English professor discusses “Oz” of the Outback

November 23, 2009 by Pashtana Usufzy 

Cultures benefit from box office bomb despite movie critics

Laughter and intellectual conversation went hand-in-hand as one lecturer sought to show that even critically panned movies could hold deeper meaning.

Louisiana State University English professor Patrick McGee gave his lecture “No Dreaming, No Story: Baz Luhrman’s ‘Australia’” Nov. 22 in the Barrick Museum Auditorium, discussing aspects to the film “Australia” and analyzing its postcolonial ideas of human unity.

“Though the movie is not a documentary, it touches something real,” McGee said, describing how the film’s characters and situations closely resemble western films and challenge or accept imperialist ideas.

McGee delved into the works of historian Marcia Langton and used her ideas as a foundation to discuss the “stolen generation” of Australia and the way the movie depicts the nation’s societal structure.

“[Langton] implies that the film somehow deconstructs the Australian [class] system of the 1930s,” he said.

McGee also described how he believes the film reflects some elements of the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” with a female character finding her way into a foreign land and unintentionally setting off a series of major events simply through her arrival.

“Since the strongest term of inexistence in this world is black,” he said, discussing the native tribes and how they were treated during the era of imperialism, “you could say that they are all black.”

He went on to say that the movie, although it shows very few natives, still could be a good detector of cultural feelings towards certain subjects.

The film, he said, shows a “tension between utopia and dystopia.”

“In effect,” McGee said, “the movie suggests a parallel between the movie watching and dreaming,” he said, noting that the word ‘dreaming’ has a special significance to the Aboriginal Australian tribes.

Attendee and UNLV English professor Timothy Erwin said he enjoyed the idea and discussion during the lecture.

He added that the idea of analyzing popular cultural entertainment is “fun.”

“We’re talking to ourselves through the medium of culture,” he said.

He said he felt the basis of the lecture, finding the commonalities between human beings and focusing less on the differences, sent a positive message.

“What is it that we share?” he asked, adding that he likes to focus on the “more hopeful” aspects of human relations in terms of cultural understandings.

McGee, who compared “Australia” to movies like “Shane,” said the lack of enthusiasm from movie critics and North American box offices do not mean the film cannot teach audiences anything.

But he cautioned that his reading is based on his decision to view all movies as methods of portraying some sort of message.

“This is my own interpretation that all of them would say is completely mistaken,” he said, referring the several authors he quoted throughout his presentation, “but I don’t care.”

The lecture was sponsored by the UNLV departments of English and Film Studies as part of the University Forum lecture series.