Crocodile Dundee

Saw Crocodile Dundee (Thanks, Kim!) It was alright. The protagonist is a kind of holy idiot / noble savage, ironically innocent and bereft of survival skills and yet able to survive and flourish because the universe is especially kind to only him. Due to his charmed life I wanted to kind of cruelly root for his failure, but the character himself is charming in a way and I couldn't muster up the energy to be anything more than mildly entertained. I didn't dislike this film, but I didn't really dig it either. Too dumb for good comedy and too glib for romance, the movie itself is a kind of reflection of its protagonist. Charming but unsophisticated. Perhaps that's the best way to put it.

I was wondering as I watched the film how it would deal with the girl's emotions as she clearly falls in love with someone who isn't her fiance? Would she be wracked with guilt and depressed or care-free and therefore careless? How would her family react? I wondered how the black chauffeur would react when he realized Dundee wasn't calling him a 'tribal' ironically? What if Dundee was shot in the leg one day? What if the hotel objects to him charmingly sticking knives into the wall? Would Dundee ever get in serious trouble for grabbing a transsexual's genitals?

All of these potential traps are dealt with by not being dealt with. The woman's emotions happen entirely off-screen. The family is never again mentioned. The chauffeur is already good friends with Dundee after one scene. Dundee lives a charmed life and the hotel loves him and, this being the 80's, transsexuals are not yet people.

Again, I find it not bad but uninteresting.