Document Type
Article
Abstract
This essay explores the gay road movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) as a paradoxical classic of Australian cinema. Three protagonists, drag queens with complicated and frustrated private lives, launch themselves into the Outback, a harsh environment dizzyingly different from the febrile sophistication of Sydney. At first we see only extreme culture-conflict, comic or tragic; but as the film progresses, viewers and characters alike find surprising affinities between the exotic fauna and the extraordinary landscape itself. Ancient and modern images blend to reveal the beauty of a continually changing continent and its people.
Repository Citation
Paige, Linda R.. "Drag Queens, Thorny Devils and Frilled Lizards: 'Queerness' Takes to the Outback in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 16, no. 2, 2016, pp. 1–14. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol16/iss2/10