CROCODILE HUNTER: COLLISION COURSE
Australia, 2002, 89 minutes, Colour.
Steve Irwin, Terri Irwin, Magda Szubanski, David Wenham, Steve Bastoni, Aden Young, Steven Vidler.
Directed by John Stainton.
Australian Steve Irwin and his American-born wife, Terri, have become television celebrities with their popular series of documentaries on animals, wild-life and conservation. The obvious reference is Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee, the laconic outback man who is not afraid of anything and faces every difficulty with a cheerful irony. Steve Irwin is not exactly laconic. He has plenty to say. And he says it straight to camera with an almost breathless enthusiasm as he explains the snake or the spider he is holding up for us to see. He invites us into his world and persuades us to support his preservation concerns for even the most frightening crocodile.
His producer-director, John Stainton, thought it might be a good idea to make a feature film for the family. But how to do it? Just another documentary? Could Steve and Terri, who are not trained actors, perform in a fiction feature? His answer was to combine the documentary with an action story.
Parts of an exploding American satellite crashes to earth in Queensland and a sensitive information capsule bounces straight into the mouth of a 12 foot crocodile who has been chomping on widow Brozzie's cows. The CIA sends some inept agents to recover it. They think Steve and Terri are international spies. Terri and Steve think the agents are crocodile poachers and so the chase is on: agents, double agents, the widow, the local government inspector.
While the action is predictable enough with a fair bit of slapstick for laughs, it is interspersed with Steve's finding goannas, kangaroos, snakes, spiders as well as trying to transport the crocodile from one river system to another across the mountains. This means that those who enjoy the wildlife pictures and information have plenty to keep them interested while those who want a bit of adventure will be happy enough as well.
All that Steve and Terri do is real, literally handling the snakes, lying on the crocodile, having a spider crawl up Terri's arm. Those not used to the TV series may find Steve a bit in your face as he enthuses straight to camera. Magda Szubanski, whom audiences may remember as Farmer Hoggart's wife in the Babe films, plays Brozzie as a kind of Queensland Ma Kettle. David Wenham, who portrayed Fr Damien the leper so well in the film Molokai, is the inspector.
The Irwin's spend their lives promoting conservation. They decided that they wanted to get their message across in a movie. They do.
1. The popularity of the crocodile hunter on television around the world? His personality, his wife? His exploits, handling dangerous creatures? The love of nature, the campaign for the preservation of nature? Adventures?
2. The transferring to the big screen, the television format for the scenes with the crocodile hunter and his wife? The Panavision format for the adventure cinema story?
3. The Queensland settings, the range of locations from desert, plains, valleys and mountains? The re-creation of Washington and Langley, Virginia? The musical score and themes?
4. Steve and Terri Irwin and their personalities and style, the tradition of their documentaries? Steve and his handling of the goanna, chasing it with slapstick comedy, holding the snakes, the spider, the joey - with the touch of sentimentality, the crocodile? Seeing them in action? Their being mistaken for spies because of their presence around the world? The build-up to the confrontation with the special agents?
5. Steve Irwin and his basic message about conservation - and spreading it around the world through an adventure comedy?
6. The adventure plot: the satellite, American responsibilities, its disintegration, the space debris, especially in Queensland? Going down the crocodile's throat? The scenes in Langley, the leader and his agents, the style, setting up the two agents and their following the crocodile hunter? Inept? The alternate organisation, its head, setting up the female agent to follow the other two? Thinking that the Irwins were spies? The Irwins thinking that their pursuers were poachers? The young woman in the agency, her cover? The three of them travelling through Queensland? The story about Brozzie and her cattle, trapping the female agent, her getting the plane and flying? The various fights with Steve, the car chases, the trucks, the pursuit by air?
7. Brozzie and Magda Szubanski and her style, an Australian Ma Kettle? The widow, upset with the crocodile eating her cows, trying to shoot the crocodile? Her pack of dogs and setting them on the government agent? Her being up the tree, falling into the water, all the slapstick comedy concerning her, being locked in the house, the final chase?
8. David Wenham as the nice government agent, wary of the dogs, friendship with Brozzie, trying to preserve the crocodile, being the fall guy for a lot of the comedy?
9. The spies, their ineptness, trying to follow unobtrusively, the slapstick fights and pratfalls, the fight on the top of the van, the agent on the plane, in the river?
10. The crocodiles and nature, having to take them to a new river, to save them? The irony of the crocodile coughing up the secret lab information?
11. Popular kind of comedy, action, jokes with a serious message?
