That’s not a cut! Why is Crocodile Dundee being re-edited?

Almost 40 years after it became a surprise worldwide hit, Crocodile Dundee is still making headlines, with reports that Britain’s Channel 5 cut some well-known scenes when it screened on Boxing Day.

The comedy, about charismatic bushman Mick Dundee meeting American reporter Sue Charlton in the outback then heading to New York with her, was broadcast in a child-friendly 5.15pm timeslot.

The famous ‘that’s not a knife’ scene in Crocodile Dundee.Credit:

Among the sequences reportedly cut – upsetting some fans online – was Dundee grabbing a fellow bar patron in the groin and declaring, “That was a guy, a guy dressed up like a sheila”, and his famous response to a would-be mugger: “That’s not a knife, that’s a knife.“

Was it the children’s timeslot that prompted the editing? Channel 5 hasn’t released any explanation. You wouldn’t cut Schindler’s List, Pulp Fiction or Silence of the Lambs to make them more kid-friendly. You just screen them at a later timeslot in the form the filmmaker intended.

And who gives a broadcaster the right to change a film for its audience? Even if it is not forbidden in a contract, Australian creatives have a moral right over their works which protects them from being materially damaged.

In the case of Channel 5, if a film doesn’t make sense with major edits, as online commenters have suggested, why would you even bother screening it for children?

But there is another issue that Paul Hogan, who co-wrote the script and played Mick Dundee, seems to be aware of: some of the jokes don’t play as well any more.

Hoges will introduce a new version of Crocodile Dundee at Sydney’s Open Air Cinema this month ahead of a release in May.

Called Crocodile Dundee: The 4K Encore Cut, it features what a media release calls “considered edits, meticulous restoration and [it] will be shown for the first time in stunning [high-resolution] 4K”.

Those considered edits will be fascinating. It will inevitably polarise audiences whether the groin-grabbing scene is deleted (“wokeness is destroying everything”) or kept (“transphobia endangers lives”). And if you cut it, is the flow of the film interrupted so much that viewers notice?

The “that’s not a knife scene” is so famous and funny that it has to stay. But we can expect argument about whether it’s a good look for a white man, even provoked, to be pulling his own knife on a teenage black mugger and slashing his jacket.

What about the scenes where Mick asks an African-American man what tribe he’s from and discusses Indigenous land rights? Are they just evidence of Mick’s loveable charm or is he racially insensitive by today’s standards?

While Crocodile Dundee was popular enough to become – and remain – the most successful Australian film at the box office, there are respected critics who consider the trilogy sexist, racist and homophobic.

The issue of altering famous films keeps cropping up.

Over Christmas, American streamer Amazon Prime reportedly trimmed a sequence from the classic It’s A Wonderful Life that has George Bailey’s guardian angel showing him what his town would have looked like if not for all his good deeds.

Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski and David Gulpilil in Crocodile Dundee.Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

We don’t know why such a pivotal scene was cut – the Daily Mail reported it could have resulted from a copyright dispute – but it was butchery that changed the film’s impact.

We also don’t usually know how often films have different versions screening on different formats around the world.

A sex scene that passes without comment in one country might be trimmed or deleted in another. Violence, language or themes that result in a certain rating here might be quietly toned down to get a softer (more commercial) rating elsewhere.

Zoe Terakes in Talk to Me.Credit: Maslow

Nobody raised an eyebrow about Zoe Terakes playing a student hosting a seance in the horror hit Talk To Me in Australia. But in Kuwait, just having an actor who identifies as non-binary and transmasculine in the cast was enough to have the film banned.

About the same time, the Middle East release of Barbie was delayed when censors demanded edits to LGBTQ-related narration and dialogue.

As well as cultural sensitivities, politics can also affect what version of a film is seen around the world. In 2001, Pearl Harbor, the Hollywood action epic about the Japanese attack on Hawaii in 1941, had a jingoistic version for Americans that was toned down for marketing reasons for international audiences.

There is usually no reason for Hollywood studios to acknowledge these different versions – it’s better commercially if everyone thinks they are getting the real deal – so they are an under-the-radar aspect of film distribution.

But the flak about Crocodile Dundee’s British screening means The 4K Encore Cut with “considered edits” will attract attention. That’s not a controversy …

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