Review of Walkabout (1971) by Tim S — 26 Jan 2013

Walkabout is Nicolas Roeg's visual-appetizing but low on storytelling film about two young children stranded in the Australian outback with an Aborgine after their father attempts to murder them. I don't want that small comment I made to be taken as a harsh judgment on the film because it's not.

This is an art film, pure and simple, and the story takes a backseat a lot of times to allow for visuals and ideas to crop up. It reminded me a lot of Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo, mainly because it takes place mostly in the middle of a desert, but also because of its strong visual sense.

The story isn't crystal clear a lot of times and you have to fill in a lot of the details later, but the film works pretty well. I can't think of a real negative thing out of it, other than the fact that the story isn't completely clear (like I said), but if it were just a narrative story, I might have judged it a bit harsher.

It's beautiful to look at but don't expect it to provide you with a lot of answers.