First off: There is no reason for the image of the girl on the cover of the Blu-ray. I didn't even realize what it was until I saw the movie. This is not the image of the version released in the US. The image on the version in Japan is exploitative and it should be reissued, but of course it won't be.
I was aware of this film, but since I saw that it was the 50th anniversary of its release, I decided to see what all the hubbub was about.
In simple terms, a man drives his teenage daughter and young son to, I guess, the outback region of Australia where, for reasons that are not entirely clear, but apparently have to do with him being fired, he decides he's going to kill them and then commit suicide. He fails to kill them but does end up killing himself. This leaves the siblings on their own to fend for themselves. They are in the middle of nowhere, with no resources and little food and water. It is clear that unless they find help soon, they will perish.
In due course, a young Aboriginal man encounters them. He cannot speak English, and they cannot speak his language. He is on his "walkabout," which is the ritual he must complete to be considered a man in his tribe. This means knowing/learning/discovering how to live off the land. This includes sucking water out of the ground with a wooden tube, killing wild animals, gutting them, cooking their innards over open flames, and doing whatever is necessary to survive.
In the process of doing this, the trio end up at an abandoned house. The young man suggests that they could stay there forever and create a family. It is deeply touching and sad because the white girl... even if this thought exists in the far corners of her mind... knows it will never happen.
Also, while the young man is adept at killing animals and surviving off them, about 3/4 of the way through the film, two Australian hunters appear out of nowhere and, for sport, kill a water buffalo.
While the Aboriginal man was not a professional actor, you can see the pain and sadness in his face when 1) the girl rejects him and 2) his skills as a hunter are essentially mocked when two white hunters blow into the area and use their high-powered rifles to kill an animal.
The film ends on a tragic note for the Aboriginal man but reverts back to a moment of happiness for the trio as the girl (now a young woman) reflects back on her time in the outback with the Aboriginal man and her young brother.
That is essentially the story. There are many shocking moments, including seeing a number of animals being cruelly killed. There are also exploitative shots of all three of the young actors to the point where I thought the director was a pederast (even though his own son is co-starring as the young boy).
Morals were different back in 1971, so, perhaps what the director thought he was doing was showing an alternative Eden, and, in order to do so, thought that all the leads had to be naked for brief times. I don't think that was necessary, but it was a different world and there wasn't much thought put into the rights of the actors. They were all exploited.
The reissue is very clear and beautiful, and the picture is sharp. The story wanders all over the place because there really isn't a story per se, but more of a survival saga.
The "extras" include interviews (who knows how old they were) of the siblings as adults and their awkward recollections of their time in the film.
There are moments of beauty, shock, disgust, surprise, revulsion, sadness and more... but at best, this is a one-time viewing, keeping in mind that it could never under any circumstances be made today.
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