The Last Wave (1977)
Directed by: Peter Weir.
Written by: Peter Weir & Tony Morphett & Petru Popescu.
Starring: Richard Chamberlain (David Burton), Olivia Hamnett (Annie
Burton), David Gulpilil (Chris Lee), Frederick Parslow (Rev. Burton), Vivean
Gray (Dr. Whitburn), Nandjiwarra Amagula (Charlie), Walter Amagula (Gerry Lee),
Roy Bara (Larry), Cedrick Lalara (Lindsey), Morris Lalara (Jacko), Peter
Carroll (Michael Zeadler), Athol Compton (Billy Corman), Michael Duffield (Andrew
Potter), Guido Rametta (Guido), Malcolm Robertson (Don Fishburn), Greg Rowe (Carl),
Katrina Sedgwick (Sophie Burton), Ingrid Weir (Grace Burton).
At this point, in 2020, it has been 10 years since Australian
director Peter Weir directed a film – his last film was 2010’s The Way Back,
which was a solid film, but kind of got lost in the shuffle when it was
released at the tail end of that year – that’s what happens when you make a
prestige film, that doesn’t get Oscar love, but release in December anyway. In
many ways, I think it’s filmmakers like Weir who have been hardest hit by
Hollywood’s abandonment of the mid-level studio film – films that cost more
than indies, but are never going to be blockbusters – and Weir has never joined
the echelon of filmmakers – like Scorsese, Spielberg, etc. – who seem to be
immune to the changing of the guards. It doesn’t help that it often feels like
Weir makes films that get good reviews when they are released – but take a
while for it to sink in just how great they are. His last “hit” was Master and
Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) which was a reasonable hit, got
tons of Oscar nominations (it lost them all – given it came out the same year
as the last Lord of the Rings movie) – but who has seen it critical reputation
skyrocket in the years since – perhaps because it is the type of film Hollywood
doesn’t make anymore, and critics would like to see more like it. It’s too bad,
because looking back and Weir’s filmography, and it’s hard to find any duds in
it – from his breakthrough 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock (which remains my
favorite of his) through Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously
(1982), Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993) and The
Truman Show (1998) (I left out a couple that I haven’t seen) – and you have the
rare mainstream filmmaker capable of making major movies, with major stars,
within the studio system, and still have them be interesting, serious, thought
provoking films.
Before most of those however, Weir was one of the
members of the Australian New Wave – a group of filmmakers who in the 1970s,
redefined Australian cinema, and able to make some domestic hits – taking back
at least some screens from the Hollywood product that dominated their box
office. Included in those was his follow-up to Picnic at Hanging Rock, 1977’s
The Last Wave – a fascinating, apocalyptic thriller that will surely remind
many modern viewers of Jeff Nichols’ great Take Shelter (2011) – although Weir
layers in domestic issues in Australia – particularly in how the country views,
and deals with, their aboriginal population. There are some marks of its time
in The Last Wave – yes, it is another film about minority characters, that has
a white man at its center – but it still deals with aboriginal issues in at the
very least a thought provoking way – and has some great visuals in it as well.
It isn’t one of Weir’s best films – but it certainly is an interesting one,
nonetheless.
Weir’s inspirational for the film was apparently to
have someone hyper-rational at its core, who started to believe in things he
could not explain. That is why he made his main character, David Burton
(Richard Chamberlain) – a tax attorney (they would have probably him an
accountant – the shorthand for boring guy, had they not needed him to be a
lawyer). The movie opens with the “crime” that will be at the center of the
movie – a group of Aboriginal men, who have been drinking in a bar, and one of
them winds up dead – the rest charged with his murder. David ends up talking
extensively with one of these men – Chris (David Gulpilil) – and starts to have
very strange, apocalyptic dreams. Are they just dreams or are they more than
that? And how does it deal intersect with the aboriginal people – and perhaps
his own childhood?
If you were going to make The Last Wave today, I
don’t think you’d do it the same way. The most important revision is I don’t
think you can really get away with having Aboriginal culture and beliefs
basically serve as a backdrop to a white man’s growing awareness. The film
certainly places David at the center of the movie – and the Aboriginal
characters seem very invested in his awakening – even more than their own
self-interest. I do think the film takes the Aboriginal characters seriously –
and takes their mistreatment at the hands of white man seriously as well. But
when you contrast it to something like last year’s The Nightingale by Jennifer
Kent, who linked misogyny and racism, and had an Aboriginal character who was
more than the vehicle for white enlightenment, The Last Wave does show its age.
Yet, it remains a fascinating movie. Chamberlain is
perhaps a little too bland in the lead role – something that works in the early
scenes, but he never quite gets it later in the film. But Weir’s direction is
excellent – perhaps papering over the flaws in Chamberlain’s performance, or
the issues with Aboriginal representation, or some not quite great storytelling
turns. The film remains a haunting visually – with the images of David’s dreams
growing more and more disturbing – leading to a moment at the end, which
definitely will remind people of Take Shelter, even in the way the film leaves
ambiguous if we’re seeing something real, or if the main character has simply
lost his mind completely – and it comes at the end of a very tense sequence,
shot in the darkness of the caves.
The Last Wave then isn’t one of Weir’s best films –
certainly not as good as the two that bookend it, Picnic at Hanging Rock and
Gallipoli – but it’s an interesting one. It’s kind of a genre mishmash – a
courtroom drama, an apocalyptic thriller, a story of Aboriginal abuse, etc. –
and the elements don’t entirely cohere. But at its best, it shows Weir’s powers
as a director – and shows why we should hope he directs again – and soon.
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