User reviews

'The Last Wave' is far more than the sum of its parts. It's not merely a disaster film, not simply an exploration into Australian Aboriginal spirituality, and certainly more than a simple court drama. Writer/Director Peter Weir manages to take these elements to the next level to produce a truly effective and thought-provoking film with the same eerie atmosphere he gave to 'Picnic At Hanging Rock' two years earlier, that you will continue to remember years later.

When lawyer David Burton (Chamberlain) is called to defend Chris Lee (Gulpilil) over the death of an Aboriginal for which he may or may not be directly responsible, he finds himself not merely struggling to get the truth from Lee, but making sense of what he hears when it does come. As with the Aboriginal belief that there are two worlds - the everyday and the Dreamtime, the truth exists on two completely different levels, with ramifications more disastrous than Burton could ever have imagined.

No doubt the reason why 'Picnic At Hanging Rock' is better remembered is because of its enduring mystery. We are led along the same path but forced to find answers for ourselves. In 'The Last Wave', we can piece everything together by the end of the film. However, even with all the information, we have to choose how much of it we want to believe, because the film takes us beyond the borders of our normal realities.

On the production side, Weir uses his budget to great effect, progressively building a sense of doom in everything from soft lighting, to heavy rain, to good use of sound. The incidental music is unobtrusive, never trying to be grandiose. Richard Chamberlain manages to convey the bafflement the audience would doubtless feel as he tries to unravel the mystery. David Gulpilil excellently portrays a man trapped between two worlds, wanting to do the right thing, but afraid because he already knows the ending.

Put all these things together, and you have a perfect example of why David Weir is a familiar name in cinema thirty years on. Strongly recommended.

"The Last Wave" is one of those movies that relies heavily on the mind. The title refers to the Aboriginal doomsday theory: there will be one last wave that wipes out everything.

David Burton (Richard Chamberlain) is a Sydney lawyer hired to defend some Aborigines accused of murder. Around this time, there has been unusually heavy rainfall in Australia. While defending the Aborigines, David learns the last wave theory, and begins to wonder whether it's just mythology.

The movie's last sequence is a metaphor for descending into the depths of one's mind. Peter Weir created a perplexing, but thought-provoking, movie. Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil (whom you may have seen in "Walkabout", "Crocodile Dundee" and "Rabbit-Proof Fence") provides an interesting supporting role as one of the defendants.

If you get a chance, watch the "making of" feature on the DVD. Peter Weir explains some of the film's undertones, some of which relate to Richard Chamberlain's background.

Peter Weir's first international success, THE LAST WAVE is an effective chiller with a fascinating back story based on Aboriginal myth. Richard Chamberlain is quite good as a defense lawyer whose life becomes increasingly unmoored from reality as he delves into a murder case involving Aboriginal tribal rivalries. David Gulpilil plays one of the suspects, who does his best to guide Chamberlain thru the realm of 'Dreamtime', an alternate reality/timeline central to native Australian history and tribal custom. Heavy on atmosphere, deliberately ambiguous in plotting, the film builds to an unsettling finale which is somewhat diminished by poor effects, probably due to budgetary limitations. Nevertheless an intriguing film whose overall impression of mystery and dread lurking just below the surface of what we perceive as 'reality' will stay with you.

"Pretentious" seems a popular word amongst reviewers of this thought-provoking film. HOW I wonder would "they" have made it, given the opportunity? I am saved from further contemplation along these lines by the fact that Peter Weir made it.....and rather well, I hasten to add.

A worthy successor to PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK in as much as the viewer is left with his or her own interpretation of what they have just seen. Events occuring in an everyday environment but where the line between fantasy and reality is so blurred, no lens can be found to bring up a sharp focus. It is a disturbing film which highlights and pays homage to the Aboriginal dreamtime.

Chamberlain, in one of his best roles (made even better when you reminisce about the celluloid embarrassments BELLS, KING SOLOMON'S MINES and NIGHT OF THE HUNTER) plays a hot-shot Australian attorney (complete with DR KILDARE accent) who is called upon to defend a small group of Tribal Aborigines on what appears to be an "open and shut case" murder charge. Initially he finds his clients anything but co-operative and seemingly disinterested by the threat of the white man's legal system. Aspects of the case begin to disturb him and he is drawn into a world of ancient beliefs, symbolic half-lives, a very dimension that causes him to question his own comfortable existence and purpose. Central to his dreams is one of the Defendants (brilliantly played by Australian actor David Gulpilil) who appears existentially, perhaps a disembodied spirit (?), holding out to him a sacred stone with ancient cabalistic markings. He learns that the aboriginal man who was killed was the victim of tribal law and that he must not, cannot, intervene.

The nightmare spills over into real-time...black rain, (we have already witnessed hailstones crashing into a tiny outback school from cloudless skies!) water prophetically leaking through his roof and cascading down the stairs. Visions of a great flood. He becomes obssessed with seeking the truth, not only of what is going on around him, but who he is? The scene where he confronts the Head Tribal Elder in his inner city squat is totally chilling. The viewer's own close and comfortable existence is challenged and put up for re-evaluation here.

Eventually and too late of course, he stumbles across the truth. But IS it? Has he been played for a fool? Has the audience? Much was made at the time of the film's release, that the final scenes were a total cop-out. I even thought as much myself at the opening night. Amazing what a almost a quarter of a century's personal development and insight can do for you. Like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, this film needs to be seen at different stages of your life to appreciate what Peter Weir knew and was trying to say in 1977.

It doesn't happen too often that a film has such a powerful and promising opening sequence as here in "The Last Wave". Playtime at a little countryside school in central Australia, during a sunny & cloudless November day, gets brutally interrupted when a ferocious hailstorm breaks loose and practically destroys the classroom. What an amazing start, especially if - like me - you have a fondness for cataclysmic situations and ecologic horror!

The plot then moves to big-city Sydney, but also there is heavily and non-stop raining the entire time, through which writer/director Peter Weir creates a foreboding and genuinely unsettling atmosphere. In Sydney another crucial theme of the film comes to the surface, namely an extreme clash in cultures. In one of the greatest roles of his career, Richard Chamberlain depicts lawyer David Burton, defending five aboriginals accused of murdering one of their own. Whilst getting more and more persuaded they are forming a traditional tribe within the city, Burton sees one of the aboriginal in his dreams and suffers from increasingly apocalyptic premonitions. It's almost as if our white liberal lawyer is spiritually connected to the aboriginal deity Mulkurul; - but the rebirth of Mulkurul goes hand in hand with the Armageddon!

"The Last Wave" doesn't necessarily has the most plausible script, and is quite honestly a hodgepodge of loose ideas, but Peter Weir is such a fantastic storyteller, and he makes such excellent use of locations, set-pieces, music and the rich Australian culture/history. Notably the extended sequences guided by constant didgeridoo tunes are sending shivers down the spine, and some of Burton's visions are also very depressing. The final, say, 10-15 minutes are a bit disappointing in my humble opinion, but nevertheless a recommendable Aussie cult film.

Richard Chamberlain is David Burton, a tax lawyer living in Sydney, Australia who is drawn into a murder trial defending five Aboriginal men accused of murdering a fellow native in Peter Weir's apocalyptic 1977 thriller The Last Wave. Taking up where Picnic at Hanging Rock left off, the film goes deeper into exploring the unknown and, in the process, shows the gulf between two cultures who live side by side but lack understanding of each others culture and traditions. Weir shows how white society considers the native beliefs to be primitive superstitions and believes that since they are living in the cities and have been "domesticated", their tribal laws and culture no longer apply.

From the start, Burton is drawn deeper and deeper into a strange web of visions and symbols where the line between real time and "dream time" evaporates. Water plays an important symbolic role in the film from the opening sequence in which a sudden thunder and hailstorm interrupts a peaceful school recess to Burton's discovery that his bathtub is overflowing and water is pouring down his steps. As violent and unusual weather continue with episodes of black rain and mud falling from the sky, the contrast between the facile scientific explanations of the phenomenon and the intuitive understanding of the natives is made clear. Burton and his wife Annie (Olivia Hamnet) study books about the Aborigines and learn about the role of dreams in the tribal traditions. When he invites one of his clients Chris Lee (David Gulpilil) to his home for dinner, he is disturbed to find that he is the subject of an inquiry by Chris and his friend Charlie (Nadjiwarra Amagula), an enigmatic Aborigine sorcerer involved with the defendants. As Burton's investigation continues, his clients make his work difficult by refusing to disclose the true events surrounding the murder.

After Chris starts to appear in his dreams, Burton is convinced that the Aborigine was killed in a tribal ritual because "he saw too much", though Chris refuses to acknowledge this in court. Burton, becoming more and more troubled by a mystery he cannot unravel, says to his stepfather priest, "Why didn't you tell me there were mysteries?" This is a legitimate question but, according to the reverend, the Church answers all mysteries. Burton knows now that he must discover the truth for himself and enters the tribal underground caves. Though we do not know for certain what is real and what is a dream, he comes face to face with his deepest fears in a haunting climax that will leave you pondering its meaning into the wee hours of the morning.

In this period of history in which native Hopi and Mayan prophecies predict the "end of history" and the purification of man leading to the Fifth World, The Last Wave, though 25 years old, is still timely. The Aborigines are portrayed as a vibrant culture, not one completely subjugated by the white man, yet I am troubled by the gnawing feeling that we are looking in but not quite seeing. Weir has opened our eyes to the mystery that lies beyond our consensual view of reality, but he perpetuates the doom-orientation that sees possibility only in terms of fear, showing nature as a dark and uncontrollable power without a hint of the spiritual beauty that lives on both sides of time.

THE LAST WAVE is never going to win over the mainstream audience. It is a slow-moving but fascinating film for those who are willing to go along with it. An Australian properties lawyer is asked to take on the case of five aborigines accused in the murder of one of their own. All sorts of portents and omens soon pop up, as the man's death involves a tribal issue that was not meant for white man's court, and pretty soon the lawyer is having trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy. It looks like the end of the world may be at hand, and he and the aborigines may know this but no one else does. Richard Chamberlain as the lawyer is at his peak here. David Guptil, a familiar face from several other Australian flicks and a decent actor, is one of the five aborigines on trial. THE LAST WAVE is simply not for everyone, anymore than is MAGNOLIA (both happen to have strange things falling from the sky). Check it out on a slow Saturday night.

This supernatural Peter Weir thriller is truly one of the most haunting and fascinating movies ever seen. Richard Chamberlain does his best performance here as the Australian lawyer who defends a group of young Aborigins accused of murder. As he gets closer on the case, he discovers more about the main defendant, Chris, and not least about himself. Chris tells him that he is a Mulkurul, which appear to be a race of supernatural beings that lived in Australia thousands of years ago. At the same time, extraordinary high rainfall seems to confirm the Aboriginal prophecy of the coming of the LAST WAVE, the one that will drown the world.

The dream sequences and the supernatural effects enhance this movie and make it a spectacular experience. Olivia Hamnett and David Gulpilil are solid in the supporting roles, as well as the chap with the difficult name who plays Charlie, the old Aborigin who can turn into an owl. The climax and the ending don't disappoint, in contrast to many other supernatural thrillers who fall flat after a promising hour or so. However, this can not be called a pure thriller. It is a drama as well and talks about spirituality and spiritual identity in the modern world. A masterful work by Peter Weir, the master of visually stunning dramas.

I just watched "The Last Wave" in my school's fine arts library. It's intriguing, like all Peter Weir's stuff, but it's not always as attention-holding as I would have liked. I found myself fascinated by the ideas being thrown at me (because they are very well handled by the film's director Weir)but at the same time I was not stimulated enough by them. AKA I got a little bored in spots.

The plot surrounds an Aussie lawyer who becomes obsessed with certain dreams he has which link him to an Aborigone group he is defending.

It starts out with an intense weather sequence and has some very awesome mood effects throughout (most notably the bizarre, "belching" sound design)and strong direction; but it just didn't entertain me like Weir's later films do. I might just need to watch it again though.

Good film about obsession and mystery. Because, in the end, the mystery that exists between the whites and the Aboriginies offers some very severe consequences.

God bless Peter Weir, though. For him alone this film is worth watching ... very organic director. Like an Aussie response Malick! I'd give it a 7 because it's got enough great ideas to overcome its boring moments.

In Australia, four Aborigine men stand accused of causing the death of, or perhaps murdering, one of their own; a white taxation lawyer becomes involved, but he can't seem to break through to the secretive defendants--nor can he shake the feeling that something is terribly amiss in his own life, which is juxtaposed by the freaky-wet weather. Would-be apocalyptic mishmash from director and co-writer Peter Weir begins with a marvelously spooky sequence in the schoolyard (where hailstones fall from a cloudless sky), yet the eerie beauty of that opening is allowed to dribble away in a melodramatic study of class and race guilt--the wealthy and powerful whites versus the poor black Aboriginals--underscored with supernatural flourishes. Weir wants to be profound and serious, so there's nothing intrinsically mysterious or exciting about the lawyer's prophetic dreams, nor his relationships with the Aborigine tribe or his wife and daughters. A potentially fascinating situation is kept ominously mundane, while lead actor Richard Chamberlain drifts through in an anxious fog. *1/2 from ****

Across the great divide which we call understanding, there is still much we do not know about that which was explained by the early tribal Elders. In every instance, there is much concerning the dangers of knowing too much. Conversely, there are those who warn us of not preparing for what they warn is the 'End Time.' In this movie called " The Last Wave " an aboriginal native is murdered for no apparent reason. When those responsible are arrested, they remain silent less they disturb the order of things. David Burton (Richard Chamberlain) plays the Defense Attorney assigned to defend the accused. Although haunted by prophetic images from his own childhood and warned by modern signs given to him by an sympathetic Aboriginal named Chris Lee (David Gulpilil), Burton proceeds to defend the infraction as Tribal Law and therefore not subject to standard justice. The movie is fraught with puzzling, dark foreboding images of apocalyptic end world disasters and warns of a future island tsunami and doom. Black drama and deep rituals are what gives this film it's frightening allure and therefore is not for the faint-hearted, in fact the simplest haunting apparitions can last for years in the nightmares of innocent movie goers. Good silent drama. ****

This movie really starts off promising alright but the movie in the end is being still a slightly disappointing one, with its eventual end result.

I just didn't liked what and where the story was heading to. I was really interested at first, when the story grabs you with its original mystery but soon the story starts to go downhill, due to the direction it's starting to take with its story. At first the movie makes you go; that's interesting! But in the end it makes you go; who cares! In that regard "The Last Wave" is being a slightly disappointing movie. The movie just doesn't do a very great job with keeping your interest, which is also due to the, at times, messy storytelling. Lots of things don't get resolved, or explained properly enough.

Still it's a movie that deserves lots of credits. Even though the story doesn't always work out and doesn't manage to be an interesting one throughout, it's still a very original and refreshing one. This is definitely a one of a kind movie, that balances somewhere between a more art-house type of movie and a regular '70's thriller/mystery.

The movie also does work out refreshing due to its settings. This is an Australian movie, that is also being set in Australia. So next to its 'change' of settings, the movie also features some different from Hollywood type of characters. Aboriginals also play a large role within this movie and mainly so does their culture.

The movie gets for most part carried by its leading man, Richard Chamberlain. He does a great job at it. He has never been an actor that has broken through big time but he basically is a guy that does a great job with any type of role that he plays.

It's a movie that I have some mixed feelings about but still, overall the positive and original aspects of this movie outweigh its negative and less successful sides.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

An interesting premise, with civil law vs. tribal law, and a culture clash so imbedded in a society that it lingers even in the soul (?) of an otherwise unassuming lawyer. However, The Last Wave bogs down in a muddled narrative and loses itself in dark dream/chase scenes that come too late to salvage a story that moves at the rate of molasses. I like Weir, and I can see plenty of Weir-ness here, but this movie taxed my patience.

I am a big fan of this film and may not be able to make a coherent case for it, especially after reading some of the lukewarm comments some of the viewers offer. I agree that some of the themes could have been developed better, and think that the ending smacks of a "Planet of the Apes" solution to a mystery, yet this film is superb for its relentless atmosphere of otherworldly possibility.

Perhaps I associate this film with the strangeness of the 1970's, when Pyramid Power, UFO cults, and interest in occult phenomena occupied much of popular culture. Weir plays on the apocalyptic feelings of many in that decade with his shots of mud falling from the skies and other phenomena. One of my all time favorite scenes is when Charlie the shaman visits the urbane upper-middle class household of Richard Chamberlain et al. and asks to see the family photo album. I still get chills up my spine thinking of that one.

An element that I enjoyed is the counter-intuitive idea that "there are no tribal aborigines" living in Australian cities...they are all assimilated into the European worldview. This opinion, asserted by the most prominent aborigine in the movie, is subverted bit by bit until the very structure of European logic (as represented by the lawyer Chamberlain) is completely undermined by the end of the movie. Another amazing touch is the juxtaposition of the aboriginal sacred cave complex and what the Europeans are using it for, and Chamberlains descent into all that darkness.

Don't try viewing this one on a commercial channel, it will make very little sense broken up in pieces. Rent it, suspend disbelief a little, and enjoy.

The Last Wave is an excellent example of a director taking a subject that I couldn't be less interested in and making it mildly worthwhile. The bland Richard Chamberlain stars as David Burton, a lawyer in Sydney who has to defend five Aborigines against a murder charge. This could have been a compelling thriller, with themes of racial injustice and the works, but instead it focuses so heavily on the fact that the murder was a ritual one by their tribe and it delves deep into the supernatural element of it all.

The film goes heavily into this tribe and an epic prophecy about the rain coming and all of that, but I honestly got incredibly lost in the whole thing. Maybe it was my lack of interest in the subject matter that led me to fall so far behind, but I don't think the script did a solid job of getting the knowledge across. So when the epic final sequence came, I was impressed on a technical level but still didn't understand much of what was happening. Some of the blame could be removed from the script though and placed on Chamberlain, who is such a dull lead performer that it would be hard for anyone to focus on this character. There are some moments built around Burton's family that could have been touching, but when you don't care at all about the character it's kind of hard to care about his struggles with his family.

Still, I'm giving the film a slightly positive rating thanks to Weir's direction, which despite my lack of interest was able to impress several times. It takes a lot to leave me thinking about a film whose story I couldn't care less about, and that goes to show the skill of Weir's work here. As with all of his films, there are several powerful sequences that are staged with expert precision on his part. Throughout the film Burton experiences terrifying dreams of the Aborigines and these sequences get right underneath your skin and create an eerie sensation for the whole picture. They are appropriately chilling and set up the entire tone, constantly leaving you in suspense. I just wish that the story itself had been half as gripping as the individual sequences.

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.

A crushing hailstorm in Sydney, Australia is bad enough to injure schoolchildren. Heavy rains continue while successful lawyer Richard Chamberlain (as David Burton) dines with his wife Olivia Hamnett (as Annie) and two little daughters. Upstairs, their bathtub overflows, causing water to run down the stairway. The taps seem to have turned on by themselves. The rains continue to slam down on residents as Mr. Chamberlain agrees to defend five Aborigines (native Australians) accused of drowning a man...

Chamberlain is startled upon meeting one of his five wayward clients, eerie David Gulpilil (as Chris Lee), who previously appeared to him in a dream or vision. When even more mysterious Nandjiwarra Amagula (as Charlie) appears, the plot thickens. The rain turns darker...

"The Last Wave" is an interesting take on the Sumerian "Flood Story" re-told in tales of Gilgamesh and Noah. It seems appropriate that a fourth flood (by one count, anyway) should herald an Apocalypse. Although story gets washed away in hocus pocus; it is thought-provoking, well directed by Peter Weir, and beautifully photographed by Russell Boyd. You could probably come up with several better endings; a simple re-editing of what is there would be more satisfying and less confusing.

******* The Last Wave (11/5/77) Peter Weir ~ Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, David Gulpilil, Nandjiwarra Amagula

The last wave is also known as Black Rain... written and directed by Peter Weir. He was nominated for six bloody oscars... should have won for a couple of them! This film was way before any of those. Richard Chamberlain is Burton, who will be defending five men of aboriginal descent, accused of killing a man. The group of defendants is led by Chris Lee (David Gulpilil). Tradition and history are very important to the group of men. It's all connected to a cycle of dreams, a reality that's more real than everyday life to the tribal groups. Burton wants to help the group, but they won't discuss what happened, so it will be hard to defend them. On top of that, they advise him to walk away from this case,as knowing too much could be fatal. A conundrum. Will any of the defendants help him help them?

While to most people watching the movie, this will be of little interest, but out of the many hundreds of movies dealing with magic and the occult in one form or another, this one is probably the best in many ways.

From The Golem to The Craft the subject seems to be of endless interest to the movie industry. The majority of movies which touch on it in any way do so childishly (for example "Witchboard", a true piece of utter garbage in every way) either taking the transcendental elements as cheap excuses for cheesy special effects or cardboard cutout villians (cf "Warlock"). More frequently the subject comes up in an hysterical religious context (in the various Revelations-oriented movies, the antichrist is inevitably an advocate of some kind of new-age style practice). Rarely, a movie seems to show at least some passing experience with magic as it is practiced in real life, but the presentation of the occult in such movies can at best be described as allegorical and not literal, or symbolic, or ... just not quite right.

I watched this movie again after many years tonight. I had seen it before on VHS; it is a dark, moody piece, and after watching it on DVD, I would say if you have any intention to watch this movie, watch it on DVD, don't watch it on VHS.

The darkness and moodiness are overpowering in VHS but in DVD the movie takes on a very different tone. I think Weir pushed the dark aspects intentionally for style, but when the movie is converted to the lower color medium of VHS this goes over the edge. DVD brings the movie to life again and I saw it differently.

Anyway, seeing it as if for the first time, I realized that the treatment of magic is extremely good in this movie. It's difficult to go into all the reasons why, I don't care to take the time to do so.

For anybody who's curious, anyway, if you want to see what it is like in real life, this movie is just very right on countless levels.

And for anybody who isn't, you really wasted a lot of time reading to this point.

For his follow-up to 1975's Picnic at Hanging Rock, Peter Weir did a good job of crafting a new film that utilizes some of the same themes but stands on its own. The Last Wave is one part courtroom drama and one part disaster flick with some supernatural horror and a lot of suspense mixed in.

The cinematography is excellent, an early scene involving a hail storm in the desert particularly stood out. The acting is good if not spectacular, I thought Charlie (Nandjiwarra Amagula) was particularly essential even though he doesn't speak much and isn't a professional actor. Overall the story isn't quite as mesmerizing as PaHR, Weir might have benefited from periodically relieving the building suspense as proof against losing the audience.

As an American I found the movie's look at the racial climate of Australia in 1977 quite interesting. In particular the white Australians' understanding and acceptance of Aboriginal beliefs is called into question.

Having just recently experienced, through the news at least, a catastrophic tsunami this film seemed especially vital. I think I can still get away without a spoiler warning if I say The Last Wave deals with man's relationship to nature and the idea that at any time a civilization may be wiped out.

I struggled with this one, despite the sincere attempt to treat Aboriginals with respect and the casting, which included David Gulpilil. The plot is too disjoint and includes a murder trial that adds nothing, and the pacing is often slow, so just at a basic level, it was tough to stay engaged. As for the clash of cultures, I loved the apocalyptic vision and the sense that in a mysterious way it ties to something that the white Australians can't fathom, but it also seemed to emphasize the primitive other-ness of the aboriginals. Put another way, the story was not a good vehicle to lead up to that wonderful ending. I lack knowledge of these cultures and the dynamic between them so I may not have appreciated this properly, however, and it should probably get some credit for having been made in 1977.