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y separately published work icon The Odd Angry Shot single work   novel   war literature  
Issue Details: First known date: 1975... 1975 The Odd Angry Shot
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Odd Angry Shot is the seminal account of Australian soldiers in the Vietnam War.

'Brief and bracing, tragic yet darkly funny, it portrays a close-knit group of knockabout SAS fighters: their mateship, homesickness and fears; their practical jokes, drinking and fighting. The enemy is not just the Vietcong they’ve been sent to fight, but their superiors, the mud and torrential rain, and boredom.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon The Odd Angry Shot Tom Jeffrey , ( dir. Tom Jeffrey ) Australia : Samson Productions , 1979 Z1857068 1979 single work film/TV war literature 'This film concentrates on a group of professional soldiers in the combat zone at the height of the Vietnam War. In an episodic structure, verbal and physical jokes alternate with realistic scenes of combat in a manner comparable to MASH and Catch 22. Irony is the main means of suggesting the futility of war. The film is anti-heroic in tone with the emphasis on survival. On several occasions the embittered Harry refers to the public back home as indifferent or worse. The risks of combat are seen to be without purpose but the men do their job. The behaviour of the male group is within the ANZAC ethos of the anti-authoritarian, pragmatic digger and the ocker tradition of irreverent humour laced with sexist jokes.' Source: Libraries Australia.

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Related Works

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Works about this Work

Untitled Cameron Woodhead , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 May 2013; (p. 32) The Saturday Age , 4 May 2013; (p. 28)
— Review of The Odd Angry Shot William Nagle , 1975 single work novel
Anti-War Poems Can Counter Hero Worship Christopher Bantick , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 April 2013; (p. 15) 'Anzac Day has become an excrescence of national identity that feeds bellicosity and jingoism'
Lest We Forget the Ghastly Face of War Paul Ham , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16-17 March 2013; (p. 24-25)
— Review of The Odd Angry Shot William Nagle , 1975 single work novel
Australian Fantasies Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 81-95)

'Australian culture is frequently described as materialistic, hedonistic and fun-loving, and no doubt it is, in some respects, all those things. The 'land of the long week-end', its 'great stupor' perhaps, even the 'lucky country' - all these more or less flattering tags suggest, sometimes in the face of what their authors intended, that nothing can go seriously wrong in Australia, where life cannot be but easy-going and enjoyable. And so it would appear that, as Craig McGregor observed, 'the Australian race is engaged in a whole-hearted pursuit of happiness without guilt. The beach, in particular, has been for several decades one of the major symbols of the Australian way of life, the locus of Australian hedonism, where people worship the sun, display their near-naked bodies, and ogle other people's...' (p. 81)
y separately published work icon Two Inches of Glory J. G. Roche , 1991 Z471503 1991 single work thesis
Lest We Forget the Ghastly Face of War Paul Ham , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16-17 March 2013; (p. 24-25)
— Review of The Odd Angry Shot William Nagle , 1975 single work novel
Untitled Cameron Woodhead , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 May 2013; (p. 32) The Saturday Age , 4 May 2013; (p. 28)
— Review of The Odd Angry Shot William Nagle , 1975 single work novel
Australian Fantasies Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 81-95)

'Australian culture is frequently described as materialistic, hedonistic and fun-loving, and no doubt it is, in some respects, all those things. The 'land of the long week-end', its 'great stupor' perhaps, even the 'lucky country' - all these more or less flattering tags suggest, sometimes in the face of what their authors intended, that nothing can go seriously wrong in Australia, where life cannot be but easy-going and enjoyable. And so it would appear that, as Craig McGregor observed, 'the Australian race is engaged in a whole-hearted pursuit of happiness without guilt. The beach, in particular, has been for several decades one of the major symbols of the Australian way of life, the locus of Australian hedonism, where people worship the sun, display their near-naked bodies, and ogle other people's...' (p. 81)
Anti-War Poems Can Counter Hero Worship Christopher Bantick , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 April 2013; (p. 15) 'Anzac Day has become an excrescence of national identity that feeds bellicosity and jingoism'
'Like Outlaws' : Australian Narratives from the Vietnam War John Murphy , 1987 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 46 no. 2 1987; (p. 153-162)
y separately published work icon Two Inches of Glory J. G. Roche , 1991 Z471503 1991 single work thesis
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Awards

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Last amended 20 Sep 2019 13:56:16
Subjects:
Settings:
  • c
    Vietnam,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • 1960s
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