A huge hit of the 80s
In 1986, the adventure comedy Crocodile Dundee, directed by Peter Faiman, was an unexpected success. The film tells, in a humorous tone, the meeting between Michael “Crocodile” Dundee (Paul Hogan), an Australian crocodile hunter, and an American journalist, Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski). After the adventures in bush Australian, she returns with him to New York, where her lack of adaptation to urban life gives rise to comical situations.
This is the first big screen appearance for both actors. And, against all expectations, with a budget of 9 million dollars, Crocodile Dundee bring more than $328 million in revenue. He also largely convinced the critics. Numerous nominations and awards distinguish the film. Paul Hogan receives the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedyand was personally mentioned at the Oscars in 1987, as the film was nominated for the OscarsOscar for best original screenplay. Paul Hogan is in fact at the origin of this story, which he imagined before writing it together with John Cornell and Ken Shadie.
Who was the “real” Crocodile Dundee?
Australian actor Paul Hogan initially claimed to have invented the character and story for the film. But this is not entirely true. If Paul Hogan had actually imagined this story after hearing it completely lost on his first trip to New Yorkfrom which he took inspiration for his character Rod Ansell.
Rod Ansell was an Australian farmer and buffalo hunter, born in 1954. He became a celebrity in 1977, after finding himself isolated and destitute in a very remote area of northern Australia. While fishing on the Victoria River, his boat capsized and he had to survive, with his two dogs and the small tackle he managed to salvage from the sinking of his boat. Since he had announced to his loved ones that he would be leaving for several months, no search operation was launched.
For almost two months he managed to survive, feeding on wild animals and sometimes drinking buffalo blood and following the bees to find honey. Having to be wary of predators, particularly snakes and crocodiles, at a certain point he shot a 5 meter long crocodile, whose skull he kept as a souvenir. At the end of the 56th day she met two Aboriginal people and was able to return to civilization.
A tragic ending
Rod Ansell never sought fame, and even hid his affair from those close to him, out of fear that his mother would blame him for her recklessness, as recounted in the book Understanding journalism by Lynette Sheridan Burns. But in 1979, director Richard Oxenburgh asked him to tell his story for a documentary project titled To fight the wild nature, which becomes a book. Then log in Fameand legend has it that when he arrived in Sydney, he slept on the floor of his hotel room rather than on the bed, and was intrigued by the bidet, like the protagonist of Crocodile Dundee.
However, financial and personal difficulties pushed him to ruin. Claiming millions of dollars following the success of the film Crocodile Dundee, gets nothing. He then started using amphetamines in the early 1990s and fell into depression. With his new partner, whom he met in 1996, he increasingly used drugs. On August 3, 1999 he was captured a shootout with the police and gets hit.
Source: Cine Serie
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