Walkabout

Walkabout (1971), directed by Nicolas Roeg

What is the secret of being a great director? True, sense of the dramatic helps, and it's nice if you are a brilliant writer like John Sayles. However, film consists of visual and audial elements, and any man who can master them can be a great filmmaker. The visual part is obvious, of course, but the sound is too often ignored. Kevin Costner, for instance, made an auspicious directorial debut with Dances with Wolves. This film has a gorgeous visual sweep to it, equal to the epics of any era. The film is stunted, however, by Costner's droning narration. Nearly any other actor in the lead would have improved the film immeasurably. Costner has an eye, but no ear (or else, his ear was blocked by ego).

Nicolas Roeg has a sharp eye and ear. His films include the bizarre 1950's fantasia Insignificance and creepy Roald Dahl story The Witches. Walkabout is his first film, and is touted as a "masterpiece" (that's how it is labeled on the videotape, in fact. In the sense that it was this film that made Roeg a master of cinema, then, yes, it is a masterpiece, if not necessarily his best work.

The problems with the work are easy enough to point out. The little avant-garde touches throughout give it an air of pretentiousness: it just screams "first-time director": the use of still photographs, juxtaposition of shots (the outback versus civilization), and so on. On the other hand, the film has a constant visual and audial power that cannot be denied.

The plot of the film is extraordinarily simple: Two children are stranded in the Australian outback, and are rescued by an Aborigine boy. While Walt Disney might make an "inspiring" coming-of-age movie about this, Roeg uses the outback as a theatre of the entire life experience: we see life, death, and sexuality. The girl (Jenny Agutter) wants desperately to get back to the world: only in one extraordinary sequence, when she swims in a pond, does she seem at peace with her surroundings. When she returns to her drab civilized existence, she finally remembers what she had and lost. The Aborigine boy has no wants or needs other than hunting, and his sexual attraction towards the girl, which he expresses only in his language and his tribal traditions. The girl's younger brother seems at home in both worlds. Is this Roeg showing hope for the future? (the actor playing the boy is Roeg's young son).

The most interesting aspect of the film is how Roeg photographs his principals. Rather than making them the constant center, they are often seen only passing through a world of insects and reptiles. Man's noises are often overpowered by the clicking and calling of various animals. It was if Roeg were saying that man shouldn't flatter himself: he is only one creature in the world.

The film's score by John Barry is fine, if a little too much of the "standard film score." If only French composer Olivier Messiaen had a chance to compose the score, this film would have been greater yet. As it is, Walkabout is a visual treat, if an immature work, by Roeg.