Director Peter Weir has said that The Last Wave explores the question, “What if someone with very pragmatic approach to life experienced a premonition?”
Grade: B
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Australian poster
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Set in Sydney, the Australian mystery drama concerns a white solicitor whose seemingly normal life is disrupted after he takes on murder case and discovers that he shares a strange, mystical connection with the local Aboriginal people accused of the crime.
The film opens with a montage of daily life in Australia, such as rural school in the desert with children playing, main street of an outback town, traffic jam in the city.
All the events are affected by the sudden appearance of unusually adverse weather conditions. Heavy rainfall followed by hail break through the windows of the school injuring students, a frog infestation and other anomalies.
Only the local Aboriginal people seem to recognize the cosmological significance of these weather phenomena.
During a freak rainstorm in Sydney, an altercation occurs among a group of Aboriginals which results in mysterious drowning death. At the coroner’s inquest, the death is ruled a homicide and the Aboriginals are accused of murder.
Through the Australian Legal Aid system, the lawyer David Burton (Chamberlain) is procured for their defense. Due to internal politics and the divide between the European settlers and Indigenous people, the circumstances by which he was contacted are unusual–his law practice is corporate taxation, not criminal defense.
Though reluctant at first, he is intrigued by the challenge and takes on the case, which leads to the unraveling of his professional and personal life.
Burton starts having bizarre dreams about running water, drowned corpses, and being visited by one of the incarcerated Aboriginals, Chris Lee (David Gulpilil), whom he had never met.
When later introduced to the four accused men, he recognizes Lee and begins to sense an otherworldly connection to him and the strange weather phenomena.
His dreams intensify along with his obsession with the murder case and he comes to suspect that the murder was an Aboriginal tribal execution in which a curse is put on the victim by pointing a bone at him.
Lee refuses to admit he is tribal or reveals anything about the murder but tells Burton that his dreams have meaning because he is “Mulkurul,” descended from race of spirits who came from the rising sun bringing sacred objects. \
After meeting with the shaman of Lee’s tribe and learning more about Aboriginal practices and the concept of Dreamtime as a parallel world of existence, Burton comes to believe that his dreams and the strange heavy rain are signs of a coming apocalypse.
Burton senses danger and persuades his wife to leave the city with their children before a torrential storm causes a flooding disaster.
In the chaos of the flood, Lee escapes from prison and takes Burton with him down through subterranean tunnels under the city which lead to a sacred Aboriginal ritual site.
Burton realizes that he can never go back to his old life after what had just happened. The look of shock and acceptance on his face is accompanied by footage of a surreal towering ocean wave/
It remains unclear whether it is real or just Burton’s final apocalyptic premonition.
Weir considered two Australian actors to play the lead but eventually decided to go with Richard Chamberlain.
The film played in the 1977 Tehran Film Fest, where it won the Golden Ibex prize.
The Last Wave was not as popular as Weir’s 1975 Picnic at Hanging Rock, but still grossed $1,258,000 at the box office in Australia.
United Artists decided not to release the film, but it was picked up by World Northal and distributed as Black Rain.
Cast
Richard Chamberlain as David Burton
Olivia Hamnett as Annie Burton
David Gulpilil as Chris Lee
Fred Parslow as Reverend Burton
Vivean Gray as Dr Whitburn
Nandjiwarra Amagula as Charlie
Walter Amagula as Gerry Lee
Roy Bara as Larry
Cedrick Lalara as Lindsey
Morris Lalara as Jacko
Peter Carroll as Michael Zeadler
Athol Compton as Billy Corman
Credits:
Directed by Peter Weir
Screenplay by Weir, Tony Morphett, Petru Popescu
Produced by Hal and Jim McElroy
Production companies: Australian Film Commission
Distributed by United Artists
Release date: December 13, 1977
Running time: 106 minutes
Budget A$818,000
Box office: A$1.258 million (Australia); $866,250 (US)
