Due to my taste in films and general laziness, there are a lot of films that I would never have watched if they weren't on some movie list I was trying to finish. For example, something like The Best Years of Our Lives is something that I would absolutely skip because the theme of soldiers returning home has never appealed to me unless it was part of a bigger story. Walkabout is another film that I would have avoided, because "two kids walk through the Outback, meet an Aborigine, then go back to civilization" sounds like a recipe for boredom to me. If it wasn't part of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list, I wouldn't have watched it a couple years back.
I try to go into films with as little knowledge about them as possible, sometimes even skipping the plot synopsis, so Walkabout surprised the hell out of me when I first saw it years ago. Seeing it again, the film holds up and is even more appealing to me now that I've gotten older and my tastes have changed slightly. I'm a much more patient viewer, and after getting hooked on programs such as Planet Earth I was enthralled by the shots of lizards, kangaroos, and other assorted animals that I don't even know the names of. I'm a big fan of nature serving as a character, and the Outback here feels like a formidable antagonist for our two young leads.
Speaking of our leads, Jenny Agutter is very good here, going through an emotional trip that has her acting like an authority figure, trying to maintain "proper" manners, and then finally depending on her much younger brother to ask their Aborigine friend questions. I can see how someone would criticize her for mostly seeming blank in this film, but she looks genuinely frightened at this new world she's been thrust into, and she does a convincing job taking on the parenting role while also being vulnerable enough to rely on her younger brother for certain things (such as "protecting" her during the Aborigine's mating dance). Luc Roeg is fucking adorable as the little brother, and thank Christ Nicolas Roeg didn't ask his son to cry in this film, because it works so much better with him just frolicking in the sand, playing around, and being a chatterbox.
Finally, David Gulpilil does a fine job as the Aborigine that finds the two, giving a charismatic performance mostly through expressions and movements, since he doesn't speak English here. I especially liked his relationship with the boy, since somehow he's able to communicate with him much easier than with the older, more educated sister. The scene at the end when he finds the road might be one of my favorites, along with seeing how shitty the white man treats his surroundings. His relationship with Jenny is interesting because she clearly likes him but can't force herself to have an interest in him, since she's too tied to her normal, modern world. It's a nice kick in the face when they finally reach civilization and encounter a cantankerous dickhead who tells them to stay off his property and not touch his stuff. However, her attitude throughout the film makes her final scene, where she's married and fantasizing about swimming naked with her brother and their Aborigine friend, a bit harder to take. I get that it's tinged with regret, but I don't feel her interest in staying in the Outback was telegraphed all that well during the main portion of the film.
This was an easier ranking than expected. I'm starting to see a dividing line in my ranking, where I have movies that I loved and movies that I really liked. That line seems to exist between The 400 Blows and The Killer, and that seems like a fair spot to put Walkabout, a film that, at least for right now, is straddling that line.
1. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. Seven Samurai (1954)
3. Grand Illusion (1937)
4. Hard Boiled (1992)
5. The 400 Blows (1959)
6. Walkabout (1971)
7. The Killer (1989)
8. A Night to Remember (1958)
9. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
10. Amarcord (1973)
Now that I've finished the first ten, I'm surprised at how this turned out. If I were to predict this ranking before I started, Hard Boiled definitely would not have been as high as it is, Amarcord wouldn't have been as low, and I certainly wouldn't have had A Night to Remember above The Lady Vanishes. Because my opinion of a movie changes with distance, I don't expect that I'll agree with this ranking even a week from now, but art that doesn't live and breath with you isn't worth examining, so I don't see this as an issue.
Next time: I tackle another one of the major, untouchable masterpieces when I watch Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. Can this be another film to knock down Seven Samurai? Your guess is as good as mine.
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