sphere facilitating and promoting the same. The film had made audience from many walk of life which aid in capturing the real sense of what can be a cultural change from other quarters of life which the citizens will live by it with the belief that it is the way of life yet in reality it can be said to be a source of exploitation and oppression of the subject a tool used effectively by the British colonial masters. However today, Australians have embraced change and have been free from the outdated influence of the British Empire. Work cited Coslovich, G. Strewth! Bazza Speaks Volumes. The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 Feb 2007. Web. 4 June 2012. Coyle,R & Hanna, M .Making Time in the Barry McKenzie Films.11 July 2005. Web. 4 June 2012. Craven, Ian. Australian Cinema in the 1990s. Sydney: Routledge, 2001. Maclntyre, Stuart. A Concise History of Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Moran Albert, and Keating, Chris. The A to Z of Australian Radio and Television. Sydney: Scarecrow Press, 2009. Moran Albert, and Vieth, Errol. The a to Z of Australian and New Zealand Cinema. London: Scarecrow Press, 2009. Pender, A, The Mythical Australia: Barry Humphries, Gough Whitlam and “New Nationalism”. 7 March 2005. Web. 4 June 2012. Rayner Jonathan. Contemporary Australian Cinema: An Introduction. London: Manchester University Press, 2000. Screen Addict. The Adventure of Barry McKenzie. 26 April 2010. Web. 4 June 2012. Read More