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Walkabout | Year: 1971 Directed: - Nicolas Roeg Actors/Actresses: - Jenny Agutter - David Gulpilil - Lucien John - Luc Roeg Great! Set in Australia in the 70s, it's actually filmed by a Brittish Director, so it has a view of Australia as seen by an outsider. A very young David Gulpilil lends a hand to Jenny Agutter & her brother (played by Luc Roeg; son of the director) who are left to die by their father in the Australian outback. This film is an excellent cross-cultural study as the young Aboriginal boy first saves, then tries to woo young English rose Jenny Agutter. I read another customer review where someone was upset with the slaughter of animals - well that's what hunter/gatherers do! They hunt & eat their catch! Did this person think that Australian Aborigines all gather their meat at the local supermarket? Trivia #1: David Gulpilil was mis-credited in the titles as David Gumpilil. He is also the winner of the AFI (Australian Oscars) for best actor for 2002 for his part in the film "The Tracker". David Gulpilil also appeared in "Storm Boy", & "Crocodie Dundee". Trivia #2: This film is also well worth it for seeing a very young, and very beautiful Jenny Agutter in the nude. She also appeared later in "An American Werewolf in London", "The Riddle of the Sands", & "Logan's Run". Culture clash This visually stunning 1971 movie anticipates many of today's main social and environmental topics.At its core, Walkabout is about cultural dominance: the capacity of European culture to dominate both nature and other peoples. Central to this dominance - as the film indicates - are discipline (the girl's fortitude in confronting the outback), conformity to rules (her rote recitation and dress code), hierarchy (unquestioned obedience, even to a deranged father), subjugation of nature (wild animal slaughter), private property (the station in the outback, the despoiled mine), white privilege (the aborigine is useful and nothing more), but most of all, dominance requires replacement of instinct with institutions and nature with technology. Older viewers will recognize counter-cultural themes of the 1960's. Nicholas Roeg has organized these ideas in interesting ways that keep eyes glued to the screen. However, there is a real need to pay attention to the visual imagery which in Walkabout amounts to a dominant text, with the rather sparse dialogue acting as a subtext. Or put another way, in Walkabout Roeg is making a movie, not writing a play. Thus the opening sequence of imagery indicates reasons for the father's derangement and suicide, while crotch shots of the tree indicate the mating potential of boy and girl, a tension that is otherwise hard to convey since the aborigine boy speaks no English. Roeg's wise refusal to sentimentalize his characters gives the movie much of its strength. Instead, the main characters are treated in straightforward, non-judgemental fashion. Nevertheless, as other reviewers point out, the movie does make a statement. Namely, that the girl comes to regret her return to 'civilization', failing to realize at the time the natural paradise she had found on her walkabout. This rejection amounts to a telling commentary on the price the dominant culture has exacted from us in its demand for well-ordered 'progress'. While I agree with the spirit of the point, I think Roeg has idealized the contrast. After all, swimming, fishing, and roaming, look good from the standpoint of the closeted office in the big city. Yet millions of rural people to whom such simple pleasures are in some semblance available, leave those surroundings for the excitement only a big city can provide. In that sense, the girl's regret at movie's end can be taken as a coming to terms with the problems of modern European culture, rather than a return-to-nature as their oversimplified solution. Anyway, however you might choose to cut it, the movie is certainly worth a look see. Beautiful. Anyone who loves real cinema eventually arrives at Walkabout, a beautifully spare 1971 masterpiece by British director Nicholas Roeg. The enormously simple story of an English boy and girl who get lost in the Australian outback, and need the help of an aborigine boy to get back to civilization, Walkabout nevertheless manages to ask complicated questions that are central to society. Questions about race, class, and whether progress is necessarily a good thing. Luckily for the viewer, it does not provide any easy answers to these questions, but considers its audiences as intelligent, cognizant beings. Therefore, there is *something* in the reviews I've read here that claim it is a "head movie." However, it also works on an emotional level, juxtaposing images wonderfully to create sensations. Despite its simplicity, Walkabout can be read in a number of different ways; it could be a microcosmic re-telling of how the English colonized Australia, stumbling onto the continent, misunderstanding and ignoring the indiginous culture, and imposing themselves on the country. 'Water! Water! I can't make it any simpler. Anyone can understand that,' says Jenny Agutter to the Aborigine, completely failing to see why he has any excuse for not speaking her language. Roeg gives the situation hope, however, in his own son, who plays Boy, Girl's younger brother, who is much more willing to adapt. The cinematography is beautiful. Roeg makes Australia look like outer space, drawing out the alien nature of the landscape (from the point of view of two British). It is a spectacular, erotically gorgeous film. Buy Walkabout at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Walkabout Search with the Priority Search Engine on Walkabout This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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