Walkabout (The Criterion Collection)
by Nicolas Roeg
Our Price: $39.95
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $10.79 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: David Gulpilil, Jenny Agutter, John Meillon, Luc Roeg, Robert McDarraDirector: Nicolas Roeg
Brand: Walkabout
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-05-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Criterion
DVD Reviews of Walkabout (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: A horrifying and moving masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Nicholas Roeg's 'Walkabout' tells the story of two children, one a teenage schoolgirl (Jenny Agutter) and the other her little brother (Luc Roeg), who are put into a deeply disturbing and unexpected situation that changes both of their lives forever. They are part of an middle class nuclear family in Australia. One day they are picked up from school by their father who then proceeds to drive into the desert, presumably for a picnic as they have a sheet and food with them. Eventually the father stops the car and the children get out. The girl helps set up the food and the sheet for the picnic while the boy plays around with his toys. Suddenly, for no seemingly no reason at all, their father pulls out a gun and begins shooting at his two children before getting out of the car, setting it on fire, and then shooting himself in the head. The boy hides behind a large rock, but the girl witnesses the entire thing. She is scared and shocked, but in order to hide the horror of the situation from her brother she quickly tells him that their father said to go on ahead without them. So they walk in the opposite direction. They walk for a few days, slowly eating their food and water along the way until they run out. They begin to get really hungry and thirsty to the point where they can barely move at which point an aborigine boy finds them. The girl is unable to communicate with him, but the boy's simplistic gestures are understandable enough for the aborigine to understand. He helps them survive through hunting and living off the land and the three youngsters grow very close, despite the complete and utter lack of communication. It turns out that the aborigine is enduring a "walkabout", which, roughly according to the opening scroll of the film, is a rite of passage where an aborigine, who is not quite a man yet no longer a boy, must live in the wilderness for six months.
Walkabout is impossible to forget. The film's imagery is ultimately very personal and so intimate and close in it's depiction of events that it is harrowing to watch. The opening scenes of the situation taking place that leaves the two main characters alone in the desert seems very cruel, even for a horror film. The atmosphere comes across as almost too realistic at times, which only helps elevate the tension of the picture. So yes, this is a very scary and disturbing film. However, once you get past that the film is also one of the most powerful, emotional, and challenging films all at once about the outback and about children and about society. The environment of the film may change, but we are left with the same feeling of dread and of intensity regardless of where the characters are. The scenes that take place in homes and in the city and basically everywhere else except the desert are just as intense and abrasive as the scenes in the desert. The juxtapositions that Roeg makes play a part, not only in the atmosphere of the film but also in the film's philosophy of nature vs man. We see flies buzzing around but the film quickly cuts to the boy's buzzing sounds as he plays with his airplane before taking out a squirt gun and going bang bang bang and putting it up to his mouth and shooting water into his throat, with the gun positioning looking like a suicidal attempt. Then of course we see the father shooting at his son and his daughter before shooting himself in the same way that the boy was shooting himself. It's disturbingly ironic sounding, I know, but the film is full of these sorts of images and comparison shots. There's a scene where the aborigine kills a wallaby before chopping it into pieces with his crude blade while the camera cuts to a man in a butcher shop cutting meat. Both animals are dead and both people are, to one degree or another, cutting the animal for the same reason. Survival. The only difference is in the setting and in the clothes. The symbolism in this film is constant and very memorable, and yet none of it proves distracting to the plot or the emotions. A viewer can choose to ignore the symbolism and just enjoy the story about these children getting lost and befriending an aborigine. The film would still be perfect if it had been left as just that, but instead Nicholas Roeg goes an extra mile and includes so many wonderful themes and images that only strengthens the realism of the film itself. It's a spectacular idea, and the film works wonderfully.
Jenny Agutter performed in this film before she was ever in her most well known films such as 'Logan's Run', 'Equus', 'An American Werewolf in London', and 'Child's Play 2', but honestly I think her work here is the best she has ever done. She was only about nineteen or twenty when she acted in this film, and she really was born to play this role. Her presence comes off incredibly strong. She and Luc Roeg have to carry an entire film and both do tremendously. This has been the only film that Nicholas Roeg's son Luc Roeg has appeared in, but he has a lot of charisma which definitely helps make his scenes with the aborigine that more alive and genuine. Their chemistry is simply a sight to behold. The aborigine himself, David Gulpilil, is just as fantastic as everyone else here. His smile is contagious and he does a fantastic job in a role that requires pure emotion and bodily skill and no understandable dialogue. In fact, it's perhaps the best I have ever seen. What I find even more incredible about these performances is just the minimalism of it all. The dialogue, to my understanding, was mostly improvised. The film's naturalness flows beautifully, and these performances help lend themselves to the reality so that when the picture turns dark and scary we as the audience feels that. The film contains little dialogue. The actions speak all for themselves, and what I appreciated more about this artistic excursion is that the visuals as well as the sound both work in telling the story.
There are scenes of actual animal killing in this film and the scenes are very bloody. These scenes are presented in two different ways. First, they are presented as part of the survival tactics of the aborigine. Second, they are portrayed in a gratuitous manner and for no reason. Both ways justify themselves. The first way only adds to the symbolism the film depicts and is representative of the element of survival. People who have to survive in the desert sometime need to kill animals in order to eat. The meat eating these characters do are presented in the same way as when they eat fruit. The act of eating always involves the taking of a life or lives, whether it be animal or plant. The film gets that. There's a scene where the boy eats some kind of fruit that birds are feasting upon in a tree and says that it tastes like meat. It isn't how he says it though, it's the way he says it. He says the fruit tastes like meat in a rather unflinching and thankless way. He personally doesn't care what the food tastes like just so long as he isn't starving. As for later on in the film where the animals are killed for no reason, we as the audience suddenly act as witness to the slaughtering. We do not like it. It is presented as cold and cruel as it always has been. It also plays a key role in the plot and the fate of the aborigine that helps lend itself to the emotion of the film and the plot in question. It's not pleasant to look at and we don't like it, and thus we understand the emotions of the characters on a much more personal level.
The film was made with little to no real technical skill and was apparently mostly improvised. The aborigine people were apparently actual aborigines and the settings were all on location. The crew for this film had little to work with despite the budget, and yet they were all able to craft a film that is as epic and as large in scope as any old Hollywood blockbuster. This film works brilliantly, both as an independent film and as a film in itself. The film is a joy to just watch. You could turn the sound off and just watch what is going on and you'd understand it. However, you'd miss the sound that is a joy to the ears. The music in this film is incredibly chilling and haunting, but it's so beautiful and almost nostalgic sounding in the sense that it's almost comforting in a weird way. Nicholas Roeg takes the time to develop the characters and the setting so that the symbolism works more powerfully, but the audience doesn't have to look into the symbolism to enjoy the film.
There is another Australian film that works in a similar way called 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'. Walkabout, however, is one of the greatest films of all time. It is horrifying, disturbing, emotional, beautiful, honest, entertaining, and ultimately just majestic. It is surreal and it is unusual, but it is also mesmerizing and moving. Walkabout works as a coming-of-age film, a psychological thriller, a documentary, a tragedy, and it's even an excellent childrens film. Whether or not you have interest in the subject matter is irrelevant. Seriously, this film is so freaking brilliant. I love this film. This is my favorite Nicholas Roeg film along with 'The Man Who Fell to Earth'. 'Walkabout' is a masterpiece and there will never be another film like it.
Description of Walkabout (The Criterion Collection)
Nicolas Roeg's mystical masterpiece chronicles the physical, spiritual, and emotional journey of a sister and brother abandoned in the harsh Australian outback. Joining an Aborigine boy on his walkabout-a tribal initiation into manhood-these modern children pass from innocence into experience as they are thrust from the comforts of civilization into the savagery of the natural world.Very few films achieve a kind of subliminal greatness with cross-cultural impact, but Walkabout is one of those films--a visual tone poem that functions more as an allegory than a conventionally plotted adventure. Considered a cult favorite for years, Nicolas Roeg's 1971 film--about two British children who are rescued in the Australian outback by a young aborigine--was originally released in the U.S. with an R rating, edited from its European length of 100 minutes. In 1997, the film was fully restored to its director's cut, and in its remastered video and DVD release, it's now wisely unrated (as Roeg had always intended) but still suitable for viewers of all ages. For parents this is a rare opportunity to treat well-supervised children (ages 5 and over) to an adventure that won't insult their intelligence, presenting scenes of frontal nudity and the hunting of animals in a context that invites valuable discussion and introspection. Through exquisite cinematography and a story of subtle human complexity, the film continues to resonate on many thematic and artistic levels. Roeg had always intended it to be a cautionary morality tale, in which the limitations and restrictions of civilization become painfully clear when the two children (played by Jenny Agutter and Roeg's young son, Lucien John) cannot survive without the aborigine's assistance. They become primitives themselves, if only temporarily, while the young aborigine proves ultimately and tragically unable to join the "family" of civilization. With its story of two worlds colliding, Walkabout now seems like a film for the ages, hypnotic and open to several compelling levels of interpretation. In addition to presenting the film in its original 1.77:1 aspect ratio, the Criterion Collection DVD of Walkabout includes a variety of bonus features, including a full-length commentary by Nicolas Roeg and Jenny Agutter, original theatrical trailers, and an essay by critic Roger Ebert. --Jeff Shannon
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Logan's RunWHV; Release date: 2007-12-18; DVD
Best price: $3.28
Price in other shops:
Lord of the Flies: Essential Art HouseImage Entertainment; Release date: 2008-09-09; DVD
Best price: $12.33
Price in other shops:
AngelaNew Video; Release date: 2002-11-26; DVD
Best price: $12.62
Price in other shops:
The Last Wave (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2001-11-27; DVD
Best price: $17.35
Price in other shops:
EquusBURTON,RICHARD; Release date: 2003-03-04; DVD
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Whale Rider (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 2003-10-28; Published: 2003-10-01; DVD
Best price: $9.18
Price in other shops:
Picnic at Hanging Rock (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 1998-11-03; DVD
Best price: $20.84
Price in other shops:
Ten CanoesUni; Release date: 2007-09-25; DVD
Best price: $11.89
Price in other shops:
Rabbit-Proof FenceEBH; Release date: 2011-05-24; DVD
Best price: $2.78
Price in other shops:
Walkabout (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2010-05-18; DVD
Best price: $23.95
Price in other shops: