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Originally Posted by SquidPuppet
I just finished this. I stopped half way through a few days ago and was going to abandon it, but I read your post and decided to finish it. It had too much of a Roman Polanski pedo-perv vibe to it for me. The camera spent 140 minutes figuratively undressing an 17 year old girl and boy...and then they literally DID! I got the feeling that it wasnt done for the story, but for the pleasure of the filmmakers "in the name of art"  . Dont get me wrong, I am fine with nudity in films when its used correctly. This just had that creepy pedo vibe. |
I understand this perspective, but this may say more about Squids (healthy, might I add) anti-perdo bias than about the film itself. It is what it is. I'll admit that my anti-perdo alarm didn't go off. I guess the facts of the film made the camera direction realistic: 16 year old dude in a thong + 17 year old chick in a prep school uniform (who has likely been repressed anything beyond a PG film to this point) = LOTSA LOOKIN
My underlying reaction was "yeah, that would be happening (the frequent looks)" rather than "these directors are ___
", I guess it all comes down to whether you think its plausible, and if so, I can't see the directors being culpable in any way for showing it (or using artistic style to show the intensity of it).
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I agree with your ideas about its themes.
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Actually, I think I only touched the surface. As Ebert said, the film isn't so much about
[Show spoiler]the actual events depicted, but about miscommunication, and how willing are we as humans to go outside our comfort zone to communicate with another, in an effort to connect. This is a very powerful theme. It happens everyday, not just on a Walkabout. Some rich dude refuses to step outside his comfort zone, and sit down and talk to a homeless guy for an hour, to communicate with him. Same with racial barriers, language barriers, etc. It explains why as you pointed out earlier, why the kids weren't upset when they saw the aborigine dead (actually they were disturbed somewhat: the boy offered him something, but didn't understand death, and girl wipes ants from his chest), why the mating dance wasn't answered, and the haunting scene of the aborigine watching the girl cry with the photo. I think we both overestimated how much they had connected with him. In fact, the girl just saw the aborigine as a means to help them survive, nothing more, because she wasn't willing to go outside her comfort zone in an effort to communicate on a meaningful level. The boy tried somewhat, but not to any significant extent, which is why both he and her weren't emotionally moved when they saw him dead. The aborigine is guilty too, as it cost him his life. Theoretically, he could have put forth the effort and figured out that all he needed to do was say "wanna fu*k?" All they knew is what they knew, based on their lack of communication. Remember that they just saw him doing this crazy dance, and wouldn't come out of the house, they didn't know if he was going to kill him, they thought he'd gone loopy. All of this explains the lack of emotion when he was dead. It matters not that he "saved" them, as in their minds he'd gone nuts. Plus, he was merely a "hunting guide" of sorts to them, not a friend or buddy, because of the lack of communication
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I didnt care for the way they did the back and forth cuts when [Show spoiler]she was swimming and the boy was killing all those animals. It felt so forced ... Like LOOK...SEEE... OPPOSITES...calm pretty serenity vs brutal death. I get it.
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Again, I think this may say more about your astuteness than the film itself. I didn't have that reaction.
[Show spoiler] some of those flashbacks were great, I thought, such as the butcher knife and the aborigine cutting the kill: MAN HASN'T CHANGED, as Ebert put it. Without those cuts, I wouldn't have seen it. Perhaps you're complaining that they were excessive, and that's a possibility, but overall I loved the direction/cinematography
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I need your thoughts on this. When the boy painted himself all up and put on all the feathers and danced for her, [Show spoiler]I am guessing that was a mating ritual. He was asking her to be his mate, and because she ignored/refused, thats why he killed himself. And, do you have any idea how he killed himself? He didnt look like he hung himself.
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yeah still not sure on this, i'll have to watch it again.
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I found it way too odd that when their Dad [Show spoiler]killed himself in the begining that the brother and sister never freaked out, never wept, never discussed it...they just walked away. I thought that was super weird. And the same thing when the boy killed himself. That kid had pretty much saved their lives and returned them to their "road" and they just looked at his corpse like it was a kangaroo. There had been a lot of serious bonding in the prior days. Why didnt they cry? Seems like they should have been crying their eyes out. They were so cold and detached from it. If they were trying to make her look like a cold evil white person, then why did she have that fond dream of him at the very end?
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Great point here Squid! Ebert made a great point on this:
[Show spoiler] at the beginning, the girl and bro are in the pool at the house, the Dad is upstairs in the kitchen, walks out and looks down at them, the wife is detached from him and we can eerily sense that something is off with this family. We only know what we know. The dad was an alcoholic (I think?) so their may be a history of abuse (especially if he just starts shooting at them). Honestly, would you be upset if you were those kids? They did discuss something about the dads death later on, I think, but it was brief, and I agree that their demeneor was unusually calm. I'll give you that. But I guess everyone responds to trauma differently, and we don't know what this dad's history is with them. What we do know is he shot at them, so I'll confidently assume that he's done much worse to them in the past when he's drank. Regarding the aborigine boy, as discussed above, you hit the nail on the head here: they were detached, and this is the point of the film! I'm sensing that you are rating the film based on your rating of the characters? Or the plausibility of the characters? or both? To me, their reaction to the aborigine underscores the unwillingness to communicate, and hence it just highlights the main theme. But I can understand if you go the route of deducting from the film b/c you don't think the characters actions were plausible, despite the miscommunication. To me, I just don't know what's plausible, as I'm not them.
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Why were the weather scientists in the movie? 
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No clue, I think they are just another
[Show spoiler] prop/example of the white man's presence, or rather the varied presence of the white man (profiting off statutes, sending out weather balloons) and how this is vastly dissimilar from the timeless unchanging culture of the aborigine. great contrast
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Another question. When their dad [Show spoiler]killed himself, why did they wander into the boonies? Why didnt they follow the tire tracks going back the direction from where they came?
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LOL! I love this post. Again, this may just show how you
[Show spoiler] (very appropriately, might I add) are pretty strict that everything must pass "plausibility muster." I do it too, but tend to be less rigid than you I believe (for better or worse). A 17 y.o chick and 10? year old kid backtracking the tire tracks? hmmm, I'd give that a 50-50 shot. Now if it was a 17 year old boy...
But overall, I loved the film, even more so after reading Ebert's review (which I don't recommend people do until after they've seen the film). I understand your points about it and share many, but the themes overpower them.
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