MovieChat Forums > Nim's Island (2008) Discussion > Are the Aussie tourists offensive to Aus...

Are the Aussie tourists offensive to Australians?

posted 17 years ago by joshuaism
23 replies | jump to latest

A reviewer on the film said it was offensive to him being from Australia, saying they were portrayed as stupid and overweight. I don't know how to feel about this because on one side, I know Australians aren't stereotyped as being fat morons, and on the other hand it's nice to see characters who aren't Americans portraying as overweight, "blind"(as in not seeing outside the box on things) and stupid when that's the general consensus of the world outside the U.S.

All I can say is, just take the punch. We as U.S. citizens have to hear those things all the time and a lot of time on the net when someone comes on here(not this board but other IMDB boards) and is like 'typical American' gawd I wanna hit them.

[–] davesp 17 years ago

God you sound so much like a typical American. Moaning on about how the rest of the world see you. Look at the film! Can you not see why, when your country churns out such arrogant cultural imperialist propaganda?

[–] samdubois 17 years ago

MATE. calm the *beep* down. Ive read a few of your posts and all they are is anti american tripe. dont be so quick to jump the gun FFS. as stated before, its an aussie author and the fact that PICNIC is getting such a massive plug there has to be some australian backing or what not. anyway. chill out.

[–] ducdebrabant 16 years ago

Oh man, you take yourself way too seriously. The world could use a lot more "arrogant cultural imperialist propaganda" about living harmoniously within an ecosystem and leaving no carbon footprint. A "typical" American? Hey, bud, xenophobia and chauvinism are the very foundation of cultural imperialism, its rationale. How are the aborigines doing, by the way? Did you ever stop abducting the kids from their parents?

[–] jbaker1-2 11 years ago

Piss off.

[–] brightspark495 17 years ago

the author of Nim's Island, Wendy Orr is an aussie by the way..... maybe she is being discriminating against herself then...

[–] goku123456 17 years ago

they didnt even resemble australians
the parents of the boy look american but are played by australians which is kinda sad

[–] Allyson55 17 years ago

I'm Australian and I wasn't offended. Tourists from all countries are usually portrayed as loud and stupid, it seems to go with the territory, tourist = moron.
It's actually a change from our usual portrayals as beer guzzling, racist surfers, or drug addicted criminals.
I'm sure not all Americans swear like troopers or pull a gun at the least provocation. Movies take liberties, it ain't real life! LOL

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[–] dodgycoops 17 years ago

I live in Australia too and i think there was no malice in the Australian accent either. Good luck luck to people who can take the mickey out of us. It would be a shallow world if we couldn't wind up other countries accents.

[–] Larue1872 17 years ago

I loved the tourists! They were just ordinary decent hard-working people leading ordinary decent lives who were wanting a bit of adventure and fun in the sun on their holidays. If they had known about Nim and her situation, they would have rallied around her - bandaged her leg, gone out looking for her father, etc. Nice folks.

BJ

[–] plazbo 16 years ago

bogans with money are still bogans is all I'm saying.

[–] efen 16 years ago

Is that what "those" things are. They are mighty disgusting. Although I must admit I think it's due to the fact that it's a stereotypical view of freelancing, fun loving fat tourists rather than just fat ugly and rude Aussies out in search of a rollicking good time.

[–] ubernatural 16 years ago

i wasn't offended. i thought it was kool that they had aussies in it.
but i dunno ... the accents were for real, like no one was going "let's put another shrimp on the barbie" coz i swear NO-ONE talks like that here. or nobody was over exaggerating g'day mate or talking about riding kangaroos to school or whatever, which i get every now and again when i talk to people from over seas.
"oh, wow you're from australia?"
"yeah"
"kool, so do you like .. ride kangaroos to school?"
"umm ... no ..."
ok i'm getting off topic but haha, no i wasn't offended =] but some other people might of been.

[–] hppg 16 years ago

Kind of, just because I didn't like to see the baddies as Australians, but I didn't really mind because it wasn't a big part of the film and they were just annoying tourists. It made sense because of the locations of Australia and the island.

I actually saw an article the other day that said Australia now has a higher proportion of obese/overweight adults than the USA. :-(

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[–] judy_lou_walsh 16 years ago

The only think that I thought was weird about the Aussie Tourists, is that not all of us Aussies wear LOUD and really bad clothing like they did.

The movie was shot in Queensland in Australia so of course they would have used Aussie in the movie.

But I think there is a stereo-type-ing in the fact that anyone on a cruise ship wears LOUD and Badly co-ordinated clothing.

[–] scruffy193 16 years ago

I'm Australian, I can take my fair share of humour and jabs at the Australian cultural identity, but the tourists in this film just grated my nerves.

Treachery is the way of the Sith...

[–] TakuyaAus 15 years ago

Guys, even if they were Japanese tourists they would be portrayed as annoying. Tourists = Annoying, it just goes with Hollywood, the reason they made them Australian was very likely because of the movies connections to Australia and as a tribute to Wendy Orr and the country in which it was filmed.