The Tracker
Rolf De Heer | Australia 2002 | 98 min
In 1922, the tracker has the job of tracking an Aboriginal suspected of murdering a white woman and leads a police office (the fanatic), his offsider (the follower) and a seconded assistant (the veteran) across the outback.
The journey descends into an acrimonious and murderous trek that shifts power from one man to another, challenged by the indigenous people they come across - as well as each other.
What I like best is that during violent scenes a painting is shown. You can still hear the scuffles, but you never see the violence. Great technique.
He tracked a guy… and told me he'd been carrying a torch and that it had happened at night time. I mean, how the hell could he have known that?... When we found the body at the bottom of a mine shaft - there it was with a torch.—Robert Primrose, retired superintendent, talking about Aboriginal tracker Jonny Grey [1]
| Cast |
David Gulpilil - tracker
Gary Sweet - fanatic
Damon Gameau - follower
Grant Page - veteran
Noel Wilton - fugitive |
| Release dates |
August 8th, 2002 - Australia
First shown in March on the 2002 Adelaide Festival of the Arts. |
| Video/DVD Release Date |
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| Awards |
Best Feature Film (2002 Lexus IF Awards)
Best actor (Yalumba IF Award)
Best music (BMG IF Award)
Best picture, best director, best original screenplay, best editing, best music, best cinematography (2002 Australian Film Critics Awards)
Best film, best actor, best music score, best cinematography (2002 Film Critics Circle of Australia) |
| Rating |
M - Mature |
| Language level |
medium |
| Distributor |
Fandango (international), The Globe Group (Australia), IntraMovie (international sales) |
| Soundtrack |
Graham Tardif |
| Genre |
Drama |
| Notes |
The soundtrack features 10 original songs performed by Award-winning musician Archie Roach. CD released through Festival Mushroom Records on August 12, 2002.
Another great film by Heer is Ten Canoes (2006).
An article of The Blurb reports that artist Peter Coad was commissioned to paint 14 landscape and figurative works for inclusion in the film, a first for an Australian film. The paintings are used ingeniously to cover violence in the film, a method that works to both soften the impact of the actions, and also make them so much more powerful.
Other films by Rolf De Heer:
Ten Canoes (2006)
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