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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Based on an original idea by Peter Weir, The Last Wave concerns a young Sydney lawyer who, while defending four Aboriginal men against a murder charge, becomes troubled by dreams. He soon begins to feel the pull of magic forces beneath the surface of civilisation. A series of apparently random occurences assume a disturbing pattern and the city becomes a facade for a place of ancient ritual.
Notes
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This film is included in Australian Screen's collection 'Horror in Australian Cinema': http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/the-last-wave/ (Sighted: 6/7/2012)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
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The Last Wave
Sydney
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Angus and Robertson
,
1977
Z1342571
1977
single work
novel
"A provocative book by Petru Popescu. The Last Wave, an Australian mystery drama from 1977 is about a white solicitor (Burton) in Sydney--whose seemingly normal life is disrupted after he takes on a murder case and discovers that he shares a strange, mystical connection with a small group of local Australian Aborigines accused of a murder. Plagued by bizarre dreams, Burton senses an otherworldly connection to one of the accused. He also feels connected to the increasingly strange weather phenomena besetting the city, his dreams intensify along with his obsession with the murder case, which he comes to believe is an Aboriginal tribal killing by curse, in which the victim believed. Learning more about Aboriginal practices and the concept of Dreamtime as a parallel world of existence, Burton comes to believe the strange weather bodes of a coming apocalypse."
Source
Works about this Work
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Come in, the Water’s Fine”: The Drowning World of Peter Weir’s The Last Wave (1977),
2023
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Gothic in the Oceanic : South Maritime, Marine and Aquatic Uncanny in Southern Waters 2023; -
How the World Spins
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Inside Story , March 2021;'Mark Baker recalls an encounter with David Gulpilil in 1998'
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Dead Heart : Australia’s Horror Cinema
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 31 October 2018; -
They Are My Totem : We Sing and Dance to the Pelicans
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 10 October 2015; (p. 16) -
Return to The Last Wave
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , October 2015;
— Review of The Last Wave 1977 single work film/TV
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Return to The Last Wave
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , October 2015;
— Review of The Last Wave 1977 single work film/TV -
Breaking the Frame: The Representation of Aborigines in Australian Film
1988
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 10 no. 1-2 1988; (p. 135-145) -
Tracking Gulpilil on Screen: Changing Representations of Indigenous Identity
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Credits Rolling: Film & History Conference, Canberra Australia 2-5 December 2004 : Selected Papers 2004; (p. 43-48) -
Fear in Peter Weir's Australian Films : A Matter of Control
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 23 no. 1 2009; (p. 75-80) Many have noted the prevalence of the emotion of fear in Peter Weir's Australian films. In dealing with this fear, commentators have directed their focus at the world external to that which Weir's characters inhabit. The commentators have asked what is it 'out there' that these characters are so afraid of. As is wont of all good scholars they have attempted to discern an answer that unites Weir's oeuvre. -
From Aboriginal Australia to German Autumn : On the West German Reception of Thirteen ‘Films from Black Australia’
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 3 no. 3 2009; (p. 251-263) 'This article examines some aspects of the West German reception of a series of Australian films about Aborigines - including Peter Weir's The Last Wave (1977), Phillip Noyce's Backroads (1977) and Michael Edols' Lalai and Floating (1973 and 1975) - which were shown in Germany and elsewhere in Europe in 1978 and 1979. It explains how these films came to be shown in Europe, how and why they caught the imagination of German reviewers and film-makers at the time, and how they themselves contributed to the begetting of several German films on Aboriginal themes - including Nina Gladitz's documentary Das Uran gehört der Regenbogenschlange (The Uranium Belongs to the Rainbow Serpent) (1979), Werner Herzog's Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) and Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World (1991).' (Author's abstract) -
Are You a Fish? Are You a Snake? An Obvious Lecture and
Some Notes on The Last Wave
1994
single work
essay
— Appears in: Continuum : The Australian Journal of Media & Culture , vol. 8 no. 2 1994;
Awards
- 1978 Nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Screenplay - Original
