BARRY McKENZIE HOLDS HIS OWN

Australia, 1974, 93 minutes, Colour.
Barry Crocker, Barry Humphries, Donald Pleasence, Dick Bentley, Nell Campbell, Chantal Contouri, Ed Devereaux.
Directed by Bruce Beresford.

Barry McKenzie? Holds His own: more money, more energy, more guest stars, more locations have gone into this sequel. But the tone and style are just the same and you will quickly know where you stand. Barry Crocker's Barry is the same naive, Fosters-swilling, big-hatted, sex-preoccupied, Aussie vulgar-mouthed innocent abroad, a comic strip sketch of a hero. Barry Humphries as Mrs Everage is excellent (also as the minister for Media). Dashes of horror (via Donald Pleasence) and martial arts show modern trends. The whole thing is outrageous, frequently vulgar, sometimes offensive, sometimes very funny. The film has it both ways - poking elaborate fun at Australian images yet using them up to the hilt.
1. The title and its tone? The tone of the rest of the film? Why? What were its main claims to the enjoyment? Can you see why people were repelled by the film? Which aspects?
2. For whom was the film chiefly made? Its impact on Australian audiences, the Australian image, the humour, the overseas and British flavour? What impact would it make on overseas audiences? On the British? The nature of the language and the incidents and the background? For non-English-speaking audiences? The humour and irony of the prologue?
3. Barry McKenzie? is a comic strip figure. What are the main characteristics of comics? Is this how the film was conceived and made? The difference between a character and a caricature? The brevity of the story-line and the audience supplying reasons and motivations? The highlighting of incidents and exaggerations? The two-dimensional tone of a comic? A series of adventures? People wanting to get on to the next because they have enjoyed an adventure etc?
4. How clever a parody was this film? A parody of Australia and its attitudes and behaviour? A parody of various films, eg vampire films, Kung-Fu? etc? How much was it an exaggerated send-up? How much satire and biting satire was there in the film? Did they all combine to good effect?
5. How did the film have its cake and eat it as well? Showing the Australian image in all its vulgarity? And yet ridiculing it? Satire and yet using what is being satirized up to the hilt? Does the film have the right to do this? Did this film do it well?
6. How appropriate was the coarseness in the film? The excremental tone of the humour? The emphasis on vomit? On beer and drink? The lavatory-humour? The coarse language? The vulgarity of the songs? How did the coarseness measure to good taste? How humorous was the coarseness?
7. Was Barry an interesting character? A hero for the film? An Australian hero-figure? His naivety but niceness? His hat, suit, lanky look etc? The songs as revealing him? His relationship to Aunt Edna, to his friends? The nationalistic emphasis? The emphasis on sexuality and its lack of fulfilment? Is Barry McKenzie? the typical Australian hero?
8. How successful is Barry Humphries impersonation of Aunt Edna? The satire of the Australian housewife, on women, on Australian attitudes? The middleclass values and hypocrisy? The innuendo? The relationship to Britain and the Queen and pomposity and snobbery? The irony of her being mistaken for the Queen and being kidnapped? The Australian cultural satire in the presentation of Mrs Everage?
9. Colin, how enjoyable a satire was this? The expatriate living in Paris? His double-dealing? Carrying the bread? His relationship to the French and its tone? The satire on Communism and death? The humour (how heavy-handed) of his death and the old Australian folklore? The reprisal of this at the end?
10. The presentation of expatriates? The Aussie image? The impression in England? Earl's Court? The culture? The satire on the Australian Government grants for culture? Australia House and behaviour there? The commissioner? Four-eyes? What was the overall impression of the Australians in England? How humorous?
11. How did the film rely on its details for impact, eg the sex-show and the Bondi girl and Barry's rescuing her, the Christ and the orgasm seminar, the satire on religion, the Bishop, the Reverend Kevin, his wife, their joining in the rat-bag song? The humour of the quiz show with John LeMesurier? being quizzed about going to Australia? The satire with Kevin and his talking?
12. Did the vampire sequences add anything to the film? As regards satire and humour? The satire on royalty? Count Plasma as a send-up of the Dracula figure? The jokes about blood? His assistant? Dorothy? The satire on his having the film about the cultural and building growth in Transylvania? The banquet? The irony of the Australians rescuing Aunty Edna? Her being rescued when the blood was gone? The irony of the cross of beer-cans?
13. What tone did the ending take with its humour? Were the Prime Minister and his wife to meet Auntie Edna and Barry? Her triumphant arrival? Coupled with the irony of Colin's burial by the billabong?
14. What impression did most audiences have of Australia after this? Is this a good thing? Is it humour?