Mediocre Herzog film that doesn't feel at all like a Herzog film should.

As good a showcase for all of Herzog's strengths and weaknesses as any of his films, really.

69.000

The Last Wave meets Local Hero. Werner Herzog style. A beautiful and ponderous movie.

A decent film. Bruce Spence seems capable of playing more interesting characters than this, though (I've only seen him in a couple of Mad Max films besides this...I think he was one of the Strangers in DARK CITY, too). I'd like to see him do another film with Herzog.

Alarmingly mainstream for Herzog. One can imagine Paul Newman in the Bruce Spence role, or maybe Jeff Goldblum. It's got some of Herzog's usual fascinations (ethnography, nature, airplanes) but you might not guess it was one of his movies if you didn't know beforehand. Not that there's anything wrong with a director trying to break out of his style, but it's jarring (and somewhat disappointing) to see him tackle such a conventional "message" movie. Kind of ho-hum but it has moments.

It shows both sides and builds a gripping story with some astonishing scenery shots.

I suppose this is a traditional sort of narrative for Herzog [it's certainly no Heart of Glass / Even Dwarfs Started Small], but he doesn't exactly handle it in the simplest way. Aborigines are also something of an interesting topic for me so this had little room to go wrong.