Representing the Lanscape of Australia

Long panning shots of the beautiful landscape seem almost essential in Australian film. It is almost as if Australia is struggling to find its edge in film, its identity. Many Australian films that are filmed in Australia tend to utilise the landscape in a hope that its beauty will make the world interested. Films such as The Man From Snowy River, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Walkabout, Beneath Clouds, Galipoli, Australia, Sampson and Delilah, Mad Max and countless others. They all create beautiful shots of the land that is normally associated with hardship or work, implying that living in such spectacular places doesn't come easy. There seem to be different genres that these ideas come into play. The films about the white bushmen that live on the land as farmers, and work hard to keep prosperous and then there are Indigenous film and representations that clearly link the land to Indigenous culture and ways of life.

However, is this a true representation of Australian life and culture? is this the idea we wish to present on a global forum? If we think about films that represent city life in Australia, we tend to come across films about excessive drug use, gangs, fighting, and negative connotations. We represent suburbia through stereotypes of the 'bogan', country life through the bush rangers, where does that leave city dwellers? in a opium den?

Either way, Australian film's connection to the land should not be overlooked, it is a representation (although some what romanticised). It would seem that no matter what Australian film makers do they are always mis-representing the country in either stereotypes or sweeping presumptions. This is the problem we face, in a country so large and diverse, how is one to represent any part of it without actively ignoring other parts?

However, i think a part of all Australians can relate to these images of land and feel a swell of pride that we live here, amongst such beauty.