Walkabout (1971)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Quite splendid first directorial outing by Nicolas Roeg. Wonderfully shot, then he was on camera duty as well, and the direction is surprisingly assured. It couldn't have been easy working in the outback and with a young Jenny Agutter and even younger, Luc, his own little boy. The opening is enigmatic and never explained, we are simply left with the young pair making the best of things and trying to keep their school uniforms as neat as possible. There are wonderful exchanges between the two, Agutter maintaining the stiff upper lip and encouraging the youngster to keep going whilst he happily plays with his toys and occasionally makes insightful but worrying remarks that his older sister struggles to deal with as calmly as possible. The visuals are very impressive and if Roeg overdoes it slightly he can be forgiven particularly as they seem to reflect the early 70s date of the movie as much as his own penchant for artistic camera-work. Particularly poignant are the scenes with the 'black boy' and particularly his heartbreaking ritual dance towards the end. Can't not mention the very bold nude scenes from young Agutter and in particular the stylish and dreamlike swimming scenes.

Nick Roeg's 'Walkabout' is a highly unusual film. A pair of English children, lost in the Australian outback after the death of their father, are looked after by a young Aborigianal who is apparently completely unfamiliar with people of European descent. Cue lots of close up photography of wildlife, not a lot of dialogue, and a decidedly trippy view of the psychology of being lost in the desert. What really didn't work for me in this movie was the performances of Jenny Augutter and the director's son Luc and as the English children: they're both pretty stiff, and neither the terror of their situation, and their presumed grief, are well conveyed. The emotionless nature of their experience reduces the impact of the film's inherently tragic ending. 'Walkabout' was made in 1973; and overall it feels bold but dated, a product of its time.

Walkabout (1971)Story about deserted siblings in the Australian Outback, meeting an aborigine on his spiritual journey to manhood. But if you look closer, you'll also find a story about civilization, communication and the harsh beauty of nature. Close-ups of creatures dwelling in the desert reveal the circle of life. Death and life are closely related. But what makes us people different from these creatures? Our ability to speak perhaps? But what happens when you can't communicate? Through civilization we learn how to talk, how to walk and how to dress. But we don't learn how to survive in the harsh nature of the wilderness. Which boundaries can love transcend? The characters have no names and very little background information is given. But that's a good thing. This is a timeless story and palpable for all viewers. Great Movie, as rated by the late Roger Ebert​. Highly recommended!

WALKABOUT is quite simply a stunning cinematic experience. Directed and photographed by Nicolas Roeg, it tells of an English schoolgirl (Jenny Agutter) and her brother (Lucien John) getting lost in the Australian outback, and encountering an Aborigine (David Gulpilil), who looks after them and ensures their survival. In an opening title-card Roeg tells us that a "walkabout" is an aboriginal ritual whereby young men leave their families and set out on their own to discover themselves as well as prove their masculinity. In this film all three adolescents are in a sense on "walkabout": while the Aborigine learns to hunt for himself as well as provide nourishment for the other two, the schoolgirl learns to divest herself of her Englishness, as well as her inhibitions, as she swims naked in a rock-pool. Her brother sets aside his worldly toys and learns how to gather leaves, as well as pick up some phrases in Aborigine language so as to be able to communicate successfully.Roeg sets this coming-of-age story within the larger theme of the destruction of the natural landscape by humankind. The film opens on the streets of Sydney, choked with cars and box-like apartments; this contrasts starkly with the wide open expanses of the outback where the sun shines pitilessly all day, and both human beings and animals have to learn how to eke out an existence as best they can. This they achieve partly by cunning and partly by making use of natural resources; by civilized standards, they might seem primitive (for example, the Aborigine's wooden spear) but they are stunningly effective. Brought up in the genteel tradition of public (in American, private) schools, the girl and her brother find the Aborigine's behavior rather distasteful at times, but gradually they learn how to adopt his mores.Yet the Aboriginal way of life, just like the life of the animals that people the outback, is under threat. This is emphasized through a series of violent juxtapositions and stop-frames, as white hunters come in their Land-Rovers armed with shotguns and kill anything that moves indiscriminately. They gut and skin the corpses, leaving the skeletons to rot in the burning sun, infested with maggots. Roeg makes a powerful point by juxtaposing such sequences with more mundane images of a butcher in a city shop cutting meat for customers, as if to remind us of where our weekly meat actually comes from. The film ends with a similar image as the schoolgirl, now unhappily married to a respectable white Australian, is shown cutting meat on a chopping-board while her husband prattles on about his latest promotion at work.The film contains some stunning visual images: the sight of the Aborigine shadowed against the setting sun reminds us of his intimate connection to the land. An aerial pan of the rock-pools, showing the schoolgirl swimming naked (not without a certain amount of scopophilic desire on the director's part) shows how she has happily cast off the trappings of civilization and returned to nature. A long shot of the girl and her brother trying to climb a mountain reminds us of human insignificance in this vast and deserted landscape. And finally, at the end of the film, the three youngsters are shown happily bathing once again the rock pool, all of them naked, all enjoying themselves without a shred of racial or sexual prejudice. This image offers us a glimpse of what could be, if only we were to set aside our perception of (culturally constructed) differences.Even after forty years, WALKABOUT communicates a powerful message to audiences about the importance of communal living as the source of social and moral harmony. A true classic.