MAD DOG MORGAN
Australia. 1976. 110 minutes. Colour.
Dennis Hopper, Jack Thompson, David Gulpilil, Frank Thring, Michael Pate, John Hargreaves, Graeme Blundell.
Directed by Philippe Mora.
There was an arousal of interest in Australian history during the 1970s, helped by the media's interest in the past and by the production of a number of series for television release. Rush, Luke's Kingdom, amongst others have presented something of the Australian heritage for us to enjoy and think about.
However, there have not been so many feature films in recent years about the past. Tony Richardson's Ned Kelly may have been just a bit too much ahead of its time. In the meantime we have Mad Dog M organ. The film was made in northern Victoria, especially along the Murray River. It was written and directed by Melbourne-based Philippe Mora who made the feature-length documentaries Swastika and Brother Can You Spare a Dime? In this his first feature film, he applies his documentary methods, as well as creating his own visual impressions of some aspects of life in Australia last century. For this reason alone, the film is well worth seeing. Mad Dog Morgan himself is a very strange character. A victim of the oppression and harsh methods of justice, he rebels against society and takes up the ways and style of the bushranger. But he also goes steadily insane. His ways both terrify and excite the people in the border areas of New South Wales and Victoria. As played by American Dennis Hopper, Mad Dog Morgan is an intense victim-victimiser. He makes an unbelievable kind of character quite credible. Morgan is also significant in his close associate, an aboriginal, played by David Gulpilil, who is one of the more sympathetic characters in the film. The film shows vividly the harsh streak in Australian history. Goldfields, prisons, harsh outback life, survival are all presented. However, they are presented against a background of some of the most beautiful colour photography of Australia. The filming was in Panavision, so the natural beauty is seen in its wide scope. Most of Australia's character actors have small supporting roles. Jack Thompson is excellent as the self-opinionated police tracker. Frank Thring is most unflatteringly filmed as an impersonation of evil justice. One might learn a lot about the spirit of early Australia from films like this.
1. The impact of this film on Australian audiences, overseas audiences? A good film?
2. The visual beauty of the film, location photography, an environment for Australia, for the bushrangers? The variety of the musical accompaniment, classical, popular, Aboriginal? The contribution to the atmosphere?
3. How much history can be learnt from this kind of film? How much of the flavour of the Australian heritage is communicated in plot, characterisations, atmosphere, visual re-creation of these times, places and people?
4. The general impact of Morgan as a character? How did the film present and explain Morgan's character? what kind of man was he at the beginning on the gold fields? What did the prison experience do to him? Why did he take to the bush? What satisfaction did he get from robbing people? His friendship with his Aboriginal companion? The details of his growing madness? The long final night with the family? What stage had he reached by the time of his death? What is the value of trying to understand this kind of character in the twentieth century?
5. How did the film present Morgan as a victim of his times? Was he presented as a hero in the film? A villain? A blend of good and evil? A symbol of oppression and heroism in nineteenth century Australian prison environment?
6. The importance of the structure of the film; beginning with the interview with the officer and only his later introduction as a character? The atmosphere of the law commenting on Morgan after his death? The atmosphere and framework of the upholders of the law; the judge, his sentence and his attitude towards bird watching? Cobham and his relentless pursuit of Morgan and his being visualised with his dogs? the effect of Frank Thring's baldness and the bored dogs? The magistrate who was pursuing Morgan out in the bush? A framework of law for understanding the outlaw?
7. The introduction to Australia in the 19th century via the gold fields; as filmed, the work being done, the people who were there, their hopes, the Chinese, the laundry, drugs? The police and the oppression? The burning? The violence of the shooting?
8. The reason for Morgan's first robbery? In reaction to his gold field experience and his narrow escape from death, seeing his Irish friends head shot off before him? The transition from being a poor robber to jail? The irony of the judge
pronouncing hid sentence and his off hand manner? The importance of the prison sequence and their ugliness, the type of society that had this type of prison, the warders and the guards, the brutality, homosexuality, the breaking of rocks? Morgan and his self assertion within this atmosphere, his name, his Irish heritage, his simplicity and naivety, being brutalised? How much of his madness stemmed from this experience? The irony of people escaping and being shot? Morgan and the desperate desire to escape?
9. Morgan as outlaw; his appearance, aging, beard? The tradition of the Australian bushranger as an amateur, surviving in the bush, isolated? Surviving by robbery? The visualising of Morgan's particular robberies? The importance of his being shot at, hurt, the possibility of his death?
10. The arrival of Billy and his help, the companionship, communication between the two? The bond because of the saving of life? The transition to the lyrical companionship, riding together, shared food, survival, the water falls and the swimming?
11. How did the film build up a kaleidoscope of Morgan's career; the various encounters, at the hotels and the people there, the farmer and the drinking, and the shooting? The tinker and the friendly encounter between them? How bad an outlaw was Morgan? How mad?
12. The contrast with the police and their relentless pursuit, the saddest warder and memories of him in prison, his hostility towards Morgan, the sign on his face, his pursuit, the irony of his death? again in beautiful scenery?
13. The dramatic impact of the mobilising and tracking of Morgan? The attention to detail, people involved, NSW pursuits, Victorian? Morgan surviving in the border country?
14. The growing progressive madness; his shooting, drinking, killing the man riding through the flowery field? attitude towards sexuality with the woman at the Inn?
15. How did this come to a head in the evening vigil with the family? The film's sketching in of the family; father and mother, children, maids (and the device the maid used to inform the police? The atmosphere of the family and its gentility, happiness and peace? Morgan and his reaction to this, terrorising them yet feeling at home, their response to him? An evening of manners, of music? A vigil of menace before death? All that this meant to him and the way he appreciated it? A happy time? compare the happy times with Billy, and the drinking with the man who owned the farm?
16. The atmosphere of his death, the men closing in, the atmosphere of the siege and the way it was portrayed, his coming out and facing death?
17. Post mortem, the cruel attitudes, Cobham and his vulgarity about the purse? The attitude of the soldiers?
18. How cruel and savage was the film? The presentation of violence, too gory, exploitive, appropriate to give the impact of violence in the country? How violent a country is Australia in its origins, survival, landscapes? The aborigines surviving as symbolised by Billy, yet not being able to survive the white man? The need for law and order and its imposition violently? Death and official killing?
19. How much insight into human nature did the film offer? Into Morgan himself? The people who pursued him, the people he encountered? The weaknesses of human nature, strengths?
20. How much insight into Australia and its origins as different from other countries? A 19th century country with all the strengths and weaknesses of the pioneering within that century, isolated from Europe?
