One Paragraph Movie Review: The Last Wave

Three hundred and eighteenth film: The Last Wave, a 1977 Peter Weir thriller starring David Gulpilil and Richard Chamberlain that’s flooded with themes and water in equal measure. A white lawyer tasked with defending indigenous men on trial for murder has spooky prophetic dreams about deluges, tidal waves, tribal symbols and Gulpilil. For the 70s, the themes still hit pretty hard — different cultures’ relationships with nature, white settlers’ relationship with original Australians, and cultural differences when it comes to crime, punishment, and dream interpretation. By doing his research and consulting the right people Weir managed some impressive authenticity, but his artistic licence-y additions of extra bits of Dreamtime mythology and a genuinely odd “sacred place” underground in Bondi with Aztec-style wall paintings and large stone figure carvings landed in a weird, prickly place. Great blurring of reality, myth, and dream sequences, some pretty good effects like a submerged Sydney street and an outback hailstorm, a solid yarn, and a bare bum. Three and a half overflowing bathtubs out of five.