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Since I am on a current journey through my teenage years (see my last review of Licorice Pizza (https://medium.com/p/ab7a928e60de), why not re-visit this remarkable art-house gem from Aussie director Peter Weir? Starring the inimitable Richard Chamberlain who, to his credit, doesn't even try to fake an Aussie accent.
I have probably seen "The Last Wave" at least three times. Once, in 1977 when it was first released, again several years ago on a streaming platform, and last night on HBO Max. This kind of perspective can be valuable in assessing whether what one thought of a film when one first saw it still holds true. In the case of "The Last Wave", it really does.
The story line here concerns a Sydney Barrister who is asked to take on a "Legal Aid" (read, Pro Bono) murder case involving Aboriginals. A black man has died rather dramatically during a rain storm, and other black men are accused of committing Murder. Chamberlain rather deftly portrays the Barrister -- David Burton -- who has little experience in Criminal Law, and is more focused on raising his Bourgeois family in the Sydney suburbs than even the practice of law.
The plot and story are really a setup for the deeper artistic intent that Weir has going. This is not a story about an out-of-his-depths attorney trying to defend a black man accused of murder, it concerns nothing less than the terrible history of European Settlers in Australia, who destroyed traditional Aborigine culture and killed many people, and also the vast difference between white and Aboriginal views of religion, the Law, Ethics and even the Cosmos. Top that off with one of the best twist endings ever rendered in Celluloid and its no wonder the critics loved the film.
I first saw "The Last Wave" at the Monica Twin theater in Santa Monica, California. This very specific detail is fresh in my mind because I remember that, after watching out of the theater, my life had literally changed in the course of two hours. Weir's strange masterpiece, with its Cosmic storyline, deeply personal drama and dreamy camera work was one of a handful of films I saw growing up that made me love Cinema. George Roy Hill's multiple Oscar-winning "The Sting" was another.
Returning these many years later I was struck by how well it holds up. The narrative of a White (European) man trying to hold together a "center" which "cannot hold" (to paraphrase Yeats) is riveting, and in some ways horrifying. The more Burton tries to understand what has happened with these possibly Tribal Aboriginals, and take control of the situation in which he finds himself, the less able to do so he is. This kind of Cinematic entropy that brings to mind another great Fish out of Water tale from the same era, "The Wicker Man," where a British Police officer investigates the mysterious disappearance of a young girl on an Island that still practices a Pagan religion.
The rest, as they say, is History. Literally. But, is it White Man History (which follows a linear progression from the primitive to the modern) or Aboriginal History, which is timeless, and cyclic? The answer to that question might just save Burton's life. Or might not. The only way to find out is to watch this on your favorite Streaming platform: included "free" on HBO Max and AppleTV, and available for rent or purchase on most other platforms.
