Walkabout

19711971
GPGP
1h 40min

7.6/10

Two city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.Two city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.Two city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.

Director
- Nicolas Roeg
Writers
- Edward Bond(screenplay)
- Donald G. Payne(novel)
- Nicolas Roeg(story)
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

Awards
- 1 nomination

Videos1

Trailer 4:04

Walkabout

Director
- Nicolas Roeg
Writers
- Edward Bond(screenplay)
- Donald G. Payne(novel)
- Nicolas Roeg(story) (uncredited)
All cast & crew

See production, box office, & company info

A privileged British family--mother, geologist father, adolescent daughter, small son--live in Sydney, Australia. While on a picnic one day, the sibling get stranded in the Outback by themselves, not knowing exactly where they are. They only have with them the clothes on their backs--their school uniforms--some meagre rations of nonperishable food, a battery-powered transistor radio, the son's satchel primarily containing his toys, and a small piece of cloth they used as their picnic cloth. While they walk through the Outback, they encounter an Australian boy who is on his walkabout, a rite of passage into manhood where he spends entire months on his own living off the land. Their largest problem is not being able to verbally communicate. The boy does help them to survive, but doesn't understand their need to return to civilization, which may or may not happen based on what the Australian boy ends up doing. —Huggo

walkabout coming of age australian aborigine australia australian outback 231 more

Taglines
- 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...
Genres
- Adventure
- Drama
Certificate
- GP
Parents guide

Trivia
David Gulpilil spoke no English at the time of filming.

Goofs
Jenny's stockings variously disappear and reappear with no continuity. It seems earlier scenes with her wearing them are intermingled with later scenes where she doesn't wear them.

Quotes
The Girl: I don't know why you are telling him all this. He can't understand. He doesn't know what a ladder is. I expect we're the first white people he's seen.

Crazy credits
After the credits, there is a flash of white light on the screen and as it becomes a black screen, radio tuning is heard while the words "rien ne va plus" are shown.

Alternate versions
A director's cut of this movie was released in 1997 with 5 additional minutes. This cut is identical to the original British release version (100 minutes): the film was shortened by five minutes for its original American release.

Connections
Edited into Terror Nullius (2018)

Top review

INNOCENCE

Goodness gracious it's amazing how many reviewers missed the most obvious aspect of the film. This tale is about innocence and it approaches that from many different angles. As for Roeg practicing camera tricks-maybe today these are tricks but at the time the style was a pioneering method of telling and showing psychological elements, wasted on todays audiences. Roeg presents innocence in juxtaposition with the hardness and neuroses of society, not as WHITEMAN BAD but as society, modern society makes us very neurotic by taking away our innocence. Roeg makes an brilliant point and stylizes a mostly nonverbal experience by letting us journey with children all on the cusp of some new stage of growth. This movie is a small masterpiece!!

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