Walkabout

I have to say that it's a great film and has the added bonus of Jenny Agutter in it, bringing back many a fond memory. I have no idea where he got the idea from for the film though because it's a bit crazy lol.

Great movie, very strange, hypnotic and beautiful. Great double bill with THE NAKED PREY. And damn, Jenny Agutter makes me feel funy in those places to this day. Anyone catch her on MI-5?

I personally think Jenny Agutter is one of the all-time sexiest and sensual actresses I've laid eyes upon. That said, Walkabout is a great movie, and the way it ends, I wondered if that was her having a flashback or us jumping forward in time; hard to say. She was also in An American Werewolf in London, which she looked great in, too.

Nick Roeg has made some very interesting movies in his career, and as good as Walkabout is, I'd say Don't Look Now is even better.

Anyone here seen his first movie with Mick Jagger and James Fox called Performance? Now that's a head trip!

^^^Quoted for truth.

Yeah, really... that's a pretty cool movie, but if anything, Nic Roeg strikes me as the one director that HATES linear narrative. He doesn't get enough love.

I would agree completely but I can't help but call it on more then a few parts of pretention not the funniest of witch is that dumb shot of the tree branch fork that looks like girls...

...Maybe I'm just dirty.

So Walkabout "happened" to me last night. I have a lot of thoughts about this great film, but I'm sort of at a loss as far as articulating them. It's certainly a very unique cinematic journey and more than a little strange.

Going in I only knew the briefest bit of synopsis: a young girl and her brother become stranded in the Australian outback and must survive. Couple that with the film being called Walkabout, and I figured I could guess where this goes. Yeah... not so much. The Criterion label tipped me off that there was probably a good deal more to chew on that a strict survival story.

This film has one of the most "what in the fuck?!" openings I've seen, and it immediately sucked me in. In the build up to that sudden revelation/kick-off, I was struck by the lingering and borderline upskirt shots of a very young Jenny Agutter. I wondered, "is that intentional? Surely we're not about to dive into sexual subtext or text with this young of a woman." Uh... yeah. Little bit. I can think of a certain exiled director who must have flipped for this film.

Joking aside, it is a very interesting and provocative look into sexuality and the differences of perception between cultures.

At the beginning and throughout the film, I had a really really difficult time understanding everything the young boy was saying. But as the editing and feel of the film hinted, I decided to just let it wash over me and come back again if I felt I missed something. After meeting the third party in this journey, I was reassured that I took the right action as what was being said really wasn't of utmost importance. I mean, it's not to be discarded. But the unspoken in the film held the most weight for me.

Really great film that I highly recommend to everyone if you haven't seen it. I mean, it's got the Criterion stamp so you're in good hands. I really look forward to diving into the commentary and supplemental features on this disc.

Oh also, the Criterion Blu Ray looked amazing, as always.

Really glad to hear you enjoyed it, Joey. I liken the film to 2001 in the sense that the best way to "see" this film is to simply trust the filmmaker on a level that you're not usually encouraged to do with contemporary western cinema. Normally, you'd bring a good deal of expectation baggage and (in the most eager individuals) an inability to shut off critical conclusion jumping. More and more filmmakers tend to lean on that disposition and exploit it to help shortcut character development and narrative and get right to the next action setpiece.

In this case, as with Kubrick, it's like skydiving. You simply leap, let the experience wash over you and leave the questions and answers for the ride home.

Having finally seen THE NEW WORLD recently, I'm thrilled to be able to put it in the same company as these two.

(Weirdly, after hearing members kvetch about this fabfunk guy for years, I see an actual post from him up there. Gotta say I agree, this does make for a great double feature with THE NAKED PREY...another film I can't pimp to people enough.)

I can tell this one's a grower, too. The more I think about it the more I'm fascinated.

Take the mating dance towards the end. It works on so many levels for me. On the surface, it's fucking hilarious in one sense because juxtaposed with her Anglo sensibilities (and by extension, mine since I fit that category) it's so bizarre looking and goes on for so long. But it's also a bit frightening for her, and it's sad for us as we watch her ignore it.

And it goes on and on, veering (for me at least) between awkward hilarity and tragedy. And as it wears on it leans more and more towards the latter of course.

It's currently hard for me to put my finger on, but it really honed in on some emotional level deep down for me. Especially the very end and her flashback/fantasy/whathaveyou. But it's not one scene or anything, but more the whole journey of the film that just continues to hit me the more I mull it over.

I'm chatting with my best friend about it now, and his brother-in-law is a fairly prominent actor who claims it to be his favorite film of all time.

I remember being fascinated by it in the theater, and I was amused to see that at a special free screening of Harold and Maude last week, this was one of the "vintage" trailers that they showed.