Walkabout

"A boy and girl face the challenge of the world's last frontier."

Jul 1 1971 GP 1h 40m
Adventure, Drama

Under the pretense of having a picnic, a geologist takes his teenage daughter and 6-year-old son into the Australian outback and attempts to shoot them. When he fails, he turns the gun on himself, and the two city-bred children must contend with harsh wilderness alone. They are saved by a chance encounter with an Aboriginal boy who shows them how to survive, and in the process underscores the disharmony between nature and modern life.

Plot

A privileged British family--mother, geologist father, adolescent daughter, small son--live in Sydney, Australia. While on a picnic one day, the sibling get stranded in the Outback by themselves, not knowing exactly where they are. They only have with them the clothes on their backs--their school uniforms--some meagre rations of nonperishable food, a battery-powered transistor radio, the son's satchel primarily containing his toys, and a small piece of cloth they used as their picnic cloth. While they walk through the Outback, they encounter an Australian boy who is on his walkabout, a rite of passage into manhood where he spends entire months on his own living off the land. Their largest problem is not being able to verbally communicate. The boy does help them to survive, but doesn't understand their need to return to civilization, which may or may not happen based on what the Australian boy ends up doing.

Written by

Edward Bond, Donald G. Payne, Nicolas Roeg

Directed by

Nicolas Roeg

Production Countries

United Kingdom, Australia

Production Companies

20th Century Fox, Max L. Raab Productions, Si Litvinoff Film Production

Languages

English, Ceský

Awards

1 win & 1 nomination

Scores
# of Votes
29,454
Average Rating
7.6 out of 10
Metascore
85
Popularity
NA