81% (3)  The Last Wave  106 min,  PG,  [Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller]  [Peter Weir]  [01 Jan 1979]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 71%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 87%,   Metacritic: 85%,   External Reviews
Awards:  4 wins & 7 nominations.
Actors:  David Gulpilil, Frederick Parslow, Olivia Hamnett, Richard Chamberlain
Writer:  Peter Weir (screenplay), Tony Morphett (screenplay), Petru Popescu (screenplay)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English, Italian, Aboriginal    Country:  Australia
Plot:  A Sydney lawyer has more to worry about than higher-than-average rainfall when he is called upon to defend five Aboriginals in court. Determined to break their silence and discover the truth behind the hidden society he suspects lives in his city, the Lawyer is drawn further, and more intimately, into a prophesy that threatens a new Armageddon, wherein all the continent shall drown.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Peter Weir directed this illusory examination between "reality" and "dream-time" and a possible coming tidal wave that will destroy the world. Richard Chamberlain plays David Burton, a young Australian lawyer who is asked by Legal Aid to represent four Aboriginal youths who are accused of killing another Aborigine in a drunken brawl. Burton accepts the case, and he then proceeds to have a series of dreams in which one of the four defendants is trying to give him a sacred stone. As layers of reality are peeled away, Burton discovers that the killing was in retribution for the murder victim's theft of sacred stones. The stones resembled the one in Burton's recurring dream. Finally, Burton discovers that the murder weapon was neither a gun nor a knife, but a shaman's sacred bone -- the shaman pointed the bone at the victim and the victim died of a heart attack. As Burton unravels the case, he finds himself becoming more and more a part of the Aborigine's dream-time until realizing that he is a psychic member of an ancient Australian tribe that had disappeared long ago.
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80% (3)  Rabbit-Proof Fence  94 min,  PG,  [Adventure, Biography, Drama, History]  [Phillip Noyce]  [31 Jan 2003]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 75%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 87%,   Metacritic: 80%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 23 wins & 24 nominations.
Actors:  David Gulpilil, Everlyn Sampi, Kenneth Branagh, Laura Monaghan, Tianna Sansbury
Writer:  Doris Pilkington (book), Christine Olsen (screenplay)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  Aboriginal, English    Country:  Australia
Plot:  Western Australia, 1931. Government policy includes taking half-caste children from their Aboriginal mothers and sending them a thousand miles away to what amounts to indentured servitude, "to save them from themselves." Molly, Daisy, and Grace (two sisters and a cousin who are 14, 10, and 8) arrive at their Gulag and promptly escape, under Molly's lead. For days they walk north, following a fence that keeps rabbits from settlements, eluding a native tracker and the regional constabulary. Their pursuers take orders from the government's "chief protector of Aborigines," A.O. Neville, blinded by Anglo-Christian certainty, evolutionary world view and conventional wisdom. Can the girls survive?
Rotten Tomatoes:   In Western Australia, 1931, the small depot of Jigalong sits on the edge of the Gibson Desert. Running through Jigalong and out into the desert is a rabbit-proof fence that bisects Australia from north to south. The fence was built to keep rabbits on one side and pasture on the other. This remote country is home to three spirited Aboriginal girls, Molly, her sister Daisy, and their cousin Gracie. The girls' white fathers are fence workers who have moved on. Now their only contact with white Australia is the weekly ration day at Jigalong Depot. In Perth, AO Neville, the area's Chief Protector of Aborigines, receives word that the three girls are running wild. He believes the Aboriginal race is dying out and believes that the answer to the "colored problem" is to breed out the Aboriginal race. To achieve this he has ruled that children of mixed marriages cannot marry full-blooded Aborigines. Settlements are set up across the state and "half-caste" children are removed from their families and prepared for their "new life in white society" as domestic servants and laborers. Neville orders the removal of Molly, Gracie, and Daisy and they are relocated 1,200 miles from home to a grim settlement. The harsh conditions they must live under shock Molly, and she convinces Daisy and Gracie to run away with her. With Moodoo, a cruel and master tracker on their tails, they begin a grueling three-month journey home, following the rabbit-proof fence that will guide them back to their mother and their rightful home.
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71% (3)  Crocodile Dundee  97 min,  PG-13,  [Adventure, Comedy]  [Peter Faiman]  [26 Sep 1986]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 66%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 87%,   Metacritic: 62%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 7 nominations.
Actors:  David Gulpilil, John Meillon, Linda Kozlowski, Paul Hogan
Writer:  Ken Shadie (screenplay), John Cornell (screenplay), Paul Hogan (screenplay), Paul Hogan (story)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  Australia
Plot:  Michael J. "Crocodile" Dundee is an Australian crocodile hunter who lives in the Australian outback and runs a safari business with his trusted friend and mentor Walter Reilly. After surviving a crocodile attack, a New York journalist named Sue arrives to interview Mick about how he survived and learns more about the crocodile hunter. After saving Sue from a crocodile, Sue invites Mick to visit New York City, since Mick has never been to a city. Mick finds the culture and life in New York City a lot different than his home and he finds himself falling in love with Sue.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Accustomed to a simple life in the Australian Outback, a legendary crocodile hunter has trouble adjusting to his new surroundings when an American journalist brings him to New York City. This Australian comedy delivers exactly what one would expect: plenty of fish-out-of-water gags about the hunter's reactions to the absurdity of modern urban life. Though he initially seems rather naive, Paul Hogan's "Crocodile" Dundee soon demonstrates that his natural ways are rather quite well-suited to city life, proving himself equally adept at defeating muggers and charming members of high society. Along the way, as one might expect, a romance develops between the rugged hunter and the hardened journalist, who finds herself enchanted by his down-to-earth behavior. The story is not particularly original, but the film's good-natured humor proved extremely palatable to audiences, as indicated by its worldwide box office success. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
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82% (2)  Walkabout  100 min,  GP,  [Adventure, Drama]  [Nicolas Roeg]  [01 Jul 1971]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 77%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 87%,   External Reviews
Awards:  1 nomination.
Actors:  David Gulpilil, Jenny Agutter, John Meillon, Luc Roeg
Writer:  Edward Bond (screenplay), Donald G. Payne (novel)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English, Aboriginal, Czech, French    Country:  UK, Australia
Plot:  A privileged British family consisting of a mother, a geologist father and an adolescent daughter and son, live in Sydney, Australia. Out of circumstance, the siblings, not knowing exactly where they are, get stranded in the Outback by themselves while on a picnic. They only have with them the clothes on their backs - their school uniforms - some meagre rations of nonperishable food, a battery-powered transistor radio, the son's satchel primarily containing his toys, and a small piece of cloth they used as their picnic drop-cloth. While they walk through the Outback, sometimes looking as though near death, they come across an Australian boy who is on his walkabout, a rite of passage into manhood where he spends months on end on his own living off the land. Their largest problem is not being able to verbally communicate. The boy does help them to survive, but doesn't understand their need to return to civilization, which may or may not happen based on what the Australian boy ends up doing.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Two young white children (Jenny Agutter and Roeg's son Lucien) stumble upon an adolescent Aborigine (David Gulpilil), who is performing a "walkabout." In this ritualistic six-month journey, the boy must learn to survive by himself in the imposing desert. Communication is a problem, although more for the girl than for her little brother, who still has a child's ability to communicate simply and directly. The two teenagers fail to connect for a variety of reasons, mostly due to the girl's lack of interest in a culture that is unfamiliar and different from her own. Ultimately, the differences become too much to bear, resulting in a tragic conclusion that adds an even more somber denouement to Roeg's already grim vision.
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72% (1)  Storm Boy  88 min,  [Drama, Family]  [Henri Safran]  [28 Jul 1977]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 72%,   External Reviews
Awards:  3 wins & 6 nominations.
Actors:  David Gulpilil, Greg Rowe, Judy Dick, Peter Cummins
Writer:  Sonia Borg, Sidney L. Stebel, Colin Thiele (novel)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  Australia
Plot:  Mike is a lonely Australian boy living in a coastal wilderness with his reclusive father. In search of friendship he encounters an Aboriginal native loner and the two form a bond in the care of orphaned pelicans.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Storm Boy is a rambunctious Australian youth living with his freewheeling father. At the behest of an aging aborigine, Storm Boy takes care of an uncared-for nest of pelicans. As he develops a sense of responsibility, the boy's outlook on the world matures, strengthening his devotion to his father.
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