My Favorite Nicholas Roeg Movie

I'd been considering writing up one of these posts for "Walkabout" as my favorite Peter Weir film, only to realize that the seminal Australian classic wasn't directed by Peter Weir.  In fact, it was made when there really wasn't much of an Australian film industry to speak of, having been shot in the late '60s with an international crew. "Walkabout" is credited as one of the films that sparked the Australian New Wave, however, and cemented the reputation of its British director, Nicholas Roeg.

Roeg came to directing fairly late, having worked as a cinematographer for two decades before making his directing debut in his forties.  However, his work was immediately distinctive and proved highly influential. His narratives are very subjective, and the images sometimes come in a stream-of-consciousness jumble.  An event depicted onscreen is occasionally intercut with shots of a different action to provide context or emphasis on major themes. In "Walkabout," scenes of life in the outback are intercut with scenes of Western civilization, and the actions of certain characters are intercut with flashbacks of flash-forwards.

Another hallmark of Roeg's work is his elliptical storytelling, something that I found aggravating in films like "The Man Who Fell to Earth," but is very fitting for "Walkabout," which is about two children who become lost in the wilderness.  Much of the action is improvisational, and the filmmakers reported that they simply took their cues from the outback as they traversed it. As a result, "Walkabout" contains one of the most fascinating and absorbing depictions of the Australian desert ever put to film.  Far from a wasteland, the outback is teeming with life and beauty, though some of it is alien and difficult to parse. There's also an intensely psychological element, showing the way the children return to a state of nature as they learn to survive.

Roeg was his own cinematographer here, and presents these keenly contrasting views of the wilderness and civilization.  The city where the children come from is full of crowds and noise. Radio chatter creates a constant background din, and there's a certain harshness to objects and interactions.  By contrast, the desert feels dreamlike, where the landscape changes frequently and a watering hole can disappear overnight. Spaces are often empty and vast, but dramatic. Notably, Roeg doesn't depict one world as better or worse than the other.  Images from one are often paralleled with corresponding images from the other, particularly when something violent or disturbing happens. Rather, it's the way that elements of civilization and the wilderness interact that seem to cause the most harm.             

The division between the two worlds is personified by the main aboriginal character, an unnamed boy played by David Gulpilil, who encounters the children and becomes their guide.  They are barely able to communicate with each other, and much of their journey is spent in silence, simply taking in each new location or event as it's encountered. This has tragic consequences, perhaps symbolizing how the industrialized and natural worlds are often incompatible, or the corrupting influence of civilization on indigenous cultures.  No direct commentary or judgment is made, leaving the viewer to draw their own conclusions. Because of this, the film still feels unusually timely and is free of the kind of problematic messaging seen in similar films.

"Walkabout" was a difficult feature to see for many years because  of its content. The children, including seventeen year-old Jenny Agutter, have a handful of nude scenes, though these are completely asexual.  The violence is more disturbing, including two suicides, attempted murder, and the hunting and butchering sequences. The rawness of the depictions contributes greatly to the tone of the film, full of unseen dangers both physical and and perhaps spiritual.  Each time the children transition from one world to the other, it is preceded by death and calamity.

Roeg's other films also pushed boundaries, notorious for explicit sexuality and unconventional narratives.  Few of them were particularly successful at the box office, but their reputation has only grown with time. As for "Walkabout," it's left a lasting impression, particularly on Australian cinema.  You can still see echoes of its haunting desert in just about every filmed depiction of the outback to this day - beautiful and foreboding and difficult to forget. 

What I've Seen - Nicholas Roeg

Performance (1970)
Walkabout (1971)
Don't Look Now (1973)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Bad Timing (1980)
Insignificance (1985)
The Witches (1990)

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