Artsy movies placed in the Australian outback, are few and far between. And for that reason alone, Walkabout must command some attention. Nicolas Roeg, previously mostly famous for being second unit cinematographer on Lawrence of Arabia" seems like an obvious candidate for this kind of "desert" movie.
This one does have its share of grainy and slightly dated look, but it is only at certain times it shines through enough to take you a bit out of the experience. But, the sheer plethora of cinematographic playfulness throughout, is by far the most interesting aspect.
The general story telling feels like a dream sequence or a series of disjunct impressions, that are at times quite hard to get your grip on. The story is not an obvious one, which should be very clear from the moment when the father shoots at his two children, who needs to flee into the wilderness to survive, while he sets their car ablaze and takes his own life.
As if it was a bit of an expected trip, the older sister takes responsibility for the younger brother and heads out to rediscover civilisation. The natural habitat is teaming with all sorts of life, which almost gets under your skin. It feels almost intrusive in its will to annoy.
But as eye-popping as nature may be, it is not really in our two stranded children's interest. They are at first set on their civilised thinking but must slowly let go of the control and the culture, to make it through the day. Luckily they meet an aborigine boy who is surviving alone on a "walkabout" a test of manhood.
The two children team up with him as they have no real other choice to survive. He can hunt animals and find water. He knows his way around the harsh bare nature, which the children lack completely. As the girl and the aborigine is of that "puberty" age, some sexual tension arises in certain situations.
But they do not speak the same language, not even the "mating" one. As time passes, the aborigine supposedly falls in love with the girl, and proposes to her in his stone age way. The girl does not understand his intentions though, but rather fears what he is doing.
This has drastic consequences. And even if it should take a toll on the two siblings, they head out on their own rather untouched by the ordeal, and finally reach "civilisation". But it is apparently not quite the golden dream in reality after all.
Sometimes I am quite ambivalent in my view on a movie. In many ways this is a brilliantly put together arthouse(y) movie, that clearly has a director in the seat who knows what he is doing and who is not afraid to challenge you both with the montage and the underlying story.
it is clear that the happenings should not be taken literally but metaphorically. The classic coming of age and growing sexuality is there. But also hints at critiques at the fear of nature and hiding in urban "culture" miles away from reality, may destroy the individual capability to be your natural self.
At the same time, i feel this is a bit pretentious and the director tries hard to be more "creative" than he can carry on his shoulders. A would agree that at times the shots a really ingenious and creative, bordering on expressionist. But at other times they seem bland and uninspired, stretched too far for a lack of anything better to do.
The cutting is very bold at times. At other times seem quite pointless and inhibiting the fluidity of the cinematography. The acting is not supposed to be very deep emotionally, rather with a sense of distance and there to make you feel like an onlooker rather than engaging in their inner life.
My feeling is that it makes it basically a vehicle for a great cinematographer rather than a good story teller. yes the underlying story is good and at times very well shot. But it does not get me sufficiently attached to the arc the characters supposedly are going through. And their, at times, stoically held back emotions, seem a bit weird.
This is one to watch for the cinematography. It is in some aspects quite bold and unique, and really had me engaged, even if it sometimes has a bit of "collage" feel to it. It is all the more sad that the story of the characters does not flesh out for me in an engaging way and it looses my too much for me to feel welcome in it. Overall this gets a recommendation for its camera work, that is a must watch if you have a soft spot for something special in that area.
6/10
