Mateship in Australian Films
Mateship has long been a major aspect of the national image as
projected by Australian films, yet the moralities of mateship and the
image of men as mates did not go unchallenged. Australian cinema as a
significant part of the whole industry of image-makers in the country,
the way it portrays mateship, the single most important mythic element
in the cultural identity of Australia, is worth analysing.
This paper first reviews the historical background of mateship in
Australia and its contemporary development. The review here serves as
a general discussion of mateship that provides the potential readers
with some basic understandings of the idea, and as background
information for the contents that I examine subsequently.
I then briefly discuss the image of mateship in an Australian film:
Gallipolis (1982). The reasons for such an approach are explained
within the section.
Finally, I compare the image of mateship in a contemporary local film,
Idiot Box (1997), with the one in Gallipoli examined earlier and argue
that the traditions of mateship are challenged in Idiot Box.
Historical Background
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Mateship has a long history in Australia. If tracing its origins, we
need to go back to the earliest days of settlement. However, firstly,
I would like to put forward the definition of mateship 'what is
mateship?' According to Ken Inglis (1998, p416), the term mateship
does not originally come from Australia; but in the Oxford English
Dictionary, its use is mostly explained by examples cited from this
country. Also, rich entries on mateship as well as mate can be found
in Au...
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...n Ken and his girlfriend. Comparing with Kev, Mick
is more stable, sensitive and romantic, but except that, he does not
have many things better. In fact, the relationship with his
girlfriend, Lani, may change his life, but his loyalties to Kev drag
him back to their mateship. In the beginning, Mick does not agree with
Kev's idea of bank robbery. But, the conformity of mateship makes him
follow Kev's decision anyway.
In conclusion, Idiot Box challenges the traditional values of
Australian mateship by examining the institution in the context of the
modern world. By comparing the totally different representations of
mateship in Gallipoli and Idiot Box, it is obvious that perhaps the
tradition of mateship continues to exist in Australian society,
however, its significance probably is much weaker than in former
times.
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