MovieChat Forums > They're a Weird Mob (1966) Discussion > I couldn't believe it

I couldn't believe it

posted 13 years ago by sheilacornuk
10 replies | jump to latest

I couldn't believe how crudely sexist and racist this film was - I saw it as half of a double bill at the British Museum, part of the Australian Season.

Admittedly I missed the beginning, but arrived in time to see the main character, immigrant Nino, in long sequences of breaking up ground, mixing cement and unloading bricks from the back of a lorry - all with his shirt off. Since the boringly repetitive work went on so long and ended with the men all spraying one another with water, it must be popular as a cult gay film.

The recruitment element was misleading, especially about how easy it was to buy a piece of land with a good view of the harbour - in fact, Nino's relatives send him money and I know from my sister's experience of being a 'Ten Pound Pom' that it was a lot harder than the film suggested to get settled and buy a house.

The ferry scene with the drunk telling all the 'dagos' to go back to where they came defintitely seemed to suggest that Australia was the place to come if you didn't like foreigners and if your idea of a good time was getting drunk in rowdy bars with your mates.

The the weather and scenery featured a lot, but Bondi beach looked more crowded than Blackpool. Cue for more camera-ogling, this time the women getting some attention, apart from the long boring with the male rescue team in their skimpy shorts and silly hats. The 'joys' of sun-bathing was ironic in view of today's fears surrounding skin cancer.

The song at the end was a shocker, all about Australia being good for blokes because the women know they don't have a chance.

Australia is great place if you're a gay, racist and a drunk, it seemed to say.

[–] john-1952 12 years ago

Wow, this is a tough call from someone living in a land that produced such politically correct gems as Love Thy Neighbour, Father Dear Father and On The Buses. I think you forget that what is now considered unacceptable was the norm in the 60's. Blokes swilled beer in the public bar because they finished work at 5pm and the pubs closed at 6pm. They had to drink fast. The women drank shandies in the Ladies Lounge. But the blokes are basically good people who aren't alko's, aren't bashing their wives, aren't having affairs. They all love their wives and pretty much do as they're told by them.

The scene of the men at work is intended to show how much hard labour there was and how hard it was on a fellow used to being a journalist. It takes a very long bow to find gay conotations in that, unless you think that gays have nothing better to do than watch movies to see shirtless middle aged men.

I don't believe it was intended as a recruitment exercise but in the 60's there were waterside suburbs in Sydney that were considered very downmarket and land priced accordingly. To this day there are some very poor people living on blocks now worth millions around the harbour.

It is not a racist film at all. Nino was assisted by just about everyone when he arrived in Sydney, quickly found work, and made good friends amongst his workmates. So what if they occasionally have a friendly dig at his way of speaking. Australia was very much an anglo-saxon country back then. The one racist drunk on the ferry went overboard to the delight of tthe other embarrassed passemgers.

Read the book by John O'Grady and the sequels Cop This Lot, Gone Fishin and Gone Gougin and you'll see they are full of warmth, charm and humour. This was a decent attempt to film the story. The worst pasrt of the movie is Claire Dunne's performance which leaves me wondering why the heck Nino would ever want to marry her.

[–] Steve Crook 12 years ago

It's a shame you missed the beginning. That made it clear that it wasn't meant to be taken too seriously. It certainly didn't take itself seriously

The IMDb categorises it as Drama / Comedy / Romance. I think that's about right

Steve

[–] mcgmcgmcg 12 years ago

Whinging Pom!

[–] ledostef 12 years ago

I think the reason for the long sequences of Nino working are there is to show that although the Aussie blokes saw him as different from them initially because of his Italian accent, once he got his shirt off, got his hands dirty and put a hard days graft in, just like them, he was accepted as one of the lads.

[–] grandcosmo 11 years ago

Nowadays if you say something not politically correct you are a racist. The word has lost so much meaning that real racists are lumped in with people making ethnic jokes 45 years ago.

Italians are not a race of people, they are Caucasian just like Australians. Making an ethnic joke or ethnic slur is not racism.

[–] Steve Crook 11 years ago

Making an ethnic joke or ethnic slur is not racism.

But it's still not a nice or clever thing to do. We're all members of the same race, the human race

Steve

[–] activista 10 years ago

@grandcosmo

That depends on who you're saying it to,and where, and yes it is.

[–] charlesg-629-659286 9 years ago

Racist and sexist films did not exist until the late 1980's and 1990's, when people began wearing their feelings on their sleeves and started looking for every nitnoy thing to be outraged about. Then, anything made previous to those years when the whining took place became retrospectively racist and sexist. It certainly wasn't racist or sexist to audiences who watched it when it was made in the 1920's to 1970's.

And, believe it or not, those audiences are now being criticized by kids today, who are outraged that their parents and grandparents weren't as outraged as they are. Maybe that was because their grandparents and parents were adults, not whining, sniveling namby-pambies like the current generation is. Childhood extending well into the early 40's today hasn't done much for our culture.

I often wonder how the 'oh-so-enlightened' sniveling whiners' perspective today will be viewed by audiences in the year 2100. Shame we can't conform today to the newly upgraded social standards of 85 years from now, isn't it? Would avoid a lot of name-calling in the future if we could just get our act together today and do things like they'll be doing them 85 to 125 years from now. The overgrown juveniles of today are a disgrace.

[–] willjohn 10 years ago

The book was written in the 1950s and was well out of date by the time the film was made.

[–] directorscut 8 years ago

Oi Sheila, stop being a daft bint.

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