The two feature films that Working Dog have produced raise issues concerned with the idea of Australian National Identity and the need to appeal in a global market place. While The Castle can be seen as an exploration of the family and the encroachment of global capital interests, The Dish is seen as a more direct attempt at a global market friendly product that combines hollywood convention with the now prerequisite Australian quirkiness. In both cases the idea of Australian film and Australian National Identity are brought into question, as is the affect of globalisation of the film industry and globalisation as a whole. The narratives themselves lend to the raising of these questions, both being essentially concerned with a David versus Goliath scenario in which the small guy (everyday Australians) win against or prove their worth to the bigger players, be it multinational conglomerates or the American Space Program. The following are some of the opinions concerning the depiction of National Identity and Globalisation in both films and also the implications concerning these issues with reference to the mode of production of the two films.
it wants to please its home audience, certainly, but it is also supremely conscious of its ambitions on a more global scale.
Where exactly do we stand on films such as The Dish, which seem so keen to push a prescribed image of Australia, to reinforce perceptions of our culture and community for a foreign audience?
With the flood of grotesque comedies beginning to wane in this country, The Dish�s desire to maintain the exploitation of weakness seems somewhat anachronistic.
Certainly there is a strong sense in The Dish that the image of Australia is a constructed one, a representation that is not representative. Operating as basically a comedy, it is understandable that characters are stretched and distorted, but the image of Parkes seems like a dizzy fairyland where not even the Vietnam War has penetrated, and as such it�s difficult to place this film in any sort of reality. Instead, Sitch�s vision of Australia becomes commodified and pre-packaged, bound by potential markets and universal comedic strategies.
It seems that The Dish does actively address one of the major criticisms of our cinema; it aims for a broader audience, is inclusive in its humour, and in its narrative.
Does The Dish �sell out� by conforming to Hollywood�s dictated cinema methodology, or should it be acclaimed for its international success largely due to its mimicking the tried and true Hollywood style? The former argument seems to be associated with the purist side of Australian cinema, in which it is an outlet for creative manifestations that fall outside Hollywood norms and should be praised for doing so. The latter argument relates better to seeing Australian cinema as a commercial industry.
The Dish was released at the Toronto International Film Festival, increasing its exposure to international audiences and critics. This is indicative of the film�s international focus, a growing interest as the cinema industry moves towards globalisation.
The popularity of The Dish is reflective of the direction of mainstream Australian cinema. It draws greatly on the modes of representation common to Hollywood style cinema. In terms of Lotman�s model of cultural transfer, I would argue that The Dish exists simultaneously at stages two, three and four of the model. In the second stage, the �imported texts and the home culture restructure each other�. The Dish exists as an example of Australian cinema homogenising the Hollywood comedy-drama genre. The film is Australian in its quirkiness, characterisation and humour. It is reflective of Hollywood techniques stylistically, favouring a blatant narrative, appreciable by a wider audience than other Australian films. The Castle did not go this far, retaining more �Australian� aspects of style, and as a result it had to be modified before its release overseas.
By maintaining aspects of quirkiness, and playing on our distinctive landscape within the constraints of the familiar Hollywood style, the world is offered a different take on the tired genre films that pour out of the USA. In this sense, I think The Dish is extremely successful, blending the elements of the two industries.
LISA MCGREGOR: So what was it about that situation that you thought would work?
ROB SITCH: There's definite appeal to a small town being the centre of the world even though the world didn't know it. And the more research we did the more photos we uncovered and � you'd see wonderful photos of very distinguished radio astronomers - in the middle of summer of course, it's 43 degrees out there - in shorts and thongs having just discovered the Magellan Clouds.
And you had these wonderful contrasts between high technology and small town. And these people were at the cutting edge of the world but this world class facility was stuck in the middle of a sheep paddock.
ROB SITCH: I think the � Australia's changing all the time. Do small towns exist like we've portrayed? Absolutely. I've spent enough time in small towns, and in that period, to know that's � all those elements exist in small towns.
The story is told and that is that Australia got the first images of the moonwalk. I think that the audience knows that this is what the movie is about. The story of the film is not whether Parkes got the first pictures or if honeysuckle creek got the first pictures. Australia got the first pictures and that�s what the film is about.