Australian Cinema is International – Exploring the works of George Miller

Australian Cinema is International – Exploring the works of George Miller
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Australian Cinema is International – Exploring the works of George Miller
Introduction to Australian film
The Australian film industry growth and development over the past few decades involved significant transformations that make it almost similar to American Hollywood. However, even with the internationalism in Australian production, their content seems to be mostly limited. Although Australia can release several blockbuster films, they never compete against Hollywood cinema enough, making Australian film's role somewhat limited in the international scene (Khoo, Smaill and Yue, 2013). As a result, the Australian cinema's outward-looking aspect tends to gain a reaction of indifference from the global audience. Similarly, the blockbusters do not gain much following from local viewers, and there is a strong allure for culturally resonant cinema. 
There is an assumption that Australians do not actively follow Australian blockbusters. Yet, there are up to 25 films released each year in the international market. Despite the movie's failure in the local markets, the blockbusters tend to fare well in international cinema festivals. Prestigious events such as those in Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and Sundance feature Australian international cinema (Goldsmith, 2010). On the other hand, the local audiences access the films from designated shops until the release window when they can access it from local free-to-air television. At the same time, the boundaries of national cinema go beyond the local entertainment scene. In contrast, the dynamic shifts between the local and international may tend to define Australian film and what it constitutes. 
Internationalism in Australian film
In Australia, the main transformations involve an increase in the complexity and growth of the production processes and policy. The nature of Australian cinema and its public reception define the national identity, which is usually fragmented, ever-changing, contingent, and dispersed across a complex system of relations. A relational perception of the film industry suggests a high connection between Australia and the rest of the world. The development of the film scene's internationalization began as early as a decade before with the Keating government (Ward, 2004). At the time, the assumption was that over the years, the Australian international film would gradually resonate to and be for the benefit of the national culture systems. Furthermore, the inception of internet technologies and a global cinema industry led to the integration of both domestic and international culture economies. Hailing, as one of the few internationally recognized film industries, created a universal reaction to the convergence as a cue to acknowledging television as a more substantial ‘creative sector’ (Ward, 2004). However, the emergence of other numerous film industries in the global sector required a new perspective that takes to count the spatial culture configurations that influence film. Such new perspectives define aspects of market dynamics, such as competitive advantage. For film industries and filmmakers in Queensland, the national cinema's boundaries became secondary to the cultural shifts of global Hollywood and global cinema. 
In Australia, the development of an international production niche specializes in integrating local content into a functional approach. Within the idea that cinema adopts both economic and cultural landscapes, the global production approved varying levels of regulating the local productions so that the economy plays a significant role. For instance, the industry adopted an idea for the location where various production settings can transform over time, depending on the accessibility of financial incentives from the international markets (Goldsmith, 2010). Substantially with the emergence of Hollywood, international cinema adopted a characteristic of strongly linking to geographical and cultural contexts. As such, Australia's development as a new force in the global film can bring the industry into another perspective as a different cultural and geographic setting. Necessarily, as it emerges for national production and broadcasting systems that lack substantial infrastructures, the international scene is more dependent on economic stimuli (Goldsmith, 2010). The international film industry turns out to be an outcome of a production policy that assists in creating a national identity for a global audience and viewership. The shift in international production perspective has led to the transformation of the Australian system from approaches that dominated the 1990’s that were inward-bound. The policies mainly focused on an introspective approach to national culture and how to express the Australian lifestyle. Today, most of the national cinema policies are outward bound, whereby they deal with marketing the Australian industry to attract international producers and investors in the film (Goldsmith, 2010). However, as much as the filmmakers seek a place in the global network of producers, the national and cultural differences with dominant production industries such as Hollywood continue to create a barrier to growth. Mostly, national cinema does not occur as a relation that depends on the other kinds of film production settings and locations for which it forms an alternative. 
Exploring internationalism in George Miller films
The role of internationalism in Australian cinema is best depicted in the works of filmmaker and film director, George Mills. His series of production mostly gained ground as popular pictures in the global viewership and especially in America. Films such as The Road Warrior got into distribution as early as 1981 but were among the most popular movies in the United States (Emmett, 2009). Mostly, the role of Australian film, even at the time, was relative to the dominant Hollywood scene. Through the works of Miller, it is possible to understand the development of national cinema as inherently an assertion of difference from the common Hollywood production trends. For instance, one typical aspect of George Miller’s film work in productions like The Road Warrior and Mad Max movie series is that they mostly represent Australia in geographic contexts. Still, much of the work only resonated within the social aspects of its time (Emmett, 2009). Judging from film examples by Miller such as The Road Warrior, one can appreciate the reasoning by Stuart Hill that the relevant time gives meaning to cultural products inevitably, even if partially. 
As cultural products, the film making of George Miller became cultural symbols, which are mostly a construct of the given social field. Factors such as the practices or philosophies that new cultural products communicate and the actions that it articulates from the underlying ideas or meaning make them cultural symbols. When considering Miller’s work in The Road Warrior, there is much resonance with Reaganism in the United States (Emmett, 2009). The choice of theme and cultural practices or philosophies in a film are linked with social and political thoughts at the time. With Reaganism, there was a prevailing trend that encouraged conservative nationalism to restore the order in a world weary of multiculturalism (Emmett, 2009). As such, despite that the film was inherently Australian, it stayed appealing to the United States audience. However, Miller’s work achieves its internationalism in an attempt to give his cinema production a sense of authenticity and rich symbolism through futuristic settings and graphic enhancements. At the same time, th...