Walkabout

Two young children are stranded in the Australian outback and are forced to cope on their own. They meet an Aborigine on "walkabout": a ritualistic separation from his tribe. Louis Nowra wrote, "I was stunned. The images of the Outback were of an almost hallucinogenic intensity. Instead of the desert and bush being infused with a dull monotony, everything seemed acute, shrill, and incandescent. The Outback was beautiful and haunting." I could not agree more -- National Geographic cannot make a film more rich and vibrant than this. Roger Ebert asked rhetorically, "Is it a parable about noble savages and the crushed spirits of city dwellers? That's what the film's surface suggests, but I think it's about something deeper and more elusive: the mystery of communication." Is he on to something? I do not know... there is definitely a communication element -- its importance is debatable.

This is one of those "art for art's sake" films that were so popular in the 70's (Roeg's "Don't Look Now" is another). Tedious pacing (meant to be "deliberate"), obscure editing tricks (meant to be "inventive"), TERRIBLE, confusing storytelling (meant to be "elliptical"), poorly defined characters (meant to be "symbolic"), in an allegory that probably only Roeg himself understands fully, yet it has people writing (quite eloquent) essays on it. At least the images are beautiful - but then again, how difficult is it really to make a tree or a lake or a sunset look beautiful? (*)