Review of Walkabout (1971) by Kenneth H — 12 Oct 2011
An absolutely gorgeous film in which most of the sequences are those rare scenes where you assume that the director must have stumbled across something so beautiful rather than planned it. But then the story fits so perfectly within the nooks and crannies of this enormous Australian landscape that such a reliance on happy accidents just can't be entirely true.
We therefore have to assume that Nicolas Roeg is so sure of his filmic elements and so sure of his location that he knows something magical will happen when they come together- and that's an important director's confidence that only comes around once in a blue moon.
The result is a kind of dance between his actors and his natural mise-en-scene, and every shot, therefore, is hypnotic and naturalistic. A young Jenny Agutter delivers a brave performance as a girl caught between adolescence and the long fall from innocence that is adulthood, while David Gulpulil plays a boy who has grown up much too fast.
The beauty of the picture's characters is that their two cultures both need each other and cannot be together; it is both an endearing and frightening statement on civilization.
This review of Walkabout (1971) was written by Kenneth H on 12 Oct 2011.
Walkabout has generally received very positive reviews.
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