The Tracker

Into a painted landscape come four men. Three policemen on horseback, and a native tracker leading them on foot. They are chasing another native, accused of murder, who is occasionally glimpsed in the distance. As they trek further into the wilderness, the fugitive remains elusive, and the brutal aggression of the expedition leader turns the mission sour.

Brilliantly written and directed by Rolf de Heer, this is a great film. Performances by the two main protagonists, David Gulpilil as the Tracker, and Gary Sweet as the Fanatic, are excellent. And the stark beauty of the Australian outback has never been captured so lovingly on film.

As far as Western films go, the Tracker is nothing groundbreaking or particularly accomplished. I'd compare it to Anthony Mann's Naked Spur, another beautiful looking wilderness bounty-hunter film with a primary interest in psychological tension between morally ambiguous characters. Like Naked Spur, there is a trickster figure, an innocent, a veteran trailblazer, and a sadistic military figure. There is plenty of intrigue between characters as new situations arise, but The Tracker lacks the complexity of the screenplay thanks to the director's political heavy-handedness. Gary Sweet's character is not convincing or particularly well developed, as his simplistically evil nature makes him highly predictable and almost comedic. While I enjoyed the music on its own merits, I agree with another commenter that it leaves little room for the viewer to come to his own conclusions about the characters.

On the other hand, there are some great moments, such as the Tracker's improvised trial of the Fanatic, which causes one question how capital punishment becomes perceived as legitimate. The Tracker's adoption of white traditions and religious rites causes us to view him differently than we would otherwise. The circumstances of the Fanatic's dependence upon the Tracker and the Tracker's dependence upon the mercy of the Fanatic create an intrigue that is again reminiscent of the Naked Spur. Aided by the beautiful scenery of the outback, the cinematography is very nice, and the editing is distinctive as the film maintains a slower pace with spacious musical and visual interludes that are sometimes kitschy but occasionally effective. Overall, this was I film that I thoroughly enjoyed, even if the screenplay wasn't as powerful as I had hoped.

I wanted to like this film more than I did - I wanted to be able to rave about it unreservedly, but I couldn't.

First, I loved: David Gulpilil's performance. Such subtle contempt - almost as subtle as the way he actually tracks the landscape. This is an expression that should be seen more often in Australian cinema, just as there should be more opportunities for actors such as Gulpilil to shine. Secondly, I loved the paintings. At moments of transformation or violence (or transformation through violence - three words that sum up the history of the Australian continent) we were shown a still photograph of powerful, colorful paintings that were obviously (I hope! - I couldn't find a credit for them) by Aboriginal artists.

On the down side, the white actors were not allowed a great deal of subtlety, which was a real shame. In particular, Gary Sweet's character was so one dimensional as to be a little annoying, and I am not sure if this was the writing or the performance. Where was the fear behind the arrogance? Where was the hardness rather than blankness? I know that this was an opportunity for the story of The Tracker to shine, but that is no reason to not have well balanced performances (and writing) for the white characters also - or the story begins to lose its power and punch.

So, on balance, the performance of Gulpilil and the power of the story wins out (also probably motivated by the collective guilty conscience of all Australians) over the one dimensional white characters. A great companion piece to 'Rabbit Proof Fence'.

I stumbled onto this movie during the Palm Springs International Film Festival. When I noticed folks lined up outside the theatre an hour before the movie, I thought I'd join them. What a surprise! The haunting closeups and aerial views of Australia's outback serve to intensify the interactions of the characters. The music can, and does, appear overpowering at times, but along with an ocasionally inserted "painting", helps dramatize aborigine culture, a key to the film's intent. If you're tired of the usual american formulaic movie, but aren't into the hassle of reading subtitles, this may be for you.

In 2002, Philip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence attacked the Australian government's policy of forcibly removing mixed race Aborigines from their families, sending them to government camps to be sold as servants, converted to Christianity, and eventually assimilated into white society. Just released on DVD and set six years earlier in 1922, Australian Indie director Rolf de Heer's The Tracker is a parable that also explores racism in Australia but on an even darker level, reflecting, according to de Heer, the practices and attitudes of that era towards the Aboriginal people. As three white men and an Aboriginal tracker set out on horseback to search for a black fugitive (Noel Wilton) accused of killing a white woman, the search through the stunning landscape of the Flinders Ranges becomes an exercise in savagery that raises questions about genocide.

The travelers in the search party are nameless and referred to only as The Fanatic (Gary Sweet), The Follower (Damon Gameau), and The Veteran (stuntman Grant Page). They are characters who are both individuals and archetypes who seem to represent racial discrimination and its passive acceptance. The Fanatic is the pompous police officer who is shown as repulsively intolerant of blacks and an individual that will not hesitate to kill. The Follower is his young and innocent assistant who is startled by The Fanatic's relentless racism yet too inexperienced to make a move. The Veteran is an old timer who will not challenge authority.

In The Tracker, De Heer employs two effective and original touches. One is the use of ten original songs composed by Graham Tardif, with lyrics by de Heer, and performed by Archie Roach, an Aboriginal singer who sounds like Tom Waits. Like the Neil Young score in Jim Jarmusch's subversive Western, Dead Man, the continual music can be intrusive but it creates a mood of solemnity. In another device, de Heer cuts away from scenes of violence to show still shots of Peter Coad paintings done in a simple primitive style. The raw emotion of Roach's songs and Coad's expressive artwork establish a record of the horror and allow us to relate to the mythic quality of the drama.

The Tracker plays the part of a fool saying to the officer "Yes, Boss. Okay Boss" yet, like Feste in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, he is a knowing fool, a man of humor and irony and an instinctive intelligence about the natural world, its spirits and its sacred places. When The Fanatic tells him to show The Follower the signs he is following, he points to one stone in a field of thousands saying, "Dis stone in the wrong place, belong over here", underneath almost dry, he gone couple of hours." revealing knowledge of the place of every stone. We know that The Tracker, though outwardly subservient, is the one who is really in charge and that the search party would be lost without him. As The Fanatic forces The Follower and The Veteran to participate in murder, the groundwork is laid for revenge and retribution.

The Tracker is a beautiful and powerful film that bears witness to the time when there was no talk of Aboriginal reconciliation and no hope for it. Damon Gameau shows great promise as the young man who has developed that rare quality called conscience and we identify with his strength of character. The highlight performance of the film, however, is that of charismatic native actor David Gulpilul. He portrays a man of simple dignity, not a "noble savage" or a faithful "Jacky Jacky" figure necessary to white dominance of the frontier but simply a man who has a profound sense of the world around him. Through him de Heer allows us to glimpse the possibility of establishing a true multi-racial society where people respect each other as equals.