Friday 6 August 2010

Walkabout

a film by Nicolas Roeg

Back in 1970s, I read a story of two children lost in an Australian desert and rescued by an Aborigine boy. It was published in one of the Soviet children’s magazines, either Пионер or Костёр. Now I realise it was nothing else but Walkabout. I don’t remember its Russian title but I am certain it was not called Обход.

In any case, the story told in the movie differs significantly from the novel. The depiction of death is rather graphical, and yes, the animals were harmed in the making of this movie. Then there is a weird but amusing sequence involving Italian-speaking men and weather balloons. And a famous scene of the Girl (Jenny Agutter) skinny-dipping in the lake while the boys are hunting. Very seventies, a little dated, but still incredibly beautiful film.

This DVD, however, is a bit of a disappointment. The sound quality is not that great and there are no subtitles, so I didn’t understand all of the dialogue. I read some good reviews of The Criterion Collection DVD (apparently, both sound and picture are newly remastered). Why didn’t British do the same?

No comments:

Post a Comment