A schoolgirl (Jenny Agutter), her little brother (Luc Roeg) and their father (John Meillon) from Sydney drive out into the Australian outback for a picnic. The father is disturbed and starts shooting at his kids. He sets the car on fire and kills himself. They walk off into the wilderness. With dwindling supplies, they find a watering hole and a fruit tree. When even that has gone, an Aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) encounters them.This is visually arresting. It's about the life in the desert more than any rolling sand dunes. The story is about Jenny Agutter's character. This is her walkabout. It's her coming of age with her sexuality. It's also her protective instincts with her brother. The movie starts with her protecting her brother from her father and her father's death. It also lays out the differing cultures. The intercutting between various sequences delivers its powerful message. It's a truly memorable movie.

WALKABOUT is quite simply a stunning cinematic experience. Directed and photographed by Nicolas Roeg, it tells of an English schoolgirl (Jenny Agutter) and her brother (Lucien John) getting lost in the Australian outback, and encountering an Aborigine (David Gulpilil), who looks after them and ensures their survival. In an opening title-card Roeg tells us that a "walkabout" is an aboriginal ritual whereby young men leave their families and set out on their own to discover themselves as well as prove their masculinity. In this film all three adolescents are in a sense on "walkabout": while the Aborigine learns to hunt for himself as well as provide nourishment for the other two, the schoolgirl learns to divest herself of her Englishness, as well as her inhibitions, as she swims naked in a rock-pool. Her brother sets aside his worldly toys and learns how to gather leaves, as well as pick up some phrases in Aborigine language so as to be able to communicate successfully.Roeg sets this coming-of-age story within the larger theme of the destruction of the natural landscape by humankind. The film opens on the streets of Sydney, choked with cars and box-like apartments; this contrasts starkly with the wide open expanses of the outback where the sun shines pitilessly all day, and both human beings and animals have to learn how to eke out an existence as best they can. This they achieve partly by cunning and partly by making use of natural resources; by civilized standards, they might seem primitive (for example, the Aborigine's wooden spear) but they are stunningly effective. Brought up in the genteel tradition of public (in American, private) schools, the girl and her brother find the Aborigine's behavior rather distasteful at times, but gradually they learn how to adopt his mores.Yet the Aboriginal way of life, just like the life of the animals that people the outback, is under threat. This is emphasized through a series of violent juxtapositions and stop-frames, as white hunters come in their Land-Rovers armed with shotguns and kill anything that moves indiscriminately. They gut and skin the corpses, leaving the skeletons to rot in the burning sun, infested with maggots. Roeg makes a powerful point by juxtaposing such sequences with more mundane images of a butcher in a city shop cutting meat for customers, as if to remind us of where our weekly meat actually comes from. The film ends with a similar image as the schoolgirl, now unhappily married to a respectable white Australian, is shown cutting meat on a chopping-board while her husband prattles on about his latest promotion at work.The film contains some stunning visual images: the sight of the Aborigine shadowed against the setting sun reminds us of his intimate connection to the land. An aerial pan of the rock-pools, showing the schoolgirl swimming naked (not without a certain amount of scopophilic desire on the director's part) shows how she has happily cast off the trappings of civilization and returned to nature. A long shot of the girl and her brother trying to climb a mountain reminds us of human insignificance in this vast and deserted landscape. And finally, at the end of the film, the three youngsters are shown happily bathing once again the rock pool, all of them naked, all enjoying themselves without a shred of racial or sexual prejudice. This image offers us a glimpse of what could be, if only we were to set aside our perception of (culturally constructed) differences.Even after forty years, WALKABOUT communicates a powerful message to audiences about the importance of communal living as the source of social and moral harmony. A true classic.

Other than spawning a franchise of Aussie-themed pubs/clubs in the UK, the only thing I associate this movie with was the sudden (and it has to be said, sustained) interest in Jenny Agutter in male viewers across the land. But "Walkabout" is like many of the dramas that emerged during the early Seventies in that it's well made but doesn't always make a lot of sense. It reminded me, weirdly, of "Vanishing Point" although there's less that happens here - the minimal cast, largely improvised script and uncomfortable setting makes for a much more visceral experience. And while its tale of cultures clashing makes for compulsive viewing, there is a sense of unease about the thing that might put you off.Driven by their father (John Meillon) into the Australian outback for a picnic, a teenage girl (Agutter) realises that he has other motives on his mind. As her father opens fire on her and her younger brother (Luc Roeg), they both run for cover before she sees her father shoot himself in the head and set fire to their car. Stranded in the desert and surrounded by the creatures that live there, they slowly wander through the terrain hoping for rescue. But they encounter a Aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) on his walkabout - a rite of passage where they must live off the land before becoming a man. Aided by their mysterious friend and his survival skills (despite not sharing a language), the children's hopes for a return to civilisation increase."Walkabout" can, at times, be a brutal watch as animals are seen speared, shot and dismembered in graphic detail. It offers an unflinching look at a land and people largely untouched by our civilisation, one that often seems as alien to us as anything from outer space. But the film doesn't shy away from turning the spotlight on us, asking you questions that you might not like the answers to. Are we any better than the Aborigines because we hunt for sport with rifles and jeeps as opposed to spearing animals for food? Despite the lack of anything really interesting happening, the film is a compulsive watch thanks largely to the young cast. Agutter leads in a fearless performance as the bewitching schoolgirl although little Roeg (director Nicholas Roeg's son) also does well as he seems to have most of the dialogue. In between scenes, close-up shots of endless bizarre animals add to the unusual atmosphere while Gulpilil's performance feels frighteningly authentic.It can feel a bit of a head-trip but "Walkabout" is a good example of a movie working despite having little behind it. I wouldn't call it entertaining - it's much too bleak for that - but it's certainly interesting, both from a narrative and production point of view. With no effects, very little music other than what can be heard from the transistor radio the children have with them and little to explain what is actually going on, the film has to work hard to hold your attention and it succeeds, just. It's an unsettling attempt to compare our society with one that will be utterly foreign to 99% of its audience and while it's a brave thing to look in the mirror, it might have been nice with Nicholas Roeg wasn't using one he'd borrowed from a circus tent.

This movie is difficult to rate. First you have to take into consideration it is from the 70's and looks it. Second, although it is in English, it is an Austrailian/UK film which can be very different from American film. The Good: beautiful scenery, cerebral context, Jenny Agutter was pretty & a decent actress as well as David Gulpilil, as the aboriginal boy; interesting adventure of kids lost in the Outback. The Bad: for those that don't like cerebral films, it moves slowly, taking in scenery and nature, often with long moments of silence or just musical score and the musical score leaves much to be desired; also, there are some scenes in the beginning and end that you have to ponder and aren't spelled out for you (I basically understood, but many reviewers were confused); The Ugly: the movie often shows the killing & gutting of animals; it also splices in flashes of modern civilization, for example the aboriginal boy hacking up an animal he just caught, with flashes of a butcher chopping up meats (although I think I understand why the director did this, I felt that it was intrusive & interrupted the flow); also, parents beware, there is a long nude scene of the girl swimming (Jenny, was playing a 16 years old in the film, but the actress was 18 years old), although it is tasteful, she is shown in full frontal nudity and is also shown naked a few other times in the film (Trivia: the actress was embarrassed during the nude swimming, so most of the crew had to leave while filming that scene, but later they all went skinny dipping together.) So, although it has some artistic quality, I didn't love it (or hate it.) I probably wouldn't recommend this film, because it will only appeal to a certain group of movie watchers...a 5/10 (middle of the road) in My Humble Opinion! 2014