Last Wave, the

The film's power (as well as what skeptics might regard as its pretension) emanates from Weir's stately, deliberate pace. Violating most of the conventions of suspense, he unravels his mystery with an unsettling calm underscored by its sparse soundtrack, which replaces conventional orchestral cues with the low, brooding rattle and hum of the didgeridoo. Instead of sudden camera movements or quick cuts, Weir circles his subjects almost diffidently. The stillness of that approach only amplifies the mounting unease Chamberlain's character, David Burton, feels as he steps for the first time beyond the bland safety of his privileged life and into the mystical world of the native Australians. Taking on the defense of the aborigines suspected of murdering the drowned man through tribal magic, his own beliefs are tested by the suspects' evident, intuitive connections to nature.

Chamberlain's Anglicized performance seems fussy and epicene, which only heightens the quiet intensity and watchful grace conveyed by the two aborigines, Chris Lee (David Gulpilil) and the shaman, Charlie (Nandjiwarra Amagula), who give Burton his first glimpse of their culture's "dreamtime" and the potent symbolism it contains. --Sam Sutherland

The early movies could not easily portray ideas and concepts which were beyond simple props. An example is a car scene prop - a car with a painting of a scene in the background.

Dreams are the most diffifult imaginal form of concept to convey because a dream is pre-reality. Artists since the dawn of art have tried to portray dreams. From that art we arrive at religion, science and hence psychology.

Art is a communication of the abstract. In this film, the Dream Time is communicated as it is: an imaginal world which overlaps the objects we perceive as a real world.

Future Shamans must always be aware that our Ancestors knew what reality was based upon their sense of Pre-Imaginal Conception. Shamans of the Animalistic Religions knew that We Dream Our Reality because We Percieve through our Imaginal Sense of Reality.

Never believe that the props are real. The props are the illusion. The message of this movie comes from the line;

" You are already in trouble. You forgot how to dream..."

We forget that the props of our world are our inventions; in another time, another realm, our beliefs mean nothing. We dreamt the meaning into them.

Dream Awake; Dream Aware. The Dream Time gives us clues if we can remember that we are living our dreams, and for some our night mares. If we know that we are creating our illusions, we might be able to live like our ancestors... with the nature as our home.


Toke up and fall out, your in for a strange trip.   October 26, 2002
Shamanie K. Peters (las vegas, nevada United States)
My father turned me on to this film when I was about 4. He used to play it for me when he was cooking dinner, listening to music, studying, any time he needed some time to himself and needed me to stay in one place. (Chariots of fire and The Warriors work well too. lol ) Well, I am 25 now and this film is as creepy, fascinating and hypnotic as it was then.

I mean, the third wave, for christ sake. It's over. Your outa here. Done. Would you be remembered as a quality addition to the human race? Really, "Who are you?"

I can add no more than my peers here, as all except one giant bozo found this film to be as good as I did.


Intriguing early film by Peter Weir   July 14, 2002
Matthew Horner (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

?The Last Wave? is an eerie, beautiful film by Peter Weir and is a companion piece to ?Picnic at Hanging Rock?, which he made two years earlier in 1975. Though ?Wave? is set in 1970s Sydney and ?Picnic? takes place at the turn of the 20th Century, both movies revolve around the great difficulty the white settlers, who took over Australia, had in fitting in, both with the land itself and with the Aboriginal natives. After all, Aboriginal culture was ancient long before there was an England or, for that matter, a religion called Christianity. Though both movies are highly recommended, both are uniquely Australian. Those with little knowledge of the place will find themselves at a loss as to what is going on.

David Burton [Richard Chamberlain] is a successful, middle-class tax attorney in Sidney. When he volunteers to take the case of several Aboriginal men accused of murder, he has little inkling of where this supposedly simple case will take him. Coincidentally, he has recently been having nightmares, one of which involves a young Aboriginal boy. He finds that the men are withholding much information. He comes to suspect that they are part of a tribe and that the crime was dictated by tribal law. His colleagues insist that there are no tribes in Sydney. Not only is David right, he discovers that there is a mysterious link between the defendants and the strange weather that has recently plagued the region. The case turns into a spiritual journey, one fraught with unanswerable questions and great danger.

The laconic and underrated Chamberlain is excellent. The movie is not a thriller, and it builds to its climax slowly and deliberately. This makes David?s quiet descent into madness appropriate.

One of the film?s greatest assets is Russell Boyd?s cinematography. He beautifully captures the dichotomy between modern Sydney with its gleaming towers and the ancient world that lies hidden beneath them. His surreal, dreamlike camera work helps make up for this low budget effort?s lack of special effects.

By the way, an American equivalent to ?The Last Wave? is the fascinating independent movie, ?The Rapture? [1991].

Other recommended Weir movies are ?Gallipoli [1981], ?The Year of Living Dangerously? [1982], ?Fearless? [1993] and ?The Truman Show? [1998].


a definite let down   April 12, 2002
Michael Cumming (Ottawa, Ontario)
I was pretty let down by this film due to the praise it received from a friend of mine whose opinion I value. I just found it didn't really present me with anything I hadn't seen before. The story was interesting but it could have been delivered in a much more original way. This is a good film but far from great.