Australian Outback adventurer Mick "Crocodile" Dundee travels to Los Angeles with his young son while his longtime companion suspects foul play at a movie studio.
A mousy romance novelist sets off for Colombia to ransom her kidnapped sister, and soon finds herself in the middle of a dangerous adventure hunting for treasure with a mercenary rogue.
Director:
Robert Zemeckis
Stars:
Michael Douglas,
Kathleen Turner,
Danny DeVito
Lightning Jack Kane is an Australian outlaw in the wild west. During a bungled bank robbery he picks up mute Ben Doyle as a hostage. The two become good friends, with Jack teaching Ben how ... See full summary »
Director:
Simon Wincer
Stars:
Paul Hogan,
Cuba Gooding Jr.,
Beverly D'Angelo
Michael J. "Crocodile" Dundee is an Australian crocodile hunter who lives in the Australian outback and runs a safari business with his trusted friend and mentor Walter Reilly. After surviving a crocodile attack, a New York journalist named Sue arrives to interview Mick about how he survived and learns more about the crocodile hunter. After saving Sue from a crocodile, Sue invites Mick to visit New York City, since Mick has never been to a city. Mick finds the culture and life in New York City a lot different than his home and he finds himself falling in love with Sue.Written by
Daniel Williamson
There were steel, rubber and aluminum versions of the Bowie knife on set. Hogan kept one of the steel knives after the movie and promised never to sell it. See more »
Goofs
When Sue goes down to the water to fill her canteen, the reptile that lunges forward is not a crocodile, but a large American alligator, it's evident by the roundness in the snout and the placement of the teeth when it's mouth is closed. See more »
Quotes
Sue Charlton:
How does he find his way in the dark?
Michael J. "Crocodile" Dundee:
He "thinks" his way. A lot of people believe that they're telepathic.
[Sounds of branches breaking, splashing]
Neville Bell:
OOOOh, God, I hate the bush.
See more »
Alternate Versions
The original Australian version runs about 6 minutes longer than the international version. It includes more character building in the first half. There is also more swearing which was dubbed out of the international version. The international version puts quotation marks around the Crocodile in the title. See more »
Only One Like You
Written by Stephen Prestwich
Produced by Charles Fisher and Stephen Prestwich
Engineered by John Bee
Vocals: Maggie McKinney
Copyright Big Band Publishing Pty. Ltd. See more »
The Australian film industry first began to come to international notice in the seventies and early eighties with films like Peter Weir's "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "Gallipoli", Fred Schepisi's "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" and Bruce Beresford's "Breaker Morant". Most of these were films with a serious theme and, often, a historical setting. "Crocodile Dundee" was different. Not only did it have a contemporary setting, it was also perhaps the first great Australian comedy- certainly the first Australian comedy to achieve international success.
The protagonists are Mick Dundee, a bushman from northern Australia, and Sue Charleton, an attractive young female journalist from New York. Sue is on assignment in Australia, and hears stories about a legendary crocodile hunter from the small outback village of Walkabout Creek. (The name may be homage to Nicolas Roeg's film "Walkabout", one of the earliest manifestations of the Australian New Wave. One of the stars of that film, David Gumpilil, has a part in Crocodile Dundee). Sue meets Mick to interview him and travels with him into the bush to see the scene of his famed encounter with a crocodile that nearly cost him his leg. She then arranges for him to travel back to New York with her- the first time he has been outside Australia or visited a city.
The film is essentially a romantic comedy. Romantic comedies generally deal with a couple in love and the way in which they overcome obstacles to their love. A common type of obstacle is a discrepancy in their social backgrounds, and this is the type we have here. Sue and Mick seem to be polar opposites. She is a typical product of the American East Coast elite- urban, wealthy, professional, politically committed to liberal causes. He is from a working-class background, rural, apolitical with no fixed employment. As another reviewer has pointed out, he is as much a fish out of water in the city as she is in the outback. To make things worse, he is considerably older than her, and she already has a boyfriend, her editor Richard. There is, however, a saying that polar opposites attract, and this is as true of characters in romantic comedies as it is of magnets. The marvellous ending on the crowded subway station is one of the most memorable finales to any romantic comedy, rivalling that of "The Graduate".
Some romantic comedies concentrate on romance at the expense of comedy, but Crocodile Dundee is not one of them. The film is brilliantly funny, especially in the second half when the action moves to New York. The main source of the humour is Paul Hogan's title character. Mick is a rough diamond, but decent, kindly and good-hearted. Most of the laughs arise from his innocent misunderstanding of the seedier aspects of life in the big city- there are jokes at the expense of prostitutes, criminals like the muggers who flee when they see Mick has a bigger knife than they have ("That's not a knife. THAT'S a knife!"), transvestites (one of whom Mick mistakenly tries to chat up), drug takers (Mick thinks cocaine is a cure for blocked sinuses) and psychiatrists ("Haven't you got any mates to talk to?") This last sentiment touched a chord in Britain, ever suspicious of the American obsession with psycho-analysis. Mick may be apolitical, but he is also politically incorrect- much of the humour is aimed at the culture of political correctness, just starting to burgeon in the mid-eighties. There are jokes about race and gender, and Dundee is not only a drinker but also a heavy smoker. (And this during a decade when smoking was almost banished from the screen).
Some of the humour is perhaps a bit exaggerated- it is, for example, difficult to believe that Mick does not recognise the prostitutes for what they are, as he is no sexual innocent but a red-blooded ladies' man with an eye for the Sheilas- but this is deliberate exaggeration for satirical effect. The film both satirises and celebrates Australia's self-image as a land of self-reliant pioneers from the outback- most modern Australians, in fact, live in the suburbs of a few large cities- by contrasting idealised rural Australian values with the supposed vices of urban America.
Despite the great success of this film, the sequel was less successful and Paul Hogan and his lovely co-star Linda Kozlowski (who later became his wife) did not perhaps go on to the glittering careers that some had predicted for them. Nevertheless, Mick Dundee will live on as one of the great comic characters of all time, and the film itself as one of the best comedies of the eighties and possibly the best Australian comedy ever. 9/10
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The Australian film industry first began to come to international notice in the seventies and early eighties with films like Peter Weir's "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "Gallipoli", Fred Schepisi's "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" and Bruce Beresford's "Breaker Morant". Most of these were films with a serious theme and, often, a historical setting. "Crocodile Dundee" was different. Not only did it have a contemporary setting, it was also perhaps the first great Australian comedy- certainly the first Australian comedy to achieve international success.
The protagonists are Mick Dundee, a bushman from northern Australia, and Sue Charleton, an attractive young female journalist from New York. Sue is on assignment in Australia, and hears stories about a legendary crocodile hunter from the small outback village of Walkabout Creek. (The name may be homage to Nicolas Roeg's film "Walkabout", one of the earliest manifestations of the Australian New Wave. One of the stars of that film, David Gumpilil, has a part in Crocodile Dundee). Sue meets Mick to interview him and travels with him into the bush to see the scene of his famed encounter with a crocodile that nearly cost him his leg. She then arranges for him to travel back to New York with her- the first time he has been outside Australia or visited a city.
The film is essentially a romantic comedy. Romantic comedies generally deal with a couple in love and the way in which they overcome obstacles to their love. A common type of obstacle is a discrepancy in their social backgrounds, and this is the type we have here. Sue and Mick seem to be polar opposites. She is a typical product of the American East Coast elite- urban, wealthy, professional, politically committed to liberal causes. He is from a working-class background, rural, apolitical with no fixed employment. As another reviewer has pointed out, he is as much a fish out of water in the city as she is in the outback. To make things worse, he is considerably older than her, and she already has a boyfriend, her editor Richard. There is, however, a saying that polar opposites attract, and this is as true of characters in romantic comedies as it is of magnets. The marvellous ending on the crowded subway station is one of the most memorable finales to any romantic comedy, rivalling that of "The Graduate".
Some romantic comedies concentrate on romance at the expense of comedy, but Crocodile Dundee is not one of them. The film is brilliantly funny, especially in the second half when the action moves to New York. The main source of the humour is Paul Hogan's title character. Mick is a rough diamond, but decent, kindly and good-hearted. Most of the laughs arise from his innocent misunderstanding of the seedier aspects of life in the big city- there are jokes at the expense of prostitutes, criminals like the muggers who flee when they see Mick has a bigger knife than they have ("That's not a knife. THAT'S a knife!"), transvestites (one of whom Mick mistakenly tries to chat up), drug takers (Mick thinks cocaine is a cure for blocked sinuses) and psychiatrists ("Haven't you got any mates to talk to?") This last sentiment touched a chord in Britain, ever suspicious of the American obsession with psycho-analysis. Mick may be apolitical, but he is also politically incorrect- much of the humour is aimed at the culture of political correctness, just starting to burgeon in the mid-eighties. There are jokes about race and gender, and Dundee is not only a drinker but also a heavy smoker. (And this during a decade when smoking was almost banished from the screen).
Some of the humour is perhaps a bit exaggerated- it is, for example, difficult to believe that Mick does not recognise the prostitutes for what they are, as he is no sexual innocent but a red-blooded ladies' man with an eye for the Sheilas- but this is deliberate exaggeration for satirical effect. The film both satirises and celebrates Australia's self-image as a land of self-reliant pioneers from the outback- most modern Australians, in fact, live in the suburbs of a few large cities- by contrasting idealised rural Australian values with the supposed vices of urban America.
Despite the great success of this film, the sequel was less successful and Paul Hogan and his lovely co-star Linda Kozlowski (who later became his wife) did not perhaps go on to the glittering careers that some had predicted for them. Nevertheless, Mick Dundee will live on as one of the great comic characters of all time, and the film itself as one of the best comedies of the eighties and possibly the best Australian comedy ever. 9/10