Walkabout (1971)(1997-reissue)

Walkabout

Nicolas Roeg first solo-project is nothing short of mind bugging, taking a simple enough story into the natural second layer. It should in all fairness be mentioned the 97-reissue must be better than the original from what I've gathered about the added scenes of about 5 minutes. On any layer you'd like to think of the movie, that added footage makes it more complete.

A civilized teenage girl and her young brother find them self wandering alone in the middle of Australian dessert, with little to eat or drink. Alone they walk to survive, without the knowledge of nature to do so. Found by a aborigine boy who doesn't speak English, their worlds collide, and our two siblings have to depend on his knowledge. Communication is a problem, and communication was part of the reason they ended up there in the first place.

Roeg loses the pacing a little in the middle, and there's a couple of unnecessary scenes. Still the cinematographic beauty, the rawness of the nature and the evolution of the leads makes up for it overall.

This movie isn't shocking, but true to nature. Still it makes you think about what you witness throughout and think about the characters actions and choices. The simple story isn't the lead, but the layers of it and the ever growing continuous results of the journey is. While I don't currently consider it a masterpiece, it certainly is a must see movie.