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They’re a Weird Mob is a renowned Australian movie based on a novel written by John O’Grady. Nino Cullota, the protagonist of the movie is an Italian immigrant with a hope of becoming a journalist by accepting a job offered by his cousin. However, his dreams were shattered when he found out that his cousin already abandoned the magazine and borrowed money from the Kay Kelly, who is the daughter of a boss of a locally based construction firm. Nino Cullota started facing numerous difficulties to pay the debts and afford a living in the local areas (Gunew 2016). As the plot unfolds, the study would widely concentrate on the changed attitude and legislations in a changed Australian landscape in terms of expectations, diversity, and behaviour. The study would analyze the acceptable and unacceptable cultural norms in today’s world by obtaining ideas from this movie.
The movie highlights the post-war immigration in Australia by defining the life of an immigrant, Nino Cullota. The movie represents the complex and argumentative expressions of the migrants’ experiences. The foreign immigrants mostly needed the economic opportunities in Australia. As soon as they arrive in Australia, they entered into the roles of the labour. Nino Culotta was a part of an educated Italian middle class group and he came to Australia to pursue his career in Sports Journalism. It was observed that the acculturation of Nino was questioned as he abandoned his culture and ethnicity to survive in Australia. However, it has remained as one of the most appreciable mainstream Australian films that portray the time and scenario of historical age. Rooney (2015) indentified that the movie clearly illustrates a post-war historical period when the immigrants were expected to assimilate into the society and culture of Australia under the colonial rules of Britain. In an argumentative note, the movie is also perceived as a form of inclusive “benign multicultural tolerance”. The assimilated views from a current multiculturalism perspective are appreciated as one of the most significant artifacts in this era. Davis (2016) opined that the clarified ideas of the humours adventures of newly arrived Italian migrant, who developed the scenario of the cultural effects by the purpose he played in this movie. He expected to get a job as a sport journalist in his cousin’s Italian Magazine. However, after his arrival in Australia, he found out that the magazine has folded and his cousin was absconded (Eprints.usq.edu.au 2018). The essence of the cultural and legislation changes is presented from the starting of his struggling days thereafter.
According to Martinez et al. (2015), the movie generally presents the clash between the non-European and a European ideal of place and space. However, Kennedy et al. (2015) argued that the movie is mostly highlighting the wider and detailed examination of the European cultures and criticisms. The clear approaches from the socio-economic and socio-historical readings illustrated in this movie to generate the ideas about the cultural and sociological traits in Europe. Most of the arguments are developed by considering the blunt analysis of the Euorpean-ness, which is mostly reactionary. Lombardo (2017) criticized that the first sequence of the movie is a spoof “informational” pointer to the dominating Australian nature. For instance, the presentation of the world globe depicts the Australian standpoint whereas the voice-over describes the Australian as the living “down under”. Furthermore, it is compared to the “flies on a ceiling” that reflects the typical formulation of the typical human nature (Cinema.usc.edu 2018). The continuous conflicts in minds and in reality portrayed the characteristic overflow of the protagonist. Migrants were expected to abandon their accessories of the previous national and ethnic cultures. They even expected to embrace the Australian culture and language by giving up on their cultural and linguistic values. His diverse perspective towards Australian culture allowed him to differentiate the cultural values from his native. The discriminative attitudes and racism is the major field of differences that are simply against the morale of the immigrants arrived to Australia.
It is noticed that Australia is mostly described as a multicultural nation and the term was first introduced in 1973. This multiculturalism signifies the contemporary settlement policy, which is similar to a government movement that emphasizes on ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’, ‘social cohesion’, and ‘harmony’. However, Elliot (2017) argued that in many of the cases, multiculturalism is mistaken with the immigration policy instead of settlement policy, which has the distinctive characterization. This policy does not focus on who comes into the country; rather the supports are available to them upon the arrival. However, the movie portrays that Nino, in spite of being an arrival, did not receive any support and he was expected to be assimilated to Australian culture completely (Moran 2016). Such changes in the legislative value are quite insignificant and difficult for the protagonist.
It is noticed that Australia embarked upon a program on the mass immigration following the Second World War. The post war atmosphere clarified the vulnerability level of the demographic and physical atmosphere. In previous time, Australia was just a western country with a negligible population situated in the Asia Pacific region. In fact, the country lacked the supports from the workers for developing the new infrastructure (Eprints.usq.edu.au 2018). Eventually, the immigrant programmed gave rise to the racially discriminatory policies. The ‘White Australia Policy’ established a hierarchy for the desirable migrants based upon the criteria of race and culture. It also restricted the non-white immigrants. The immigration policy was devised to sustain the national identity of Australia as a ‘white nation’. The movie, They’re a Weird Mob also portrayed the policy dominancy in providing the privileges to the white people. In the year of 1901, the Immigration Restriction Act was introduced as the foundational piece of legislation (Bashford 2014). In the year of 1958, this policy was replaced by the Migration Act, which represents the Australian immigration legislation in today’s date (Higgins 2017). Such shifts in the legislations helped in demolishing many of the discriminatory practices.
The White Australian Policy was introduced to control the racial composition emerged in the Australian society. On the other hand, the Australian Policy of Assimilation was formulated to control cultural identity and practices. Migrants were expected to abandon their accessories of the previous national and ethnic cultures (Cinema.usc.edu 2018). They even expected to embrace the Australian culture and language by giving up on their cultural and linguistic values. The movie was set when this adaptation was influenced by an intermediary policy of integration. This policy acknowledged such acculturation more frequently. It was noted that the migrants were expected to participate in the cultures and society and adopt the English as their language. In this movie, They’re a Weird Mob, Nino Culotta, the male protagonist is representing one of those immigrants who accepted the Australian culture instead of being an Italian and a darker shade of pale complexion. Majority of the Italian immigrants were from the rural and working-class backgrounds. However, they mostly needed the economic opportunities in Australia. As soon as they arrive in Australia, they entered into the roles of the labour (Eprints.usq.edu.au 2018). Nino Culotta was a part of an educated Italian middle class group and he came to Australia to pursue his career in Sports Journalism. It was observed that the acculturation of Nino was questioned as he abandoned his culture and ethnicity to survive in Australia. It was believed that his education and culture were important even though all had turned out as a joke as a whole. In this sequence of the movie, the ridiculed European cultural assimilation was portrayed. It defined the lowbrow cultural milieu that expressed through the decisions of Nino Culotta.
The ambiguity of the “weird mob” was clearly illustrated through the disjuncture between the middle class migrant from Italy and his new-working class friends. It made him weird to give up on his own culture and ethnicity. The title ‘weird mob’ does not really specify the person; rather it represents the strangeness of the Australian culture from a perspective of a foreigner. Moran (2016) argued that Michael Power, the director of the movie presented the view of a non-Australian that are magnified for the audiences. The perception of Powell is similar to the gaze of a foreigner that is illustrated through the characterization of Nino. The Britishness of Powell allowed him to distill the strangeness and uniqueness of the Australian culture in a clarified manner. The continuous conflicts are reflected through the characteristic overflow of the protagonist (Cinema.usc.edu 2018). His foreignness allowed him to differentiate the cultural values observed in Australian Society. Australia was just a western country with a negligible population situated in the Asia Pacific region (Martinez et al. 2015). In fact, the country lacked the supports from the workers for developing the new infrastructure. Eventually, the immigrant programmed gave rise to the racially discriminatory policies. The abandoned cultural traits of Europe made the actor realize the weirdness in accepting the different culture that presents the behavioural discrimination in terms of race and ethnicity. The clear approaches from the socio-economic and socio-historical readings illustrated in this movie to generate the ideas about the cultural and sociological traits in Europe.
The movie also depicts the Italian ethnicity that becomes quite peripheral to the narrative whereas they were perceived as the most well-known groups. The portrayal of Australian immigration and migrants is positively highlighted in this context. For instance, one of the scenes illustrated a group of Italian migrants who were harassed by a drunken Australian (Eprints.usq.edu.au 2018). This person showed his intolerable behaviour, which juxtaposed against the behaviour of Nino and other immigrants from Italy. The workmates even offered the acceptance to Nino that made him learn about the Australian traits. Migrants were expected to abandon their accessories of the previous national and ethnic cultures. They even expected to embrace the Australian culture and language by giving up on their cultural and linguistic values. The movie was set when this adaptation was influenced by an intermediary policy of integration (Cinema.usc.edu 2018). The incident drove him to adopt the diverse cultural trait by forgetting the ethical behaviour he learnt back to his native. They mostly needed the economic opportunities in Australia. As soon as they arrive in Australia, they entered into the roles of the labour. Nino Culotta was a part of an educated Italian middle class group and he came to Australia to pursue his career in Sports Journalism. Migrants were expected to abandon their accessories of the previous national and ethnic cultures. They even expected to embrace the Australian culture and language by giving up on their cultural and linguistic values. It was observed that the acculturation of Nino was questioned as he abandoned his culture and ethnicity to survive in Australia (Martinez et al. 2015). The incident proved this fact once again. Therefore, the study develops the idea of the weirdness reflected through the behavioral traits of the Australian from a perspective of a foreigner.
The study reflects the cultural, ethnicity, racial, and legislative behaviour in Australia faced by the immigrants. The movie, They’re a Weird Mob also portrayed the policy dominancy in providing the privileges to the white people. The movie represents the complex and argumentative expressions of the migrants’ experiences. The foreign immigrants mostly needed the economic opportunities in Australia. As soon as they arrive in Australia, they entered into the roles of the labour. The assimilated views from a current multiculturalism perspective are appreciated as one of the most significant artifacts. It was observed that the acculturation of Nino was questioned as he abandoned his culture and ethnicity to survive in Australia. The socio-economic and socio-historical readings illustrated in this movie to generate the ideas about the cultural and sociological traits in Europe. Powell portrayed through the character of Nino Culotta to distill the strangeness and uniqueness of the Australian culture in a clarified manner. His dreams of being a sports journalist were shattered and he stayed in Australia by giving up his cultures and ethnicity as an Italian. The judgments are presented through his perspective towards Australian culture.
Bashford, A., 2014. Immigration restriction: rethinking period and place from settler colonies to postcolonial nations. Journal of Global History, 9(1), pp.26-48.
Cinema.usc.edu., 2018. They’re a Weird Mob European Cinema beyond Europe [online] Cinema.usc.edu. Available at: <http://cinema.usc.edu/assets/059/11483.pdf> [Accessed 28 Mar. 2018].
Davis, M., 2016. Always Almost Modern: Australian Print Cultures and Modernity. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature: JASAL, 16(1), p.1.
Elliot, R., 2017. The Geopolitical Patterns of Colonial and Australian Immigration Restriction Laws and the Negative Impact on Australian Trade with Asia, 1788–1936. Humanity.
Eprints.usq.edu.au, 2018. Who's the Weird Mob Anyway? Assimilation and Authenticity in They're A Weird Mob [online] Eprints.usq.edu.au. Available at: <https://eprints.usq.edu.au/24508/2/Carniel_Weird%20Mob_PV.pdf> [Accessed 28 Mar. 2018].
Gunew, S., 2016. Scenes of reading: Australia-Canada-Australia. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 15(3).
Higgins, C., 2017. Status Determination of Indochinese Boat Arrivals: A ‘Balancing Act’in Australia. Journal of Refugee Studies, 30(1), pp.89-105.
Kennedy, S., Kidd, M.P., McDonald, J.T. and Biddle, N., 2015. The healthy immigrant effect: patterns and evidence from four countries. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 16(2), pp.317-332.
Lombardo, P., 2017. Eugenics laws restricting immigration. The Chesterton Review, 43(1/2), pp.174-177.
Martinez, O., Wu, E., Sandfort, T., Dodge, B., Carballo-Dieguez, A., Pinto, R., Rhodes, S., Moya, E. and Chavez-Baray, S., 2015. Evaluating the impact of immigration policies on health status among undocumented immigrants: a systematic review. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 17(3), pp.947-970.
Moran, A., 2016. Australia, White Australia Policy. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism.
Rooney, B., 2015. Always almost modern: Australian print cultures and modernity [Book Review]. Southerly, 75(1), p.174.
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