Walkabout
In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, the hosts venture into the Australian Outback to review the 1971 classic Walkabout. Directed by visionary filmmaker Nicolas Roeg in his solo debut, the film stars Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, and David Gulpilil in a haunting story about two civilized schoolchildren stranded in the wilderness who are rescued by an Aboriginal boy on his traditional rite of passage.
The Dads (Dan, Reegs, Sidey, and Cris) discuss the film's stark contrast between modern, regimented society and the natural world. Topics include the film's almost entirely improvised 14-page script, the stunning cinematography, the absurdity of maintaining a formal school uniform in the desert, and philosophical debates on human evolution and modern conveniences.
Despite Dan initially confusing it with another desert survival movie involving a dog, the hosts uniformly praise Walkabout for its hypnotic pacing and powerful thematic depth. If you enjoy visually driven 1970s cinema or thought-provoking survival dramas, this is a must-watch.
This week, the Dads head into the Australian Outback to review Nicolas Roeg's mesmerizing and dreamlike 1971 survival drama, Walkabout.
Dan kicks things off by admitting he completely confused this movie with A Far Off Place, spending the first hour waiting for a dog that was never going to appear. Once the confusion settles, Sidey, Dan, Reegs, and Cris dive deep into this visual masterpiece starring Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, and the legendary David Gulpilil.
In this episode:
- Dan's Kalahari Desert mix-up
- The culture clash: modern society vs. indigenous life
- Have humans evolved too fast for the modern world? (Cris predicts our WALL-E slug future)
- The indestructible nature of 1970s school uniform tights
- Why you shouldn't go hiking in formal leather school shoes
- The brilliant, almost entirely improvised performances from the young cast
- Comparisons to last week's film (Sovereign) on the topic of rejecting modern society
Verdict: Strong recommend across the board. A weird, beautiful, and thought-provoking classic.
Films/shows mentioned: Walkabout (1971), Sovereign (2025), A Far Off Place (1993), Don't Look Now (1973), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), WALL-E (2008), Crocodile Dundee (1986).
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Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
Walkabout (1971)
Bad Dads Film Review
Dan: We're doing Walkabout.
Reegs: What possessed you to pick this notorious film?
Dan: To be honest, I didn't know it was this film at first! I've seen this before, but I was telling Cris earlier that I actually got it confused with another film. I thought it was the one where a little boy and his dog get lost in the Kalahari Desert. I was waiting for the scene where the kid thinks a Bushman is cooking his dog, and that scene never came. We got a completely different set of scenes.
Cris: I think you mashed two films together.
Dan: I was talking to my sister about it, and she'd done exactly the same thing. So I wasn't the only one in my family guilty of it. But this is by Nicolas Roeg, isn't it?
Reegs: Yes, Nicolas Roeg. I think this was his solo directorial debut, before Don't Look Now.
Sidey: Starring Jenny Agutter.
Reegs: And his son, Luc Roeg, played the little boy, who has quite an important part in the movie. And David Gulpilil, the other guy from Crocodile Dundee.
Cris: We've seen the other version of modern man rejecting society in last week's Sovereign, where he refused the laws of humanity, and that didn't end very well either. In modern times, which way is better?
Dan: Well, the way it ended for the father in this film is that he couldn't handle life. The movie is very clear about what it thinks about it all.
Reegs: It's not particularly subtle about the culture clash. It asks: what have we lost by divorcing ourselves from that culture? It shows community, our relationship with food, our sexual relationships, our relationships with each other.
Cris: Rejection, all of that.
Dan: Exactly. What have we gained in having a society with cars and swimming pools and the Sydney Opera House? You have all these responsibilities and your hours are no longer your own. Whereas out there, other than getting food, the rest of it was just play. You see the kids in the film—when they aren't looking for food, they're just playing around and having a laugh.
Reegs: I've always thought that humans aren't really adapted for the world we live in now. For a hundred thousand years of evolution, we lived in a completely different state where it was just about getting food and surviving.
Cris: And this modern society is only really 200 years old. Where will we be in a thousand years as technology becomes more integrated? We're going to be like the humans in WALL-E. Slugs in chairs. Less brain, more fat, turning into jelly.
Sidey: Not me, man. I do CrossFit. But big shout out to her tights for not getting a ladder. She did three or four days in the bush and not a single ladder in her tights. Whatever brand that was, they don't make them like that anymore.
Reegs: The obsession with washing the school uniform in the outback was frying me. But I guess that was the point of the movie—he's walking around the desert with a schoolboy's cap.
Sidey: Well, you need a hat in that heat. But terrible footwear choice for hiking. She had her formal school shoes on. Definitely not what you'd choose to go hiking in the outback. But I really enjoyed this film. It was good.
Dan: Did you enjoy it, Reegs?
Reegs: Of course I did. I thought it was really good. It's weird and dreamlike, with plenty to chew on. And I thought the kid was actually pretty good considering he was in it a lot, and his part was to be quite annoying.
Dan: They said they didn't actually script a lot of it. The entire script was only about 14 pages. They just let it film to see how it goes. They knew where they were and where they wanted to get to, and just let the magic happen. And David Gulpilil and Jenny Agutter were great.
Sidey: Strong recommend.
Cris: Strong recommend. Yeah.
Reegs: Strong recommend.
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