Review of Walkabout (1971) by Brent G — 04 Dec 2009

After really liking Bad Timing, I went to Walkabout, an earlier Roeg film that has extremely positive reviews, instead of being slightly polarizing, like the former. I thought Walkabout had a lot of good things about it, but certain things made it fall short.

I think it suffers from age. The message of people vs. nature and Aborigines getting along with people despite their vast differences in culture and communication seems dated when I see it now, although I'd have to imagine that it was one of the first films to tackle such a concept head-on.

I found both main actors a bit grating (obnoxious voices, not particularly natural acting altogether). I do, however, appreciate the concept, as mentioned, in the context of 1971. There are some nice landscape shots, and there are short bursts of experimentation Roeg incorporates that stylistically makes it pretty interesting.

I think Walkabout is probably better as a milestone in subjective cinema than as a movie itself.