Who We Are
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The Tribal Mind: Everything to lose
To find out what the CIA thinks of Australia, go to Who We Are.
by David Dale
Australia is a hero-phobic society, according to the Hollywood screenwriter Christopher Vogler. "In Australian culture it's unseemly to seek out leadership or the limelight," he writes, "and anyone who does is a tall poppy, quickly cut down."
If Vogler is right, Hugh Jackman had better hurry to make his pile before he goes the way of Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Bert Newton and Eddie McGuire.
It's often pointed out, especially on April 25, that Australia is the land that loves its losers. We're the only country to devote a national holiday to a military defeat, turn the tale of a suicidal sheep thief into a national song, and make a hero out of a murdering bankrobber simply because he put a political spin on his crimes. We also refuse to support our own movies, with the notable recent exception of a melodrama that can be read as self-parody. So Hugh Jackman is lucky to have got away with displaying talent, intelligence and charm for as long as he has.
Vogler believes Australians are different from Americans in their approach to story and character. A former script consultant for Disney, he travelled the world in the 1990s promoting his textbook The Writer's Journey - Mythic structure for storytellers and screenwriters. Then he produced a revised edition wondering if some of his assumptions about a universal love of "admirable, virtuous heroes" had contained a cultural bias.
"The Australians distrust appeals to heroic virtue because such concepts have been used to lure generations of young Australian males into fighting Britain's battles," he wrote. "Australians have their heroes, of course, but they tend to be unassuming and self-effacing ... The most admirable hero is one who denies his heroic role as long as possible and who, like Mad Max, avoids accepting responsibility for anyone but himself."
This may explain why Hugh Jackman chose to risk some of his own money in Wolverine, the blockbuster that opens next week. Playing the most damaged loner since Mad Max ("I'm coming for blood - no code of conduct, no law," he says in the trailer) might keep Jackman from the poppy-lopper's scythe for a few months yet.
He is certainly Australia's hero of the moment. The latest Q-Scores survey conducted by Audience Development Australia, in which 2000 people on the east coast were shown 600 photos and asked how they felt about the ones they recognized, produced this ranking of most liked: Hugh Jackman; Andrew Denton; Jennifer Hawkins; Ernie Dingo; Dave Hughes.
And when UMR Research showed a list of celebrities to a different sample of 1000 Australians and asked if they felt positively or negatively about them, these were the most positively rated: Hugh Jackman; Geoffrey Rush; Cate Blanchett; Andrew Denton; Eric Bana.
More revealing is UMR's list of the celebrities who were most negatively rated: Kyle Sandilands; Lara Bingle; Sophie Monk; Paul Hogan; Bert Newton.
A decade ago Newton and Hogan would have been at the other end of the scale, well-ranked in any top ten of popularity. Apparently they flew too high, gave an appearance of vanity instead of humility, and down came the poppies' petals.
But once word of the UMR survey gets out, Our Bert and Our Paul are bound to rise in public esteem. As soon as we're sure they are losers, we can let ourselves start loving them again. Recovery will take a bit longer for Our Mel and Our Eddie.
Go to Comments to discuss whether Australia loves losers.
David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.
COMMENTS
The hapless underdog is often applauded in films such as The Castle, Muriels Wedding, Candy and Little Fish.
I am hard pressed to find example in Australian film of the 'hero' archetype. And taking the idea further, the female 'hero' archetype is non existent.
- by Amanda on April 25, 2009 at 02:46 PM
"The hapless underdog is often applauded in films such as The Castle...", writes Amanda. on April 25, 2009 at 02:46 PM
For "hapless underdogs", the main characters of "the Castle" end up doing better than one would expect for hapless underdogs...
They don't even have the same moral dilemma's that Hollywood's troubled "heroes" more usually end up with as an ongoing consequence of the need for studios and production companies to create franchises in order to milk ongoing monetary streams.
Like good aussie heroes do, they sit back; look at how things have turned out, then get on with things without any need to grandstand or be pretentious and overbearing or so self-analysing that they end up in catharsis.
Of course, it might be a bit difficult for some people - even from Australia; to recognise the ordinary heroes who live all around them.
So what if films like "the Castle" stylise an appreciation by the film's makers, cast and crew, for just those sorts of everyday heroes who don't end up with multi-million dollar cinematic productions turning their real lives into grotesque and fantasised mockeries of their reality.
Not every cinematic "hero" in Aussie films has had to wear costumes that are a virtual sign with a big arrow painted on it that indicates they're the "Hero" because - strangely enough; Aussie cinematic heroes encompass lack of pretention, while many other cultures love to cloak their heroes fully in pretense.
Is a lack of pretention such a bad thing?
Maybe it is a bad thing when people these days seem to need the fanfare, pomp and ceremony that's associated with someone who's "got to be a hero", simply because "nobody else would deserve all that pomp and ceremony would they"...
I personally hope we never lose the appreciation for the quiet achievers that films like "the Castle" epitomise.
- by Steve C on April 25, 2009 at 04:48 PM
You're right about Hugh Jackman, but not for the reason you think.
He deserves to be lopped. His inane comments about "stolen generations" and such when he was promoting the film Australia proved that he is shallow, talks off the top of his head and parrots what he's told.
Pity, because other than unfairly branding the country and 97% of its people, he seems a pretty nice bloke.
- by Rob on April 25, 2009 at 06:08 PM
Don't believe the hype. We do love our own heroes. Think Charles Kingsford Smith, Mawson, John Simpson (whose life prior to doing fabulously heroic acts, is now being put forward to make him a non-hero.) Surely the definition of a true hero is someone from an ordinary background who, in a moment of need, rises to the challenge by an unusual margin.
Then we have our medical heroes including Fred Hollows, Victor Chang, Florey, McFarland Burnett, Peter Doherty....I could go on and on.
However how often do you see these people being lauded or even held up as heros to today's young people?
Sadly, it's mainly sports, sports and sports that our media concentrate on.
We should have days to celebrate some of these people instead of the Queen's Birthday, Union Holidays, Silly Wattle Days etc.
- by Molly Malone on April 26, 2009 at 10:29 AM
I've actually read the book by Vogler! Not that I've finished it...but I will eventually. Who ever thought it would come in handy in day to day life.
- by Alexandra on May 01, 2009 at 09:40 AM
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"Loves losers"?!!
Get a grip! It ain't about "loving losers" as equally as it ain't about "loving winners"!!
It's about "loving" yourself enough to not get caught up in everyone else's hype.
Big whoop if former media heralded and promoted "heroes" of "aussie-dom" have fallen from grace. People change - not always for the better, so they end up being chopped down from some supposedly lofty perch that the media tells us we supposedly put them on.
What's so bad about a culture that promotes the idea that egotistical farts and wankers who think the sun shines out their butts should be treated with the contempt that they deserve - even if the media has fallen under their "making loads of money by promoting me" spell?
Osama is a hero to those who are dense enough to fall for the hero worship doctrine that so many other cultures see as being more mature than our Aussie "Tall poppy syndrome": and you know what... I'm quite happy for them to continue using explosives to show exactly how much they're prepared to show their undying (until their controller sets them off that is) hero worship.
Sometimes it takes more courage to raise the middle finger at them that reckon we should be bowing down with exposed butts in the face of their mightiness... but if there's them that want to be well and truly rheemed in the name of being a good follower, go ahead and raise that butt because Australia is a democratic society after all - or is it?!