Ozploit what?

http://www.aveleyman.com/FilmCredit.aspx?FilmID=241

Barry Humphries described the Ozploitation era as a display of “urban vulgarity” stating “homophobia and racism can be charming”. During this era Humphreys was not known as the over top success of ‘Dame Edna’ as he is today. The character had humble beginnings in the film 

The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, playing ‘Aunt Edna’, a woman of English decent living in Moonee Ponds Victoria during the 1970’s.

An interesting documentary, which discusses further the issues and success of filmmaking during this era is Not Quite Hollywood by Mark Hartley.

Not Quite Hollywood trailer 
(Uploaded by miccity vibe October 1^st 2009)

Australians had a chance to tell the rest of the world stories about our culture in a way that was entertaining and competitive with the Hollywood film industry during that period. Satire was heavily used to display stereotypes of men and women and place these exaggerate characters in humorous scenarios. The interesting part of the films was that they allowed people to go and essentially laugh at themselves and some of the common iconography of middle class Australian existence during the mid 20^th Century.

The films that came out of this time period say a lot about the mentalities of the public and the people producing the films. The majority of the films displayed stereotypes and films never really touched on the issues of multiculturalism and homosexuality, these topics usually the basis of crude humor.

Films were also constructed during the late 1970’s and mid 1980’s as a form of advertisment, using the film to market certain products by writing a script that applauded the consumer product. 'BMX Bandits' (1983)  is a key example of product placement and the impact a film has when it has been funded by advertising, the quality and meaningful textual value are generally lost allowing the film to have lost a portion of it’s market and generally is sold to the public as a children’s film. 'BMX Bandits' was a poor representation of Australia culture during that period, the film marketed an Americanised way of life that did not display a sense of Australian identity.  'He Died With a Felafel in his Hand' (2001) is another commercially successful Australian film that can be compared to the works of Denny Lawrence, in regards to style and the contextual themes of suburban life. 'He Died With a Felafel in his Hand' is a more recent portrayal of what it means to be Australian and the many identities that such a broad phrase can contain.

The films Lawrence created during the early to mid 80’s show creative intent, adding interesting story arcs to a somewhat bleak exterior. Lawrence’s films and screenplays often use the Australian setting as a vital narrative tool. Allowing the subject to interact with its environment.

Road Games Film Poster

http://www.imdb.com/ media/rm4291534592/tt0083000

Lawrence rebelled against the "Ozploitation" view on symbolic iconography, in regards to landscape and environment. Many films made during this period like: Road Games (1981) used the 'Australian outback' as their focus of setting, creating a fantastical version of a post card combing the obscure contexts and subject matter. The ridiculous style of film making gave an unrealistic sense of the Australian landscape, making everything seem surrounded by desert and swamps filled with crocodiles. There was not very much diversity in these film in regards to perspective, they were action packed and did not usually display the average mans life and the monotonous struggle of a suburban reality.