Walkabout (1971)
A young woman and her little brother are stranded on the outback after a strange incident. Opportunities abound for gorgeous lingering scenery of an unrelenting desert landscape, the bluest of skies contrasting with rust of the sand. Particular attention also paid to the various creatures also making their way through this harsh environment
Jenny Agutter (later of American Werewolf in London) excels as the older sister. The presence of the younger brother means that she isn’t able to freak right out about this incredibly strange turn of events. Which also means that for the first chunk of the movie their predicament is largely undiscussed, giving it a surreal, dreamlike quality.
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Later they stumble across an unnamed (as far as I could tell) Aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) who takes them along with him and helps them survive. The little boy wonders at one point if their new Aboriginal friend will take them to Mars and at some points the landscape that they wind up in does look otherworldly. The scene where the teenage girl swimming is cut together with the older boy hunting is beautifully edited to show the grace of both actions. When they later stumble back across the remnants of an old hut, the decayed structure by then seems odder than the paintings on the rock that they’ve been seeing or the open desert.
Though the little boy and the Aboriginal teenage boy later are able to communicate simple concepts with hand gestures, communication or lack thereof is one of the problems at the crux of the film. An interesting meditation on the things that we call civilization, wilderness, advancement and primitive and how arbitrary those designations can seem.
This film is streaming on Hulu (for now, it’s Criterion). Lady Picture Show recommends not viewing before a camping trip.
