Die letzte Flut (1977)

Die letzte Flut: Directed by Peter Weir. With Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, David Gulpilil, Frederick Parslow. A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualized taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing things about himself and premonitions.

“u0026#39;The Last Waveu0026#39; is far more than the sum of its parts. Itu0026#39;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 u0026#39;Picnic At Hanging Rocku0026#39; two years earlier, that you will continue to remember years later.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhen 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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNo doubt the reason why u0026#39;Picnic At Hanging Rocku0026#39; is better remembered is because of its enduring mystery. We are led along the same path but forced to find answers for ourselves. In u0026#39;The Last Waveu0026#39;, 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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn 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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePut 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.”