The history of Australian national cinema is one of visually claiming the nation as our own, of depicting the history, the landscape and the people in such a way as to take possession of them; of allowing a sense of being at home in a place, where there is ambivalence about our right to feel at home.
Speaking of globalisation, Harvey observes that `everything, from novel writing and philosophizing to the experience of laboring or making a home, has to face the challenge of accelerating turnover time and the rapid write-off of traditional and historically acquired values'.(2)
this exuberantly daggy film is the idea that the values of home are fiscally irreducible and contrary to the global logic of flexible capital accumulation
Harvey argues that the rapid change and movement associated with globalisation gives rise to the desire to create, through the home, `a sense of self that lies outside the sensory overloading of consumerist culture and fashion'.(3)
The Castle offers a classic example of `Lilliput strategies' in action -- the tactics of `little people' fighting against giant forces.(5) In this case it is the Kerrigan family against a multinational corporate project that has infiltrated all levels of government.
This grassroots approach to cultural production illustrates strategic resistance to centralised power so prevalent in a globalised media and underlines the paradoxical power that smallness and cheapness brings to the context of filmmaking.
. This film is also an example of the internationalisation of the industry with it being presented at many festivals around the world, including Sundance, which has then led onto a worldwide release. The Castle can be seen as an example of Australia being a "mundane cinema" (O�Regan 1996, p.127). This is meaning "ordinary" and "everyday," lacking artfulness and cultural difference. But along with this The Castle can be seen as an example of a prestige cinema or festival cinema (O�Regan 1996, p.127) at the same time. Like other mundane titles such as Muriel�s Wedding, it has been circulated at international film festivals.
). The dominance of Hollywood over national cinemas like Australia can be seen with the example of The Castle also. That is, at the time when the film was to be sold to US independent � Miramax Films certain words in the film were changed in order to be �understood� by the US market. For example �Hey, Hey its Saturday� was changed to �Funniest Home Video�s,� and �two-stroke motor� changed to �outboard motor,� as well as changes to the musical score. This, it can be suggested in one sense, is devaluing the cultural value of the film purely to increase the commercial gain, although it can also be stated that many other "Australianisms" were left in
the product must be sufficiently different to the American product, for example the �quirkiness� of The Castle, but also similar to be able to compete with the Hollywood films.
The Castle was made originally for the Australian market, with some overseas critics suggesting that its rhythm distances the film from the frantic, glossy world of much contemporary comedy � referring to the Hollywood style of comedy.
A legacy of being a medium sized English language cinema is that "for the most part being non-American counts against Australian producers." (O�Regan 1996, p.96).
DJ: How did you feel about the re-dubbing of scenes in the American version of The Castle?SC: It was actually a made into a much bigger deal than it actually was. In the end very little was changed. The thing about it is that the studio kept telling us that it needed to be changed and we kept telling them that it didn�t need to be changed. Miramax was so enthusiastic about the project that in the end we just trusted their judgement. They came back to us and told us that the changes did not test well and that they were going to leave in most of the things they originally wanted to change. The problem was that they wasted a lot of time. There was a great quote by Roger Ebert saying something like �The Castle is the Full Monty of 1998� but they couldn�t use it because by the time they released the film it was a different year!
The Story concept has all the elements of a true blue comedy with the emotional mix of the little
battler agin the big business world.
-Andrew Urban
May not translate very well in other territories as much of the humour is true blue,
but in Australia will no doubt please audiences.
The Castle is a glimpse a particular type of humourous approach to a stereotype of Australian.
- Louise Keller.