Inclusive list of Australasian films with anything at all American about them: significant American actor, American character, American subject, American writer, American director, significant American crew ...
Attack Force Z (Tim Burstall, 1982) gratuitous American star in John Phillip Law; also has Mel Gibson, who was born in NY state
beDevil (Tracey Moffatt, 1993) Mr Chuck, an American, is the ghost in the first of the three stories.
Bliss (Ray Lawrence, 1985) Harry Joy's business partner is American
Blood Oath (Stephen Wallace, 1990) aka Prisoners of the Sun (USA); war-crimes trials in Ambon
Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Pino Amenta, 1988) John Waters, highly successful playwright dying of cancer, returns to Oz from US for final reunion with wife and child
Caddie (Donald Crombie, 1976) John Ewart plays an American who names the main character after a Cadillac
Coca Cola Kid, The (Dusan Makaveyev, 1985) Eric Roberts is a Coca-Cola executive sent to Australia to bring Coke into the back-blocks; story by Frank Moorhouse, who also wrote The Americans, Baby
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (Simon Wincer, 2001) Mick Dundee travels to Los Angeles, where Sue Charlton's father owns a newspaper; American actors include Linda Kozlowski, Jere Burns, George Hamilton, Mike Tyson; Dundee works in the movie business
Crocodile Dundee (Peter Faiman, 1986) Mick Dundee travels to New York, whence Sue Charlton has come; American actors include Linda Kozlowski
Crocodile Dundee II (John Cornell, 1988) Mick Dundee followed to Australia by American criminals; American actors include Linda Kozlowski
Cut (Kimble Rendall, 2000) American actor Molly Ringwald in slasher
Dallas Doll (Ann Turner, 1993) American actor Sandra Bernhard as Dallas Adair required for role of American lesbian, who is a morally questionable character who is simultaneously desired by and repelled by nearly every character
Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998) US-funded and shot in Australia with actors including Americans Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt
Dead Calm (Phillip Noyce, 1989) Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, Billy Zane, the villain, is a yank
Death of a Soldier (Philippe Mora, 1986) James Coburg plays a senior American commander in Australia during the Second World War
Delinquents, The (Chris Thomson, 1989) Kylie Minogue (Lola Lovell) with American leading man Charlie Schlatter (Brownie Hansen)
Dingo (Rolf de Heer, 1992) Colin Friels plays a trumpeter; American Miles Davis really is one
Dirty Deeds (David Caesar, 2002) John Goodman, American star, is the mafioso who comes to Sydney to take over the pokies
Dish, The (Rob Sitch, 2000) Patrick Warburton (as seen on Seinfeld) plays the guy from NASA
Doing Time For Patsy Cline (Chris Kennedy, 1997) Ralph's (Matt Day) ambition is to play the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville: in fantasy, he does
Evil Angels (Fred Schepisi, 1988) aka A Cry in the Dark; American star Meryl Streep plays Lindy Chamberlain in an Australian accent
Green Card (Peter Weir, 1991) counts as an Australian film because Oz put in much of the money (with France), but is set in the States, where Andie MacDowell is the woman involved with Gerard Depardieu
Gross Misconduct (George Miller, 1993) Jimmy Smits, American star
Harlequin (Simon Wincer, 1980) aka Dark Forces; American actors: Broderick Crawford, Gus Mercurio (who is in a large number of Oz films)
In a Savage Land (Bill Bennett, 1999) Martin Harrison is required to play the anthropologist from Harvard
In the Wake of the Bounty (Charles Chauvel, 1933) introduces Errol Flynn, in the fictionalised part of the movie, as Fletcher Christian; he will later be a big star in HW
Last Wave, The (Peter Weir, 1977) Richard Chamberlain, American star
Lucky Break (Ben Lewin, 1994) aka The Cure; one of a number of Oz films with Anthony LaPaglia and partner Gia Carides; he is from South Australia, but sounds like an American because he has lived and worked there for much of his life
Mad Dog Morgan (Philippe Mora, 1976) Dennis Hopper, American star, with David Gulpilil
Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome ([Dr] George Miller & George Ogilvie, 1985) Tina Turner, American star (not to mention Mel Gibson, who was born in the States, but who has appeared in too many Australian films to make it useful to list them all in this context)
Man from Snowy River, The (George Miller, 1982) Kirk Douglas, American star, plays two brothers: one is the villain; Gus Mercurio is in this one, too
Monkey's Mask, The (Samantha Lang, 2000) Susie Porter gets involved with American actor Kelly McGillis
Newsfront (Phillip Noyce, 1978) "in Newsfront there is the thematizing of the 'baleful American' influence on Australian popular culture and political culture." (O'Regan: 28)
Night We Called It a Day, The (Paul Goldman, 2003) Dennis Hopper, Melanie Griffith, in a film about Frank Sinatra in Australia
Odd Angry Shot, The (Tom Jeffrey, 1979) set in Vietnam, has some American characters
Paradise Road (Bruce Beresford, 1997) aka Beyond the Wire, A Voice Cries Out; Glenn Close in story about women prisoners of the Japanese during WW2
Phar Lap (Simon Wincer, 1983) Tom Burlinson; the horse dies in the United States
Quigley (Simon Wincer, 1991) aka Quigley Down Under (US) Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo, American stars
Race for the Yankee Zephyr (David Hemmings, 1981) it has 'Yankee' in the title ....
Razorback (Russell Mulcahy, 1984) Carl (Gregory Harrison, American star) comes to Australia to avenge the death of his wife at the hands of the eponymous wild pig
Rebel (Michael Jenkins, 1985) Matt Dillon, American star, plays a GI deserter in Sydney hidden by night club singer, Debbie Byrne
Reckless Kelly (Yahoo Serious, 1993) Reckless Kelly goes to the States, gets a job in the movies
Roadgames (Richard Franklin, 1981) American stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Stacy Keech; director Franklin learnt his craft from Alfred Hitchock in California
Sundowners, The (Fred Zinnemann, 1960) Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr play Australians
That Eye the Sky (John Ruane, 1994) Peter Coyote (born Colver, PA) plays Henry Esau
Undercover (David Stevens, 1983) Berlei story; expert from US arrives to run Oz business
Welcome to Woop Woop (Stephan Elliott, 1997) aka The Big Red; Johnathon Schaech, American star, is the American captured by Susie Porter
Yank In Australia, A (Alf Goulding, 1942)
Excerpt from
O'Regan, Tom 1996, Australian National Cinema, Routledge, London: 52-53.
Similarly the 'American in Australia' and, to a lesser extent, the 'Australian in America' are constant figures in the local cinema. Sometimes American 'innocents' are done down but eventually triumph over the disturbed, psychotic, murderous or rampaging monsters who happen to be Australian. Stacy Keech and Jamie Lee Curtis are the only 'normal characters' in Roadgames (Franklin 1981). They do battle across the Nullarbor plains with an odd assortment of weird Australians including a sex murderer, unfriendly police officers, and cranky drivers. Jimmy Smits is the charismatic American University Professor in Melbourne falsely accused and imprisoned for rape in Gross Misconduct (George Miller 1993). He is the victim of the overheated sexual gaze of a beautiful female student who turns out to be a victim too - of incest - which retrospectively explains and justifies her actions. In Razorback (Mulcahy 1984), Carl (Gregory Harrison) comes to Australia to avenge the death of his wife at the hands of the eponymous wild pig, and in the process he also sorts out the malevolent local kangaroo shooters who have a symbiotic relationship with the pig.
American men provide love interests for Australian women in Chris Thomson's 1989 film The Delinquents - Charlie Schlatter is Kylie Minogue's love interest in this film of love on the wrong side of the tracks, and in the Second World War story Rebel (Jenkins 1985) - Matt Dillon plays a GI deserter in Sydney hidden by a night club singer, Debbie Byrne.
Americans are often 'problematic' figures and presences which Australians need to negotiate and come to terms with - often making the Australians feel inferior. In Mora's Death of a Soldier (1986), James Coburg plays a senior American commander in Australia during the Second World War dealing with the lines of demarcation between the American military police and the Australian
A National Cinema page 53
civil police force over an American soldier wanted by both for a series of murders of local women. Eric Roberts in Dusan Makavejev's The Coca-Cola Kid ( 1985) is a Coca-Cola executive sent to Australia to bring Coke into the back-blocks - like the Anthony Hopkins character in Spotswood he achieves his goal but in the process is changed. Dallas Doll (Turner 1993) has Sarah Bernhardt as a morally questionable character who is simultaneously desired by and repelled by nearly every character (all Australians) in this film. She seduces nearly everyone in the family - the father, the son and the mother. Eventually the Australians turn the tables on her, or, in the case of the mother, simply assert themselves.
Finally, American actors sometimes play Australian characters. Notably Meryl Streep in Evil Angels, Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr in The Sundowners (Zinnemann 1960), and Richard Chamberlain in The Last Wave (where the Chamberlain character is given as having a South American heritage).
References
Broderick, Mick 2005, 'Septic tanks down under: representing American soldiers as "other" in Australian cinema', Post Script, Winter-Summer.
O'Regan, Tom 1996, Australian National Cinema, Routledge, London.
Rattigan, Neil 1991, Images of Australia: 100 Films of the New Australian Cinema, Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas: 33-35.
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