The Last Wave
| The Last Wave | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Peter Weir |
| Produced by | Hal McElroy Jim McElroy |
| Written by | Peter Weir Tony Morphett Petru Popescu |
| Starring | Richard Chamberlain Olivia Hamnett David Gulpilil Frederick Parslow |
| Music by | Charles Wain |
| Cinematography | Russell Boyd |
| Editing by | Max Lemon |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | 13 December 1977 |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | A$818,000 |
The Last Wave is a 1977 Australian film directed by Peter Weir.[1] It is about a white Australian lawyer whose seemingly normal life is disrupted after he takes on a murder case for Aborigine defendants. He discovers that he shares a strange and unexplained mystical connection to the small group of local Australian Aborigines accused of the crime.
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[edit] Plot
The film opens with a montage of scenes of daily life in Australia in the 1970s: a rural school in the desert, the main street of an outback town, a traffic jam in the city, all being affected by unusually adverse weather conditions that suddenly appear. Only the local Aboriginals seem to recognize the cosmological significance of these weather phenomena.
During one of these "freak rainstorms" in Sydney, an altercation occurs among a group of Aboriginals in a pub, which results in the mysterious death of one of them. At the coroner's inquest, the unexplained death is ruled a homicide and four men are accused of murder. Through the Australian Legal Aid system, a lawyer is procured for their defence. The circumstances by which he was contacted and retained are unusual, in that his law practice is corporate taxation and not criminal. He nonetheless takes on the case, and immediately his professional and personal life begin to unwind.
Plagued by recurring bizarre dreams, the lawyer begins to sense an "otherworldly" connection to one of the accused. He also feels connected to the increasingly strange weather phenomena besetting the city. His dreams intensify along with his obsession with the murder case (which he comes to believe is an Aboriginal tribal killing by curse, in which the victim believed). Learning more about Aboriginal practices and the concept of Dreamtime as a parallel world of existence, the lawyer comes to believe the strange weather bodes of a coming apocalypse.
The film climaxes in a confrontation between the lawyer and the tribe's shaman in a subterranean sacred site beneath the city. Overcoming the shaman, the lawyer escapes to the surface to warn about the Last Wave. Seeing a huge wave looming high above Sydney, he collapses in despair in the last shot.
Note: in an early scene, Chris Lee's hat bears a small silver pin - an airplane, an authentic bit of "cargo cult" symbolism.
[edit] Cast
- Richard Chamberlain as David Burton
- Olivia Hamnett as Annie Burton
- David Gulpilil as Chris Lee
- Frederick Parslow as Reverend Burton
- Vivean Gray as Dr Whitburn
- Nandjiwarra Amagula as Charlie
- Walter Amagula as Gerry Lee
- Roy Bara as Larry
- Cedrick Lalara as Lindsey
- Morris Lalara as Jacko
- Peter Carroll as Michael Zeadler
- Athol Compton as Billy Corman
- Hedley Cullen as Judge
- Michael Duffield as Andrew Potter
- Wallas Eaton as Morgue Doctor
[edit] Production
In an interview on the Criterion Collection DVD release, director Peter Weir explains that the film explores the question, "What if someone with a very pragmatic approach to life experienced a premonition?" Entered in the 6th Tehran International Film Festival in November 1977, the film won the Golden Ibex prize.
[edit] Box Office
The Last Wave grossed $1,258,000 at the box office in Australia,[2] which is equivalent to $5,786,800 in 2009 dollars.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Variety film review; 16 November 1977, page 21.
- ^ Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office
[edit] External links
- The Last Wave at the Internet Movie Database
- The Last Wave at AllRovi
- "The Last Wave", essay by Diane Jacobs, Criterion Collection
- The Last Wave, National Film and Sound Archive, Australia
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