Mad Dog Morgan
Clip 2: ‘You won’t last 24 hours in Victoria’
3 min 10 sec
Taken from the feature Mad Dog Morgan (1976)
Original title classification M – this clip chosen to be PG
Availability of the complete title
Please be aware that this clip may contain the names, images and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may now be deceased.
Curator’s clip description
Superintendent Cobham (Frank Thring) tells (unseen) members of the press that Dan Morgan will not be tolerated if he returns to Victoria. Billy (David Gulpilil) rides back to a hidden camp with news of what people are saying. Morgan announces his intention to return to Victoria, during a confrontation with a bounty hunter (Hugh Keays-Byrne).
Curator’s notes
The film sometimes uses an unusual ‘documentary’ style, in which characters address the camera directly, as with Frank Thring’s speech, both for satirical effect and to foreground questions of historical accuracy. The film treats this history as a kind of media event, with press conferences and still cameras frequently used to immortalise moments of the story. The sense that Morgan is creating his own legend is strong – he’s eager to hear what people are saying about his exploits. The hideout scene was filmed in Morgan’s actual cave hideout in the Yambla Range.
Paul Byrnes, curator
have teachers’ notes.
