Such a project, focusing on the sonic dimension, may also prove to be of fundamental significance to our present-day challenge of securing a more productive social and psychological engagement with Aboriginal Australia. The framework for mainstream Australian transgender screen representation that has. Many international reviews of Crocodile Dundee, published at the time of the film’s release, provide invaluable insight into how foreign markets interpreted the various representations of Australianness in the film, and indicate to how Paul Hogan was perceived as the defining image of Australians to the international spectators at that time. Unlike other important studies on Australian cinema and more specifically Australian landscape cinema, my research suggests that attending to the hitherto neglected soundtrack may present an opportunity not only for achieving a more comprehensive film criticism but also for extending the ways we address Australia’s past. The study also argues that the soundtracks are powerful modes of expression and, as such, are themselves engaged in contemporary debates surrounding Australian history such as the ‘history wars’, ‘Mabo’ decision and the Bringing Them Home report.
The study explores the particular aesthetics and ideologies of the soundtracks it is concerned with codification and how the soundtracks amplify - consciously and subconsciously - new and oppositional insights with respect to contemporary understandings of Australian identity and landscape. The films are Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Proposition, Australia and Samson & Delilah and I look specifically at their sonic dimensions - namely, the amalgam of score, dialogue and sound effects. In the 1970s, amidst fears that Australia would soon lose its national cultural identity, the Australian Government helped kick-start the Australian film. This thesis is intended to respond to this research gap, in particular by employing textual and production analysis methodologies to track cultural identifications and representations within four recent landscape films. While recent scholarship demonstrates a significant increase in the level of interest in Australian film music, very little attention has been focused on the soundtracks of contemporary Australian landscape cinema - including films that explore the contentious aspects of Australia’s colonial legacy.
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