(June 2008) Ranked #9 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Courtroom Drama".
"The dingo ate my baby!" is never said in the film; it was said in The Stranded (1991) of Seinfeld (1989) and became a national catchphrase. The phrase is famously uttered twice by Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character, Elaine Benes.
Many Australians were critical of the movie when it was released (a few months after Lindy Chamberlain Creighton's release from prison), still maintaining their conviction that she wasn't innocent. When the film is discussed in "A Dingo's Got My Baby": Trial by Media (2014) of Retro Report (2013), there are clips presenting reactions from Australian audiences.
Lindy Chamberlain, subsequently known as Lindy Chamberlain Creighton, refers to a case in which expert testimony wrongly sent three boys to prison. She's referring to the 1972 murder of Maxwell Confait in southeast London. Confait, 26, was strangled, and the building in which he lived was burned down. Eighteen-year-old Colin Lattimore, 15-year-old Ronnie Leighton, and 14-year-old Ahmet Salih were arrested and charged with murder and arson. All three had alibis, but three prominent forensic pathologists testified to the time of death. One, Dr. Cameron, changed his mind on the stand, and said Confait could have died at a time when the boys were not covered by their alibis. The boys were convicted and sentenced to prison. Two years later, the convictions were overturned. It turned out that Confait had been dead for more than 48 hours before the fire, and the forensic pathologists were wrong about the fire speeding up the onset of rigor mortis. In 1980, Douglas Franklin was found to be the true murderer.
Ayres Rock (now more commonly called Uluru in Australia) is considered sacred to the Aboriginal people. Tourists walking on the site is considered sacrilege.