Crocodile Dundee is a 1986 action comedy film directed by Peter Faiman, and starring Paul Hogan as the namesake character and American actress Linda Kozlowski as reporter Sue Charlton.[6] Inspired by the true-life exploits of Rod Ansell, the film was made on a budget of under $10 million as a deliberate attempt to make a commercial Australian film that would appeal to a mainstream American audience, but proved to be a worldwide phenomenon.

Released on 30 April 1986 in Australia, and on 26 September in the United States, it was a critical and commercial success, grossing $238 million on a budget of $8.8 million, being the highest-grossing film of all time in Australia, the highest-grossing Australian film worldwide, the second-highest-grossing film in the United States in 1986, the highest-grossing non-US film at the US box office ever and the second-highest-grossing film worldwide for the year. There are two versions of the film: the Australian version, and an international version, which had much of the Australian slang replaced with more commonly understood terms, and was slightly shorter. As the first installment in the Crocodile Dundee film series, it was followed by two sequels: Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001), although both films failed to match the critical success of the original.

Plot

Sue Charlton is a feature writer for her father's newspaper Newsday, and is dating the editor, Richard Mason. She travels to Walkabout Creek, a small township in the Northern Territory of Australia, to meet Michael J. "Mick" "Crocodile" Dundee, a bushman said to have lost half a leg to a saltwater crocodile before crawling a hundred miles to safety. On arriving there, she meets Walter "Wally" Reilly, Mick's business partner, who assures Sue that Mick will be along soon. When Mick arrives that night, Sue observes that his leg is not missing, but he shows her a large scar he calls a "love bite". As Sue dances with Mick, a hunter from the city accuses him of being a poacher, and Mick responds by knocking him out with one punch.

At first, Sue is unimpressed by Mick's pleasant-mannered but uncouth behaviour, and his clumsy advances towards her. Mick admits he was once in a relationship with a woman, but she left him when he went on walkabout for eighteen months. Sue is amazed when, once in the Outback, she witnesses Mick subduing a water buffalo, killing a snake with his bare hands, scaring away a band of drunken kangaroo hunters by tricking them into thinking one of the kangaroos is shooting back, and taking part in an Aboriginal (Pitjantjatjara) tribal dance ceremony.

After the first night, offended by Mick's assertion that as a "sheila" she would be incapable of surviving in the Outback on her own, Sue goes out alone to prove him wrong, although at his request she takes his rifle with her. Mick secretly follows her to make sure she stays safe; when she stops at a billabong to fill her canteen, she is attacked by a crocodile and rescued by Mick. Overcome with gratitude, Sue finds herself becoming attracted to him.

Sue invites Mick to return with her to New York City on the pretext of wrapping up the story. At first, Wally scoffs at her suggestion, but he changes his mind when she tells him the newspaper would pay.

In New York, Mick is perplexed by local behaviour and customs, but he uses his survival skills, ability to improvise, and innate common sense to good-naturedly overcome problematic or even dangerous situations, including a disagreement with a pimp and an attempted mugging.

Sue resumes her relationship with Richard. She chastises Mick for punching Richard in a restaurant after Richard had repeatedly made insulting wisecracks about Mick's unsophisticated lifestyle. Sue finds herself increasingly torn between Richard and her affection for Mick. At a dinner in her father's home in honour of Sue's safe return, to which Mick has been invited, Richard proposes marriage to Sue, and her confused non-response is taken by Richard and the other dinner guests, including Mick, as acceptance.

Mick, disheartened at Sue's engagement, decides he has had enough of New York City, and as he leaves his hotel he tells Irving, the doorman, that he is going on walkabout around the United States. Shortly after Mick leaves, Sue arrives, and Irving tells her Mick is headed for the nearest subway stop. Sue kicks her shoes off and runs barefoot after Mick. When she arrives at the subway station, she cannot reach him through the crowd on the platform, but has members of the crowd relay her message to him: she is not going to marry Richard because she loves Mick. Hearing her message, Mick walks to Sue on the heads and raised hands of the onlookers, and embraces her to the applause of the crowd.

Cast

Production

The idea to make the film came to Paul Hogan (the lead actor and one of the story writers) when he was in New York. He wondered what it would be like if a Northern Territory bushman arrived in town. As Paul Hogan said:

Release

Theatrical

The film was originally released on 30 April 1986 in Australia, and on 26 September 1986 in the United States.

Home media

The film was released on VHS in the United Kingdom by CBS Fox Video on 24 September 1987 and sold a record 62,000 copies, generating a gross profit of £2.7 million (US$4.3 million).[13]

Television broadcasts

Crocodile Dundee remains the single most-viewed Christmas Day film or program in the United Kingdom when it debuted on 25 December 1989 on BBC One, with an audience of 21.8 million.[14][15]

The Encore Cut

In January 2025, a version of the film subtitled The Encore Cut premiered in Sydney, ahead of a wider theatrical release in May. Along with a 4K remaster, the film received a number of edits including the inclusion of a text land acknowledgement at the top of the film, extended scenes in Kakadu, and the removal of scenes that could be considered transphobic and homophobic. Production company Rimfire Films stated that the edits to the film were made at the request of Paramount Pictures. The Encore Cut will become the standard version for future releases.[16][17]

Hogan defended The Encore Cut, arguing "it wasn't about being woke...it's better without [those scenes]". Faiman possessed a mixed response, arguing that while re-edits to films are not unprecedented, "I think that screwing around with history, in the arts particularly, is not a good idea."[18] The Encore Cut received criticism from some fans[19] and media outlets, including The Sydney Morning Herald and Seven News.[20][21]

Reception

Box office

The film was a hit, grossing US$328 million[5] and surpassing Mad Max 2 as the highest-grossing Australian film at the worldwide box office.[22]

Crocodile Dundee opened with a record A$2,047,026 in its first week in Australia.[23] It went on to gross A$47,707,045 at the box office in Australia[24] and was the highest-grossing film of all time there after 11 weeks, surpassing E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.[22] It was also the highest-grossing film of all time in New Zealand, with a gross of $5.1 million.[25]

A number of minor changes were made to the film for its US release,[4][26] where it was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures in September 1986. The film debuted at number one, grossing US$8 million in its opening weekend,[27][28] and it remained at number one for nine weeks.[29] It grossed US$174,803,506 at the U.S. and Canadian box office,[5] being the second-highest-grossing film that year for both the studio and at the United States box office.[30] Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 46 million tickets in North America.[31] The film was the highest-grossing non-American film at the US box office.[22]

It opened in London and Dublin on 12 December 1986 and was the highest-grossing film to open at only one cinema in the West End of London where it grossed £163,990 in its first week at the Leicester Square Theatre, beating the house record. Similar to its performance in Australia, by its third week of release the film had broken its own record, increasing its gross at the Leicester Square Theatre to £173,053 for the week.[32] Its three-week gross of £463,460 was the biggest ever for a cinema in the UK at the time.[33] It opened nationwide in the UK on 9 January 1987 where it became number one nationally, where it stayed for eight weeks to become one of the highest-grossing films of all-time with a gross of £20 million.[32][34][35][36] It was the highest-grossing film of all time in Ireland, with a gross of $2.8 million.[37]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 37 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10. The critics' consensus reads: "Infectiously easygoing charm and a leading man in the role he was born to play help Crocodile Dundee make the most of its familiar fish-out-of-water premise".[38] On Metacritic the film has a score of 62 out of 100 based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[39] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average rating of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[40]

Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote: "All of the cliches are in the right places, most of the gags pay off and there are moments of real amusement as the Australian cowboy wanders around Manhattan as a naive sightseer. The problem is that there's not one moment of chemistry between the two stars: Paul Hogan as 'Crocodile' Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as the clever little rich girl. The movie feels curiously machine-made, as if they had all the right ingredients and simply forgot to add the animal magnetism".[41] Nina Darnton of The New York Times thought that Paul Hogan was "delightful" in the title role, that the screenplay was "witty, with a fine sense of irony and the gift at poking fun at its own conceits", and that "Linda Kozlowski plays the reporter, Sue, very well", virtues which "go a long way toward compensating for the film's illogical plot and set-up situations".[42] Variety stated that director Peter Faiman "has problems with the pacing and a script (by Hogan and longtime TV colleague Ken Shadie) that has its flat, dull spots. Hogan is comfortable enough playing the wry, irreverent, amiable Aussie that seems close to his own persona, and teams well with Kozlowski, who radiates lots of charm, style and spunk".[43] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote: "Handsomely directed by Peter Faiman, the film punches most of the right buttons at most of the right times and emerges as an effective crowd-pleaser".[44][45] Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post said that the film "has a double 'fish out of water' structure—first she's the fish, then he's the fish—but the movie doesn't go anywhere with it, mostly because the characters are such nullities ... There's no drama in 'Crocodile Dundee' because there's no real conflict between these characters".[46] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "is nothing you can examine deeply or mull over afterward. It's simply an expert crowd-pleaser. It has such a sure, easy, confident touch that it's almost failure-proof—like a tip of the hat, a sip of beer, a quick, golden 'G'day'".[47][48] Monthly Film Bulletin called it "as dull and lumbering as its hero".[49]

Although Crocodile Dundee was a hit both in Australia and abroad, it became controversial with some Australian critics and audiences who resented the image of Australians as being ocker.[50] Robert Hughes complained in 2000 that to Americans "Crocodile Dundee is a work of social realism", giving them a "'Wild West' fantasy" about Australia.[51] David Droga said in 2018, however, that "there has been no better ad for Australia than that movie".[52]

Accolades

Award Category Subject Result
Academy Awards Best Original Screenplay John Cornell, Ken Shadie & Paul Hogan Nominated[53][54]
BAFTA Awards Best Original Screenplay Nominated[55]
Best Actor Paul Hogan Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Won[56]
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Linda Kozlowski Nominated
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy John Cornell Nominated
Saturn Awards Best Fantasy Film Nominated[57]
Best Writing John Cornell, Ken Shadie & Paul Hogan Nominated
BMI Film & TV Award Best Music Peter Best Won
Golden Screen Best Sold Tickets Won
MPSE Awards Best Sound Editing – Foreign Feature Tim Chau Nominated

Sequels

The film became the first in the Crocodile Dundee series, with two sequels and a Super Bowl commercial.[52]

A sequel titled Crocodile Dundee II was released in 1988.

A third film titled Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles was released in 2001.

References

  1. ↑ "Crocodile Dundee". Australia: Classification Board. 7 January 1986. Archived from the original on 21 December 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  2. ↑ "Crocodile Dundee". United Kingdom: BBFC. 24 September 1986. Archived from the original on 22 September 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  3. ↑ "Crocodile Dundee". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 pp. 335–338
  5. 1 2 3 "Crocodile Dundee". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  6. ↑ Darnton, Nina (26 September 1986). "Film: 'Crocodile Dundee'". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  7. ↑ "Burt, Reptilian Star of 'Crocodile Dundee,' Dies at More Than 90 Years Old". 23 December 2024.
  8. 1 2 Baxter p28
  9. ↑ Syron, Brian; kearney, briann (1996). Kicking Down the Doors. A History of First Nation Films 1968–1993. Rozelle, New South Wales: Donobri International Communications. p. 180. ISBN 9781329917644. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  10. ↑ "Production round-up", Cinema Papers, November 1985 p. 48
  11. ↑ Baxter p29
  12. ↑ Thompson, Anne (March 1987). "The 12th Annual Grosses Gloss". Film Comment. Vol. 23, no. 2. Film at Lincoln Center. pp. 62–64, 66–69. ProQuest 210246765. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  13. ↑ Brown, Colin (10 October 1987). "Crocodile tears up UK video records". Screen International. p. 2.
  14. ↑ "'Crocodile' Dundee beats Del Boy to top of TV ratings Christmas tree". Independent. 22 December 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  15. ↑ "Christmas Day TV: Queen's message tops viewing". BBC News. 2 January 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  16. ↑ "There's a new release of Crocodile Dundee. Here's what's been edited out". Sydney Morning Herald. 24 January 2025. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
  17. ↑ Hirst, Jordan (25 January 2025). "Transphobic scenes cut from new release of Crocodile Dundee". QNews. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  18. ↑ Johnson, Brooke Ivey (24 January 2025). "Crocodile Dundee legend Paul Hogan defends 'woke' edit of the iconic film". Metro UK.
  19. ↑ Taylor, Caleb (1 January 2025). "Viewers furious as Crocodile Dundee gets a 'woke' edit with famous scenes cut from iconic Aussie megahit". Seven News.
  20. ↑ Maddox, Garry (1 January 2025). "That's not a cut! Why is Crocodile Dundee being re-edited?". SMH.
  21. ↑ Bowrey (January 2025). "Sally Bowrey: Why the re-release of Crocodile Dundee won't be the same as the one you saw in the '80s".
  22. 1 2 3 Groves, Don (5 November 1986). "Aussie Gator Grappler Kayos Mad Max". Variety. p. 3.
  23. ↑ "'Cop' Knocks 'Croc's Door". Variety. 1 July 1987. p. 36.
  24. ↑ "Film Victoria — Australian Films at the Australian Box Office" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
  25. ↑ "Once Were Warriors (advertisement)". Variety. 12 December 1994. p. 22.
  26. ↑ Wurm, Gerald (4 July 2018). "Crocodile Dundee (Comparison: International Version – Australian Version) – Movie-Censorship.com". Movie-censorship.com.
  27. ↑ "'Crocodile Dundee' Tops Weekend Box-office Take". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  28. ↑ Friendly, David T (2 October 1986). "No Tears For 'Crocodile'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
  29. ↑ "Domestic Box Office Weekends For 1986". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  30. ↑ "1986 Domestic Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  31. ↑ "Crocodile Dundee (1986)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  32. 1 2 McFarling, Tina (10 January 1987). "Records tumble as Dundee strides on". Screen International. p. 29.
  33. ↑ "Odeon First Choice For "Crocodile" Dundee (advertisement)". Screen International. 10 January 1987. p. 3.
  34. ↑ "UK Leaders Nationwide". Screen International. 17 January 1987. p. 35.
  35. ↑ "UK Leaders Nationwide". Screen International. 7 March 1987. p. 21.
  36. ↑ "UK Top 50 Films in 1987". Screen International. 2 January 1988. p. 10.
  37. ↑ "Ireland flocks to the flicks". Screen International. 25 April 1997. p. 27.
  38. ↑ "Crocodile Dundee". Rotten Tomatoes. 26 September 1986. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  39. ↑ "Crocodile Dundee". Metacritic.
  40. ↑ "Cinemascore : Movie Title Search". 20 December 2018. Archived from the original on 20 December 2018. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  41. ↑ Ebert, Roger (26 September 1986). "Crocodile Dundee". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  42. ↑ Darnton, Nina (26 September 1986). "Film: 'Crocodile Dundee'". The New York Times. C6.
  43. ↑ "Film Reviews: Crocodile Dundee". Variety. 23 April 1986. 16.
  44. ↑ Kehr, Dave (26 September 1986). "'Crocodile Dundee' says 'g'day' to Mr. Deeds". Chicago Tribune. Section 7, Page A.
  45. ↑ Dave Kehr (26 September 1986). "'Crocidle Dundee' Says 'G'Day' To Mr. Deeds". Chicago Tribune.
  46. ↑ Paul Attanasio (4 October 1986). "Crocodile Dundee". The Washington Post.
  47. ↑ Wilmington, Michael (25 September 1986). "Charm of 'Crocodile Dundee'". Los Angeles Times. Part VI, p. 1, 3.
  48. ↑ "Movie Review: Charm of 'Crocodile Dundee'". Los Angeles Times. 25 September 1986.
  49. ↑ Stratton, David (21 January 1987). "More About 'Crocodile' Plus Passing Glance at Other Ozpics". Variety. p. 34.
  50. ↑ "In Sydney, lively culture amid natural beauty". The New York Times. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  51. ↑ "Robert Hughes talks about Australia: Beyond the Fatal Shore". PBS. 2000. Archived from the original on 13 April 2001.
  52. 1 2 Klara, Michael (4 February 2018). "That Crocodile Dundee Reboot: Here's the Whole Story Behind the Movie That Wasn't". Adweek. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  53. ↑ 1987|Oscars.org
  54. ↑ Writing Oscars® for "A Room with a View" and "Hannah and Her Sisters" – Oscars on YouTube
  55. ↑ BAFTA Awards
  56. ↑ Golden Globes
  57. ↑ Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA (1987) – IMDb
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodile_Dundee