“A DECEPTIVELY BEAUTIFUL MASTERPIECE...
one of cinema's most haunting and disorienting visions!”
– S. James Snyder, The New York Sun

“Superbly expressive!” – Michael Sragow, The New Yorker. Read full review here

“The simmering light and color, the conflict of cultures, and the emergence of semi-mystical sexual forces in the desert landscape make this as Roeg-ian a film as THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH or BAD TIMING.”
– Time Out (London)

“Still one of Roeg’s most satisfying achievements.” – Dave Kehr

“You are left with the impression of a fresh, powerful and humane imagination.” – Dilys Powell

Nicolas Roeg’s breathtakingly-shot solo directorial debut. Amidst the vast emptiness of an unending plain, a stressed-out Australian urbanite interrupts his family’s Outback picnic to kill himself and blow up their car, leaving his teenage daughter and six-year-old son… alone. Thus begins a memorable emotional and physical odyssey for a girl just old enough to take matters in her own, very proper hands — and for her little brother, zestfully plunging into this brand new game. But it's no game for the third member of the eventual trio: an Aborigine boy on his coming-of-age “walkabout.”

A Rousseauian evocation of Nature vs. Civilization, WALKABOUT ascends to a mystical, magical plain that transcends the banalities of what has become, in other hands, a threadbare genre. The first solo credit of Nicolas Roeg (who’d co-directed PERFORMANCE), his previous cinematographer career (including second unit work on LAWRENCE OF ARABIA) evident in the luscious color and sweeping vistas and in the teeming, near-microscopic views of Outback life. And he evokes striking performances from his basically three-person cast of newcomers: his son Lucien John; Jenny Agutter, later British-Oscared for EQUUS; and David Gulpilil (an Aborigine from the greener North, and so nearly as at sea in the desert as the castaways themselves) with Agutter and Gulpilil feverish with an adolescent longing that breaks against the barriers of language and race.

This is a new 35mm print, struck by Janus Films on the occasion of their 50th anniversary.

1971 • 100 minutes • Color • A Janus Films Release