Walkabout (1971)

  

Original Poster of Walkabout (1971)

Beautiful. Just beautiful. When I was expecting another particular survival story, Roeg showed me an amazingly peculiar one. Set in the harsh regions of Australia (The exact location in the continent, in my opinion, doesn't matter) two kids, a 14 year old girl and her 6 year old brother, are abandoned by their father (He also tries to kill them but fails) who eventually sets their car on fire and kills himself. With no means of transport and no civilized humans around, the kids simply head out into the wilderness. They soon encounter an Aborigine boy who's on a "Walkabout": an Aborigine ritual which involves surviving in the wild for months with the aid of hunting skills after the adolescent reaches a certain age. Thence begins a beautiful and pure journey where the three characters try to outlive the harsh environment with the hunting skills the Aborigine boy possesses.  

Right at this moment, I am spellbound by this film's images and I will admit that I got to witness a new face of cinema today. Instead of showing us a sweet conventional survival story, Director Nicholas Roeg dwells on narrating the story in a different and thought-provoking manner. The film has been given a complex and layered narration that is a bit ambiguous. Through smart editing and significant number of freeze frames the director, during the Walkabout journey, tries to compare the two completely different cultures of men. 

One scene is particularly my favorite where the film alternates between the Aborigine boy butchering a Kangaroo and a butcher in some civilized city doing the same. These astonishing moments question the very nature of human beings. Whether we are lost in some unknown, remote and harsh region of the world or are behind the brick walls of the concrete jungle, we are all simply trying to survive in this cruel world. Roeg never even gives us a clear idea why the father attempts to kill his children and suicides. Though, that is a clear indication of the fact that the father couldn't survive in the civilized world. He was too weak that is the reason why he gave up his life.

This film leaves the complexity of the civilized world (Symbolized by the car burnt down by the father) and follows a journey on the beauty of companionship and purity of life. Yes, Pure is the keyword here. We are transported back to the age when everything was "Pure". The film's wonderful finale is the most powerful testament of this aspect. Sometimes certain situations arose in the film when the children are extremely close at getting discovered and saved by civilized people but aren't. At this point, Roeg's camera briefly focuses on these people and shows us what they are doing. There  are certain thought-provoking messages hidden in these scenes which, of course, I will not reveal here and will allow you, my dear readers, to discover it's beauty by yourselves. 

And then there's the spellbinding cinematography and Roeg's amazing direction. Both capture the wilderness very meticulously and the "pillow shots" (A curious shot where the camera focuses on the surrounding elements, for brief moments, of the environment where the action takes place) makes the film more believable. There are beautiful shots of birds, trees, reptiles, the stark desert, the sunrise/sunset, etc. that fills the film with fresh images of mother nature. Walkabout is a beautiful and complex near-masterpiece film from the land of Australia. Just walk into Walkabout and you won't regret it. 

This is Pure Cinema :)

Rating: 5/5