MovieChat Forums > Walkabout (1971) Discussion > The death of the animals, part II

The death of the animals, part II


This might sound a bit stupid, but here goes... I've wanted to see this movie for a while now, but I've been put off by the thought of a potentially disturbing scene. You see, I'm usually very (VERY) sensitive about animal deaths, in fiction as well as in real life.

Is it heartbreaking? Is it violent? (If you try to put yourselves in my shoes, that is...) Does it compare to any scenes in any other movies I might have seen?

Thanks to anyone who might bother to answer! :)

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We see a number of animals killed in the film, both with good reason from the point of view of human survival and with compassion for nature, and in a violent and unnecessary manner. Without wishing to spoil the film I can't give much more away - I wouldn't say that this is an entirely dominant theme, though.

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[deleted]

"The animal that is shot, then the shot is reversed and it comes back to life"

Re: above quote - I think its shots like this which date the film terribly. I'm sure at the time, in the early seventies they looked great, but the some of the so called 'effects' are laughable. The shots of the butcher cutting the meat spliced in with the Aborigine slaughtering the kangaroo is another example. Reminiscent of another (extremely over-rated) film from this era - 'Easy Rider'.

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I agree that the film has dated badly due to some of the editing and camera effects. I didn't think that particular scene was too bad and when I think of it I can't really think of a modern scene of a similar nature.

I'm baffled by your comment about Easy Rider though. I can see how it's not to everyones taste and that it may be over rated in your opinion but there are no real special effects used in that film. Maybe some strange editing that would have been very original at the time and I believe remains original to this day.

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Your comment on the film is also laughable, you're not supposed to be watching this with a critical eye about the "effects" or how the film has been edited. The construction of the film - how it plays out - is part of the story. I just watched the film tonight in 2006 (first time I seen it in about 10 years) and it moved me a hell of a lot more than any of the crap that comes out of Hollywood today. If this film was made today exactly as it is now it would still be an excellent film.

Oh and Easy Rider....another fantastic film!

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Agree with carpet_seller 100%.

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The buffalo shooting was not for human survival or compassion and the way those scenes are framed makes criticism for the hunters clear.

Ever tried, ever failed?
No matter.
Try again, fail again.
Fail better.

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I don't think it does criticise the hunters. The hunters probably sell the meat at the market so in that sense they are not doing it for personal survival but the point of that scene is that civilization still sustains itself in the same primitive way it always has done. We may have a middle man for the meat we consume but I think that scene is meant to show that being civilized does not make us any better. When it comes down to it we still kill for food, albeit indirectly.

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I saw criticism of the hunters in the scenes that showed the buffalo they shot just rotting on the ground.

They also seemed to shoot at other animals, willy nilly.

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Is that supposed to be the same buffalo? I don't think it is. It shows the hunters gutting it and driving around with one on their truck. Also I don't think they shoot at other animals "willy nilly": the scene of the buffalo that is shot is repeated several times over but simply shown from other perspectives. Also, the main purpose of the rotting buffalo seems to be to show the maggots consuming the flesh. I think the film hints at something much deeper, that death serves an ultimate purpose; that things must die for other things to live. This is true of any biological organism, we all require organic matter to survive. The hunting scenes (both the Aborigine and the white hunters) along with the maggots consuming the rotting buffalo seem to encapsulate a universal truth rather than a criticism. At least, that's the way it comes across to me anyway, but I guess everyone has their own interpretation.

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Don't watch Apocalypse Now.

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Or Cannibal Holocaust. ESPECIALLY Cannibal Holocaust...

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it doesn't sound stupid, silly girl blue. but please ask yourself two questions. #1. how many human deaths have you seen in movies,(admittedly no ACTUAL death takes place, but it often portrays in gory detail an event that did happen in reality) and how many reports and scenes of actual human death have you seen on news or other media, and question #2. which sort of death should a human being be more concerned with or outraged over... animal or human? you don't have to like either, but i believe more in the value of Human life...Now, given your sensitivities, i suggest that you don't watch. or at least be aware that the deaths are pretty graphic...but, if you're in the australian outback facing starvation, what should you do? where does a hamburger, steak, or even a fish dinner come from?
just food for thought,
-dj

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First of all, I'm vegan... So I do feel it's my "right" to be concerned about these things.

Second of all, I'm fully aware of my double standards! I have no problem watching people getting killed in movies, but when it comes to animals I'm ridiculously sensitive. There's no good way of explaining it... I usually don't mind animal deaths in comedies and funny settings though, it's the sort of epic deaths and the ones that really play off my feelings that get to me. And I just can't watch Animal Planet! :P

Even in the news, I usually react stronger to seeing animals suffer. They are totally in our mercy (as are many people, I know that) and the animal abuse is so widespread and accepted. After all, they're on our dinner plates and wrapped around our bodys.

But just to clarify: If I were in a situation where I had to choose between rescuing an animal and a human being, I would OF COURSE save the human, no question about it. Human life is precious, but I think we should use the strength of our hearts and minds to make the world a better place for all living creatures...

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Another point-
Human deaths in movies are usually faked. I'm pretty sure that these animal deaths were real.

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Vegan, seeg-gan!

What you chose to eat has nothing to do with evolution, instinctly we are a predator society.

Everything we eat was once alive so one can't say because a plant doesn't scream when you kill it doesn't mean that it's not as alive as the meat being hunted.

We eat to survive, that's just basic nature.

All foods were alive, remember that when one eats into a veggie or meat burger!

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Walkabout is one of my favorite films of all time. its a must see in my opinion. The animal death is quick as mentioned earlier. there is one scene though *Spoiler* where this animal gets slit open and the blood just pours out like my grandmas bathtub faucet. its gross, but its important to the film. makes the guy go crazy. it could be worse....u ever hear of the ittalian cannibal films? cannibal holocaust is the most famous...in that. *dont read if you are going to get disturbed* the americans chop off the legs of a giant turtle, and deshell it while still alive, after cutting off its head. someone also shoves a switchblade through a musktrats head, a cute monkeys head is sliced off. in mountian of the cannibal god, a lizard is skinned alive. (one of the grossest things ive ever seen) in jungle holocaust, they kill a big aligator, and skin it, and show its still beating heart. Affrica Addio is terrible with its animal cruelty, spearing an elephant to death. it takes forever! poor thing! made me sick. The Isle, is a korean film where a woman beats a dog, and drowns a bird, and kills a frog. (good movie though) Men behind the sun shows the death of a cat. So....my point is, there are ALOT of sick movies out there, that show animal CRUELTY, in its sickest form....walkabout however, is not cruel with its actual animal death. its quick, and not exploitive, like in the movies i mentioned earlier. If you havent seen it yet, u really should. its a GREAT movie.

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Reading this whole thread has inspired me to buy a big fat steak for dinner tonight.

I love the movie walkabout, it is a rare film filled with visual metaphors. The scene where the animals are being shot is emphasizing moderns culture of excess and waste whereas the aborigines culture is in harmony with nature.
Go ahead and watch it, just close your eyes at the water buffalo scene.

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I think there is far too much importance placed on human life by society. Just because we're a more intelligaent species and have advanced technologically to survive easily. At the end of the day, we're animals too that must share this planet and we are destroying the balance of nature. It's mostly human actions that cause extinction of species, over use of fossil fuels and destruction of the planet and ozone layer. We have progressed from being animals to being parasites!

That is a completely off the point rant. With regard to the animal death in this film, I wouldn't say it was all very graphic and personally I didn't have a problem with it but, your unlikely to regularly come across another film like this. There are real animal killings. Blood flows and flesh is burned, mostly in the name of survival. The disturbing side of it is:

** SPOILER **

when the white man kills for sport and leaves the animals to rot in the sun.

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Dumb animals are as much parasites as humans. They too must use the earth's resources and kill and destroy to survive. The balance of nature takes care of itself -- it's nature. What is supposed to happen, happens. Also, the ozone layer expands and contracts on its own and scientists don't know why. They also have doubts that we are even disturbing this hole in the ozone and it may have been there all the time and we just didn't take note. When we did, we assumed it was a bad thing when it might actually be perfectly natural and part of nature. Working on CLOSING the hole could actually be counterproductive and going against nature. The extinction of species is natural. Where do you think the dinosaurs went? People shot them for sport? Life is born and lives and dies, that is nature. What is REALLY arrogant is the environmentalists who insist that the earth needs them to save it and who keep interfering with nature and natural processes.

Don't threaten ME with a dead fish!

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Your comment seems quite ignorant. I don't recall hearing of any animal other than human beings destroying an area of rainforest the size of 6 football pitches every second.

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It's also ignorant of the fact that mans manufacture of chemicals and the release of those chemicals into the atmosphere which in turn have been proven to affect the ozone, cannot under any stretch of the imagination be labeled as "natural" or in line with nature.

Stopping the use & release of those chemicals into the atmosphere in an attempt to halt the enlargement of the ozone hole again cannot be described as "going against nature".

The people who are REALLY inerfering with nature and natural processes are certainly NOT the environmentalists, they may do some stupid things which if you've got five minutes perhaps you can tell what it is you are thinking about, BUT overwhelmingly the real CULPRITS in this game are the careless humans who in the name of money and manufacturing spill millions of gallons of chemicals into our rivers and seas every year, recent examples, The 2 spills in one of Chinas rivers recently. The use of mercury in the Amazon basin by gold hunters, etc etc etc.

Where I do agree with you is that life is born life lives life dies, that is the way of things, the Earth has been here billons of years, man in his current form (polluting) has been here only 200 years. When the next ice age arrives (or whatever catastrophe happens before that) the ice wil be unstoppable and will wipe the slate clean in the northern hemisphere, 250,000 years later the ice will again recede and whatever life is here at the time will once again move into the temperate northern hemisphere. Life on Earth will probably ultimately continue no matter what. We are insignificant, and we will be dealt with in one way or another. But it does not make it right to continue to pollute the planet.

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[deleted]

You know that if your ancestors didn't kill and eat animals you probably wouldn't exist, right?
Killing is a part of nature. Killing to eat, killing to survive, it's all natural. At least you didn't say "IS TEHRE NEWDITY CUZ I CANT HANDEL THAT OMG".
P.S.: You really should get a better diet. Meat tastes good.

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But we are still evolving, you know.

(Anyway, I wouldn't mind so much not existing. :P)

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Not if we stop eating meat, you know?

I would mind not existing - A LOT! I need to get laid a lot more before I stop existing; preferrably with another carnivore that looks like a young Jenny Agutter, and not of those crazy vegan chicks (crazy vegan chicks would make me wanna wish to cease to exist)


Do The Mussolini! Headkick!

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I empathise deeply with your concerns Silly girl blue, and I suggest you ignore the more ignorant comments on this thread.

There is some scenes which you might find difficult to watch (eg.animals being decapitated) but they are frew and far between. I still urge you strongly to see it, as it's a very beautifull film - Nic Roeg's best in my opinion. The film is about the contrasts - contrasts between nature and the largely human created (artificial) worlds we now inhabit. But the film is determined to show the HORROR as well as the BEAUTY of the natural world, and so in that context it was necessary to show death, as death is a large part of nature.

A very beautifull film though.

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I agree in the main with what you've said here.

I can't bear to watch a lot of violence or gore (even hospital dramas on TV like Casualty), but I found this (seen for the first time on UK TV last night) was tolerable. The scenes evoke brutal imagery, but are quick too (so you can easily close your eyes) - they tend portray the need to kill to survive but are not graphic or over the top simply for the sake of satisfying bloodlust. The saddest part is the white man and "sport".

I must say, however, that I didn't see any decapitations, so maybe the version I saw was edited, and there is more to it. I saw hunting, butchering, cooking and sport killings. I believe the killings to be real.

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I always have to kind of turn away for a second whenever they show the animals being killed, mainly because as far as I can tell, it looks like it's real, especially killing the lizard which then upchucks, ugh. I have no problem watching stuff like the dog being shot on "Toxic Avenger" or something though, cause it (at least) comes off more fake.

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We don't need meat to survive.

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Still evolving? - are you joking?

Precisely what evolutionary pressures are there nowadays acting on the human gene pool?

Absolutely none!

The only change that will happen to mankind under these circumstances is atrophy. And the first thing to go (under the influence of modern medicine and the cleanliness brigade) will be the immune system.

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What makes you think after millions of years of evolution that the process has now stopped for the human species?

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[deleted]

You know that it's possible to exist WITHOUT killing and eating animals, right?

That's how vegetarians and vegans exist. And we don't starve, we actually live LONGER than meat eaters.

Consuming meat is not merely a matter of "killing".
It is a matter of torture, abuse, and generally the degenerated lack of respect and tolerance for Life.

"It tastes good" is an idiotic excuse/reason for embracing the torture and corruption that is the meat industry.
Which is where the majority of consumed meat comes from, NOT from bows and arrows in an Australian desert.
At which neither place should it be justified that humans resort to murder and torture.

What is natural about slaughtering 40 BILLION animals globally per year?
What is natural about consuming 27.3 BILLION pounds of beef in the US alone?
What is natural about cows being spending their whole lives being raped by machines everyday in cement cubicles?

Why don't you do some research before making such a ridiculous ignorant statement.

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons.
They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.”

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I would say the animal deaths in this film are graphic, but they are also occuring in a very natural way (excluding the shootings at the end). They are not, say, as brutal or disturbing as the slaughterhouse footage in Blood of the Beasts.

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Have you seen apocalypse now? The killing of the cow is similar to what you will see in this film.

However, I am in UK and I'm sure the video release in the UK doesn't have half the animal death scenes in it, I just watched i on TV and was surprised to see so many scenes I simply had no recollection of, I think they were all edited out.

If you really are going to be upset by animal deaths then perhaps you need to watch it with someone else, so you can close your eyes, and open them when it's all over. There will still be scenes that you won't be able to avoid because you won't be able to close your eyes quickly enough, these scenes will be pictures of dead animals not the process of killing them, scenes like legs of animals being thrown to the floor, a dead bird on the ground, a load of dead lizards tied to the aborigines waist, their mouths open, eyes open, tongues hanging.

If you are really bad about this I suggest you don't watch it but you will be missing one of the all time greats.

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[deleted]

In this film the animals were killed for the sake of art. Sure, you could say they were killed for survival but in fact this is a MOVIE and none of these actors needed to kill the animals for food. I liked the film very much but I think it's wrong to go into a creatures habitat and slaughter it to make a movie.

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Quit being a fairy and man-up, ya Mary. You want to see animals dying in a movie? rent Cannibel Holocaust. don't waste my time with your sissy girly fears about watching the life drain out of the eyes of a kangaroo.

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nancy - If you're sensitive to animal deaths, this film is NOT for you.

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