"So this is an American movie starring an Australian actor who plays a Canadian superhero?"
"Would you cast a Canadian as a superhero?"
"We're wimps."
"Australians are like us, but more rugged."
"They're action Canadians."
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
ETC: Good Point
Scene: A typical North American living room. On the television, the movie X-MEN: The Last Stand plays.
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7 comments:
...and with a funky accent....
I always thought Australia was the California of England.
Not even close, diablevert. No earthquakes, no hippies, and no Hollywood.
Also, hilarious post.
Even more mind-bending, when they first animated the X-Men? They gave Wolverine an Australian accent, despite the fact that he was a Canadian in the comic books.
The Proposition is a good australian movie.
http://www.theproposition.co.uk/
Check out the special features on the DVD. The interviews with the production crew are about as interesting as the movie. And the movie was pretty good.
Some Canadian film maker might someday tell the truth about Canada. I don't imagine the Coureur des bois were wimps. Now the CBC heads and our sanctioned story-tellers have done a lot to domesticate our history I'm sure, but a savage heart still beats in the Canadian bush.
That said, I've never met an Australian I didn't like.
Oh, well, just to be devilish...
But look at the similarities!
Both founded in part by gold rushes
Both have reputations as "Golden Lands," of sun and fun and blonds --- athletic, tanned ones of both sexes
Both have a reputation of being host to are rather fewer tweedy intellectual types than their colder Eastern forebears
Speaking of athleticism, both are powerhouses in swimming, contiually producing Olympic contenders
Both have liberal coastal cities and conservative, agriculturally-based interirors
The Syndney Gay Pride Parade is bigger than San Francisco's
And as far as hippies go, the first Lonely Planet guide was first cranked out on a mimograph machine in a kitchen in Sydney (granted, the guy cranking it was British.) (Cool article about that here, actually.) Plus, according to Wikipedia, Australia has some sort of town called Nimbin which is entirely populated by hippies.
You win on earthquakes and Hollywood, though. And California doens't have Rugby and kangeroos, but you can't have two paradises on one earth, eh, mate?
Australia may not have Hollywood, but they do have an excellent film industry. Comparatively, Canada's pretty weak.
I don't imagine the Coureur des bois were wimps. Now the CBC heads and our sanctioned story-tellers have done a lot to domesticate our history I'm sure, but a savage heart still beats in the Canadian bush.
True, but most of us aren't descended from the coureurs des bois, so we don't get to claim a tough bushman heritage. But you're right: there are some charismatic characters in our history. Louis Riel. The Mad Trapper of Rat River. Grey Owl. And, more recently, Terry Fox. And as much as the Laura Secord myth has been sugar-coated (ha! Get it? SUGAR-coated! I'm so on today!), she was still a pretty brave chiquita.
I think it's tempting for some of us to think of Canadians as wimpy because then we don't have to face the fact that, like pretty much every nation on earth, we do very bad things. It's so much more pleasant to think of ourselves as being a nation of bumbling Mr. Magoos.
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