Review of Walkabout (1971) by Cindy I — 12 Jul 2010

A "walkabout" is rite of passage ritual for 16-year old Australian Aboriginal boys. As part of their entrance into manhood, they wander into the Outback and try to survive for months at a time. In this film, that concept is expanded to include two siblings -- a teenage girl and a small boy -- who are forced to cross the desert after they are left alone in the wilderness when their father has a tragic break with reality. These children are NOT aboriginal, but rather English (with the implication of civilization), but yet they take a similar path and learn and grow and survive in much the same way. A traditional walkabout is also demonstrated when they meet up with an Aboriginal boy on his own quest, who shows them survival skills such as finding water. But surviving on one's own is not the only facet of becoming an adult. There is also a sexual awakening, which the girl and the Aborigine experience as they observe and interact with each other. This awakening also ends in tragedy, as so many love affairs do.

This film is beautiful to look at, as it was filmed on location in the Australian Outback. But I know now that is not what has turned this film into a cult film. That honor goes to Jenny Agutter. The beautiful then-18 year old who plays the girl (never named) was filmed in a very voyeuristic way -- peeks under her schoolgirl skirt, shots of her long bare legs (this girl looks like she's about 8 feet tall!) and scenes of her in bra and panties -- and the camera gets more and more intimate until she is finally shown fully nude gracefully swimming and diving in a desert pond, and then walking around nude in the desert. Besides this obvious content, there is also more subtle ways of suggesting sexuality in the way the trees, water and so on are filmed.

I was confused a few times by how the action seemed to jump so that a clear sense of time is never established. There's no way of knowing how long they were lost. However, the ending of the film explained away this issue, and I found it not so much of a bother. There is also a sense that the filmmakers (Nicholas Roeg et al) were making a point about how civilization may not be all it's cracked up to be. A film definitely more than the sum of its parts.