40
Roeg and his scenarist Edward Bond (BlowUp) aim for the mind and miss wildly. Their preachy, anti-intellectual Natural Mannerisms are neither convincing nor new.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
91
Entertainment Weekly by Chris Nashawaty
Nicolas Roeg’s art-house adventure is lyrical and intoxicating.
75
Roeg shoots every figure in the film like an instructional visual subject, and it levels the philosophical playing field—whether man, or ant, or echidna, or gnarled tree stump, they’re all fodder for the experimental interplay of light, shadow, and space.
75
San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann
A strange, vivid tale of two British schoolchildren stranded in the deserts of the outback.
75
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
For the most part, Walkabout is an involving, occasionally hypnotic, motion picture. Some of the photography, including images of the outback and its denizens, is spectacular.
100
Roeg’s film contrasts Western corruption with native goodness, but it’s naïve by design, and ultimately concerned more with the way all innocence passes than with the politics and particulars of any single part of the world.
100
It's a deep film, but also elusive, accepting that some mysteries can never be solved.
67
Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten
Roeg's points about the contrasts between noble savages and civilized effetes don't stand up terribly well over time.
100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Walkabout is a superb work of storytelling and its material is effortlessly fascinating.