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Australian Western, also known as meat pie Western orkangaroo Western, is a genre ofWestern-style films or TV series set in the Australianoutback or "the bush". Films aboutbushrangers (sometimes calledbushranger films) are included in this genre. Some films categorised as meat-pie or Australian Westerns also fulfil the criteria for other genres, such asdrama,revisionist Western,crime orthriller. A sub-genre of the Australian Western, theNorthern, has been coined by the makers ofHigh Ground (2020), to describe a film set in theNorthern Territory that accurately depicts historical events in a fictionalised form, that has aspects of athriller.
The term "meat pie Western" is a play on the termSpaghetti Western, used forItalian-made Westerns. Since Westerns are a genre associated with the United States, the food qualifiers indicate the origin of other cultures that play with the characteristics of the genre. Historically some Australian Westerns were made specifically with the influence of American Westerns in mind. The Ealing Westerns, made in Australia, are particular examples of this, though they depictAustralian history.
One connection has been the parallel between the twonative people, and their treatment by settlers and thewhite colonial people. In the case of Australia,Indigenous Australians, and in the US,Native Americans.[1]Cattle ranches andvast tracts of land are both similar themes, being borrowed from US Westerns and used in Australia, in particular the movieThe Overlanders (1946).[2]
The definition of what is an Australian Western (i.e. taking its influence from US cinema) and what is simply an Australian historical film set in the era that covers similar themes, is fluid. Cinema aboutbushrangers, which some regard as Australian Westerns, goes back to some of the first Australian feature films.[3] Ned Kelly, as subject of a feature film, was first made in 1906, inThe Story of the Kelly Gang. The British company Ealing Studios, made a number of Westerns in Australian in the 1940s and '50s, includingThe Overlanders (1946), about a cattle drive, which was marketed in Australia as a drama, but marketed overseas as an "Australian Western".[4] It starred Australian actorChips Rafferty and was successful at the box office. Another British film production house, Rank, madeRobbery Under Arms in 1957.[5][6] One of the prominent post-war productions made in Australia was the technicolour Western,Kangaroo. This was a big budget (800,000 pounds) film made by 20th Century Fox in 1952, starring imported starsMaureen O'Hara andPeter Lawford.[7]Mad Dog Morgan, was made in the 1970s, carrying Western themes along withOzploitation cinema[8]
The term "kangaroo Western" is used in an article aboutThe Man from Snowy River (1982) in that year,[9] andStuart Cunningham refers toCharles Chauvel'sGreenhide (1926) as a "kangaroo Western" in 1989.[10][11]
Grayson Cooke attributes the first use of the term "meat-pie Western" to Eric Reade in hisHistory and Heartburn (1979),[12] referring toRussell Hagg'sRaw Deal (1977).[10] This term is again used in 1981 in anAustralian Women's Weekly column byJohn-Michael Howson (about a film planned to be made in Australia byJames Komack, but apparently never made). Howson compares the term to the "Spaghetti Western".[13] Historian Troy Lennon (2018) says that meat pie Westerns have been around for more than a century.[14]
Cooke (2014) posits that the Australian Western genre never developed a "classic" or mature phase. He lists the following as broad categories: "the early bushranger and bush adventure films; Westerns shot in Australia by foreign production studios; contemporary re-makes of bushranger films; and contemporary revisionist Westerns, noting that most fall into the bushranger category (with onlyThe Tracker andThe Proposition falling into the latter category at that time). Other recent films, such asIvan Sen'sMystery Road (2013), acrime film, also uses some of the Western themes.[10]
Emma Hamilton, of theUniversity of Newcastle, refers to the Australian Western, kangaroo Western and meat-pie Western as alternative terms, in her exploration of the development of the Western genre in Australia comparing film representations of Ned Kelly. She refers to the work of Cooke and other writers, paraphrasing Peter Limbrick's view that the Western is basically "about societies making sense of imperial-colonial relationships", and considers the parallels between American and Australian histories. Hamilton lists a number of films which can be termed Australian Westerns by virtue of being set in Australia but maintaining elements of American Western conventions. The list includes, amongst many others,Robbery Under Arms (1920),Captain Fury (1939),Eureka Stockade (1949) andThe Shiralee (1957).[15]
DirectorStephen Johnson and his team of filmmakers dubbed their creation,High Ground, set in theNorthern Territory, a "Northern".[a] Johnson said "We really feel it's a film that immerses the audience in a time and place and that perhaps hasn't happened in this way before", and producerWitiyana Marika called it a "northern action thriller". The feature fiction film is based on many stories of the First Nations people ofArnhem Land that are not told in the history books.[16][17] Johnson also said "There's a thriller aspect to it. It's not a Western, it's a Northern".[18]
The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) could be said to be the first in the genre (and possibly the world's first feature film[15]), with "good guys, bad guys, gunfights [and] horseback chases". In 1911 and 1912, the state governments ofSouth Australia,New South Wales andVictoria allbanned depictions of bushrangers in films, which lasted for about 30 years and at first had a significantly deleterious effect on the Australian film industry.[10][14][15]
Films in the Western genre continued to be made through the rest of the 20th century, many withHollywood collaboration (such asRangle River based on aZane Grey novel in 1936), and someBritish (such as theEaling Studios'The Overlanders in 1946).[14]Ned Kelly (1970) andThe Man from Snowy River (1982) were the most notable examples of the genre in the second half of the century.[14][15]
Some films in the genre, such asRed Hill,The Proposition, andSweet Country, re-examine the treatment ofAboriginal Australians and focus on racism and sexism inAustralian history,[19][20] with the latter two of these being successful with both critics andbox-office.[14]
A variety of Westerns has been made since 1990 in Australia.Ned Kelly, Australia's most infamous bank robber, featured in two films,Ned Kelly (2003) and TheTrue History of the Kelly Gang (2019).[21] Also notable wereThe Legend of Ben Hall[citation needed] (2017) andThe Tracker (2002).[22]The Proposition (2005) was a "revisionist Western" or "anti-Western" film influenced byRobert Altman andSam Peckinpah's work.[23] The 2008 film,Australia, was an epic Western which included other genres such as adventure, action, drama, war and romance.[24]Sweet Country, about European settlers' incursions intoAboriginal Australians' traditional lands, was made in 2017.[25]
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