Walkabout (1971)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Nicolas Roeg

Writers:

Edward Bond (writer)
James Vance Marshall (novel)

Release Date:

1 July 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

A boy and girl face the challenge of the world's last frontier. Dangers they had never known before... A people they had never seen before...

Plot:

Two young children are stranded in the Australian outback and are forced to cope on their own. They...

Plot Keywords:

One Word Title | Cluelessness | Actual Animal Killed | Australian Outback | Very Little Dialogue

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Jenny Agutter	...	Girl
Luc Roeg	...	White Boy (as Lucien John)
David Gulpilil	...	Black Boy (as David Gumpilil)
John Meillon	...	Man
Robert McDarra	...	Man (as Robert McDara)
Peter Carver	...	No Hoper (as Pete Carver)
John Illingsworth	...	Young Man
Hilary Bamberger	...	Woman
Barry Donnelly	...	Australian Scientist
Noeline Brown	...	German Scientist (as Noelene Brown)
Carlo Manchini	...	Italian Scientist

Runtime:

100 min | USA:100 min (1997 reissue) | USA:95 min (original version)

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:11 | UK:12 (video rating: 2000) | UK:AA (original rating) | USA:GP (re-rating on appeal) | USA:R (original rating) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

Company:

Si Litvinoff Film Production

Trivia:

Due to Jenny Agutter's full-frontal nudity, film originally drew an "R" rating from the MPAA. It was reduced to "PG" on appeal.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The girl asks to be taken to the city of Adelaide, the children's destination in the novel. However, the city shown at the start and end of the film is clearly Sydney, which is several thousand kilometers (and two states) away from Adelaide.

Quotes:

White Boy: Well, where are we now?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 50 Films to See Before You Die (2006) (TV)

Oh the 70s...

Before specifically talking about the film, I just have to ponder the following question: Why do all films that take place in the 70s feel so 70s? Considering the fact that this movie was made in 1971, one must conclude that Roeg was a trend-setter. For my personal tastes, he went a little overboard with the freeze frames, jump cutting, radical though hardly subtle politics, and juxtaposition of jarring images. Aboriginal tearing into meat, Australian white butcher cutting meat in a sanitized setting, back to the Aboriginal, back to the butcher, and back again to the Aboriginal. And what's with all the scenes involving decomposing bodies? Yes, savage innocence, evil imperialists, death, nature vs. industrialization, corruption of a purer way of life, we see all these themes, but it would have been preferable to see it without being visually and aurally clubbed over the head like the poor animals in the outback are.

Disregarding that aspect, I quite liked the story of two white children, one very young, the other pubescent (and lingeringly shot), who get stuck in the Outback after their patriarchal and borderline psycho father is blown up. They then struggle to make it in the wild, and come upon an Aboriginal boy who is on a "walkabout", or a rite of passage journey that boys that age traditionally undertake in order to prove their worthiness as a man. This of course, becomes their walkabout, and they too become "wild" and free. Eventually, they make it back to "civilization", the first sign of this being a beautiful shot of the girl (whose name we never know- thus making it even more symbolic), coming into a clearing and gliding her hand over a man-made fence while walking backwards. What could be more symbolic of the Western values of property and ownership than a fence? She is ecstatic to be near an environment she holds dear, but her younger and more adaptable brother is less so, and the Aboriginal boy is even less so, which leads to tragic consequences.

The movie feels dated, not only in terms of camera-work but also thematically. It's no longer the job of white people to romanticize "savage" peoples, but rather to allow peoples to define themselves. Perhaps Roeg, in some small way, recognized this, thus choosing to have the Aboriginal boy speak his language and not provide us with subtitles. We could never understand totally, though we can sympathize.

cococravescinema.blogspot.com