The Tracker

The Tracker. Directed by Rolf de Heer, 2002

Rolf de Heer recently has made headlines with his film The Ten Canoes which won a special jury prize at the Canne Film Festival. While not well known outside Australia he has had a successful film career as an independent director, with 12 films in all.

The Tracker is an excellent film to begin exploring de Heer's work. Set somewhere in Australia in the 1920's the premise is three soldiers are pursuing an Aboriginal man who is accused of murdering a white woman. These three soldiers have employed the services of an aboriginal tracker played by David Gulpilil.

As this group pursues their target across the outback, de Heer uses their journey to explore the saddening relationship between whites and the aboriginal people, but also the difficult situations that at times pit the aboriginal peoples against each other.

There is one particularly moving scene where David Gulpilil's character stands and watches as the soldiers brutally mistreat a group of aboriginal people simply because one of them was wearing an Australian soldier's jacket. The pain is evident in Gulpilil's eyes as he silently returns the looks of these people who are summarily executed at point blank range.

Playing on the now abandoned concept that the aboriginal people are savages at best, de Heer's expert direction slowly turns the tables to reveal that the tracker is more civilized and humane than any of the soldiers in the group.

It is easy to assume that because something is different than what you are used too that it must be inferior. Their is that tendency to think our way is best. In this regard it is amazing to me the distinct parallel's between Australian and American history. The locations and the people may be different but our treatment of Native Americans is no different, and perhaps even worse, than what was done to the aboriginal people of Australia.

While the subject matter is serious it is not without its moments of surprisingly light hearted humor. Add that too the fact that the cinematography alone makes the film worth watching and I'm hard pressed to find anything to really critisize in this film. However, if there was anything to take issue with it would be the music.

While overall the soundtrack is excellent, I found it at times a little bit to over the top. de Heer does such an excellent job showing you what is going on emotionally within and between the characters in the film, the music lack of subtlety sometimes took away from what was otherwise beautifully intense moments.

While intensely Australian in subject matter, there is a stark universality to its themes. Themes that many of us do not like to confront, and should therefore be considered all the more.

***Three Stars