I love film quotations, especially inane ones. You could collate a collection of gems purely from the movies of Charlton Heston. Like Anne Baxter (as Nefretiri, wife of Rameses) to Heston in The Ten Commandments : “Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!” And Heston, proudly, to Sir Cedric Hardwicke (the Pharaoh): “There is the obelisk of your jubilee!”

Unfortunately, whenever I see a picture of a contemporary pope, even the current likeable fellow, Pope Francis, I recall Heston, as Michelangelo, arousing the temper of Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison) in The Agony and the Ecstasy. Growled Julius: “You dare to dicker with your pontiff?”

I mention film quotations because a survey by Screen Australia has listed the all-time favourite lines from Australian films. In order, they’re from Crocodile Dundee: “That’s not a knife. That’s a knife”; The Castle: “That’s goin’ straight to the pool room”; Muriel’s Wedding: “You’re terrible, Muriel”; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: “That’s just what this country needs – a cock in a frock on a rock”; and Babe: “That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.”

It’s a classic – Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

More seriously, Screen Australia discovered what Australians think about local films. They found that nine out of ten people believe it’s important that the country has a local film and television industry that creates Australian stories. The most important reason given for a local industry was “to make sure that Australian culture isn’t overwhelmed by American culture on account of the amount of movies and TV series that Hollywood produces.”

Other reasons given were the local employment opportunities, and to ensure that Australian stories and important historical events were told and recorded. Eighty percent of people said that Australian stories were “vital for contributing to our sense of national identity”. Three-quarters said they would miss the Australian film and television industry if it ceased to exist.

The cultural export nature of our film and TV sector also registered strongly. Seventy-three per cent agreed that “Australian film and TV stories are vital to show the rest of the world Australian culture”.

And then came another statistic. Respondents were asked to affirm that “I typically watch more Australian content than foreign content”. A silly question, really, considering the foreign content outweighs the local product by about 90 per cent. Still, only 29 per cent agreed, which rather negated all their previously approving comments.

All of which brought me back to my film-quote collection. For my favourites it’s hard to go past Jack Nicholson, in A Few Good Men: “You can’t handle the truth!”; in Five Easy Pieces: “Now all you have to do is the hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven’t broken any rules”; Batman: “Wait’till they get a load of me!”; and The Shining: “He-e-e-e-ere’s Johnnie!”

Crocodile Dundee: “That’s not a knife. That’s a knife.”

We all have our favourites. Most people remember Robert Duvall’s “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” in Apocalypse Now; Arnold Swarzenegger’s “Hasta la vista, baby,” in The Terminator; Judy Garland’s, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more,” in The Wizard of Oz; Marlon Brando’s, “I could’ve had class. I could’ve been a contender,” in On The Waterfront, and his, “The horror, the horror,” in Apocalpse Now. Not to mention the customer to the waitress in the café, after Meg Ryan’s character, Sally, has faked an orgasm: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

For clever quotes, there’s Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City: “The Atlantic Ocean was something then. Yes, you should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days.” You could adapt that thought to the Pacific Ocean and Australia. As for local films, Breaker Morant has some beauties, both delivered by Edward Woodward as Lieutenant Harry Morant: “I’ll tell you what rule we applied, sir. We applied Rule 303. We caught them and we shot them under Rule 303.” And, “Shoot straight, you bastards! Don’t make a mess of it!”

But it’s the dialogue in Hollywood’s Bad Day at Black Rock that resonates perfectly in the current Australian cultural and political scene. Like Walter Brennan to Spencer Tracy: “I’m consumed with apathy.” And Tracy to Ernest Borgnine: “You’re not only wrong, you’re wrong at the top of your voice.”

Robert Drewe’s latest books, The Local Wildlife, set in the Northern Rivers, and Swimming to the Moon, are now on sale.

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