Crocodile
Dundee (1986)
 Crocodile
Dundee: The little wonder from Down Under that ended up
conquering the globe.
A double "fish out of water" story with a heart of
gold, this Australian production brought local Aussie TV comedy
star Paul Hogan to the world in a big way.
The leather-skinned, easygoing Ocker had already won hearts
across the Pacific with a series of Australian tourism
commercials, but this film (which he co-wrote) made Hogan a bona
fide international star.
American reporter Sue Charlton (played by the future second
Mrs. Hogan, Linda Kozlowski) travels to the island continent to
interview Mick 'Crocodile' Dundee, a modern-day legend who
reportedly lost his leg to a croc, then crawled hundreds of miles
back to civilisation.
In reality, Dundee sports a pair of working legs (one with a
large, croc-given scar), but he's every bit the rugged adventurer
Sue's readers would love to hear about. The reporter convinces
Mick to take her on a journey through the Outback, where an angry
water buffalo, snakes and a hungry crocodile give her all the
excitement she can handle.
Now that she's seen his world, Sue invites Mick back to see
hers - New York, New York. Mick Dundee is the odd man out in this
urban jungle, but the earnest Aussie has his own ways of dealing
with muggers, transvestites, bidets and other challenges.
That kind of rural charm starts to warm Sue's citified heart,
but her fiancé obviously doesn't feel the same way about this
uneducated outsider.
Crocodile Dundee's low-key comedy and sweet centre, both
buoyed up by Hogan's natural charm, made it one of the biggest
films of 1986, both in the US and around the world. Suddenly, all
things Australian were hip in American culture, from "G'day
mate!" to Energizer battery pitchman Mark "Jacko"
Jackson ("Oi!").
Mick Dundee returned for a 1988 sequel, Crocodile Dundee II,
which sent Mick and Sue back to the Outback on the run from a drug
kingpin.
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