dy158 It does not seem to intertwine with each other on the surface in the beginning, of native Aborigines at the outback, a rural school in the desert, and a traffic jam on the streets of Sydney. But what actually binds them is that there has been an unusual adverse weather condition suddenly appearing in Sydney itself, which the local Aborigines seem to only know what is going to happen.David Burton (Richard Chamberlain) is actually a corporate tax lawyer himself, but he would be finding himself defending four local Aborigines over a mysterious murder of one of their members which took place at a pub on the same day when the sudden adverse of weather conditions had taken place in the city. After he decides to take on the case by himself after his colleague Michael Zeadler (Peter Carroll) had dropped out, he starts to experience an unusual spate of events which would also come to affect his own family as well. But at the same time, he also feels an unusual connection with one of the four accused in Chris (David Gulpilil).It is the scene before the opening montages of seemingly ordinary and unrelated scenes of Sydney which would give an indicator of what is going to happen, of an Aborigine drawing something in a cave. It does make one wonder whether that is a sign of something major is about to happen where it seems that even if there are no more Aboriginal groups in Sydney itself, does the weather has anything to do with what their people had been expecting.There is always something about the role of water in apocalyptic scenarios, and it is present almost all the time even in the lighter moments of the film. It does make one challenge own's beliefs of the unexplainable when someone like David who looks on the surface not relating to the four Aborigines, finds himself that there is more than it meets the eye of trying to defend the four men over what was ruled as a homicide.Thrillers can take in many forms, and it need not always be of the horrifying kind. It has always been said that it is the journey and not the destination, and it shows in the film where it leaves you guessing what is going on. This film does give a look into how it seems like even in the modern world, how ancient reminders from another time are still around us even when we may not notice it with our naked eye.

sunznc The film stars Richard Chamberlin as a corporate attorney who has mysteriously taken on a case defending Aborigines in the city of Australia. A few remaining members of a tribe are accused of killing a man wanting to join their tribe.The film has an intoxicating, mesmerizing feel to it with the long, lingering shots, the slower pace, the scenes of rain and water flowing, the dreamy and unusual soundtrack. It is interesting to watch and the film does draw you in. However, something is missing here. The film needed narration, which makes me sound very American, or explanation that is a bit more clear. The attorney has dreams and learns that his dreams come true so does that mean his vision of water and death are prophetic? It seems so but then the film ends and it's a bit anti-climactic, a bit of a letdown.I think it would have worked better for me had the script been a bit less esoteric.

MesaHead This is one of those movies that makes you chuckle at the end because it did not answer any of the questions it sparked along the way. Yet, the more I think or talk about it the deeper it seems. The best supernatural thrillers are those that end with a sense of closure coupled with ambiguity. To me this is more "real" than a film that pretends to have all of the answers. No matter how enmeshed one becomes in the supernatural there will always remain a sense of mystery. Our natural minds just cannot completely encompass the purpose and mechanics of the supernatural world. More than once the Old Testament says of God "His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thinking." In the New Testament Paul wrote that at best we "see through a glass darkly". I believe this sums up the inherent futility of man's attempt to impose his logic on a dimension that has it's own separate logic. It's a language we cannot speak, spoken on a frequency we can rarely and barely discern if ever at all.Weir succeeds in conveying a sense of consciousness in nature phenomenon. In fact the weather appears to be separate character with it's own distinct visage and voice. This is the films greatest achievement.The film sets everything up well but ultimately fails to engage us plot. At pivotal moments the key characters motivations are not clear at all. Why does Chamberlains character do that at the end? Why is this place or that thing so special? I really didn't understand the most fundamental plot device until I watched the interview included in the extras. A great film doesn't require Cliff's notes.I think Weir was trying to give us sense of the supernatural and our relation to it by "implying" it through sounds and images. That's good. It works. This is "real". The problem is that the plot is also merely implied. While I was enticed to watch until the end and pleased with the mood of the film in the end there was no payoff.

dfox79 I saw this film yesterday at my local independent cinema. Both its main man, Chamberlain, and the director Weir are unknown to me although I gather from looking around here that both have had pretty illustrious careers.I won't revisit the plot. Lots of other people have already done that. Suffice to say, the film's main strength, for me, was its unsettling ambiance. Much of that has to do with Chamberlain's unfathomable persona and vaguely alien looks. The electronica soundtrack adds to the mood. The script is spartan, with room to breathe, which further adds to the unsettling tone.The special effects are as simplistic as you'd expect from an Australian film made at the back end of the 70s.As someone else has mentioned, the climax "wave" probably suffers as a consequence of budgetary limitations.