Nude scenes…
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casiocasanova-1 — 20 years ago(December 17, 2005 02:41 PM)
funny how no one opposing these nude scenes mentions anything about the nudity of the aboriginal people. small children, grown women, grown men all clad in next to nothing expressing curiosity about the charred automobile.
while i'm not making accusations, i can't help but believe it has something to do with the fact that in our culture, and most others, tubby unwashed female aboriginees aren't exactly an object of desire. they don't exactly sell national geographic in porn shops. nobody here seems to have a problem with it.
however, a sixteen year old white girl swims in a lake and you've got a message board debate that's lasted over a year.
obviously, if you are offended by the young girl's nudity, there's something in your mind that fired off warnings that you're watching something that could be potentially sexually arousing, and not so much that you're looking at unclothed bodies. otherwise, i would think the naked natives would cause just as much of a stink. -
phatkronikblunt — 21 years ago(January 10, 2005 09:36 PM)
Have you got an explanation of why the camera needs to hone in on a teenage girl's ass while she's swimming?
Because that is the gaze of the young boy watching her, dumbass!
Just because you cant look at a young girl naked without getting a boner and you hate yourself for it, dont go around ruining good films for the rest of us. -
k_vaughan3 — 21 years ago(February 25, 2005 07:20 AM)
Calling yourself Mr_Movie_Guy_2004 then of course you the knowledge to tell us where you found the information to prove that Jenny was 14 in the movie?
But then again would God be happy when he knows you are spewing the words "naive pricks" and I guess you never ever in your life ever seem a nude screen hold on you must have, didn't you watch Walkabout to come up with these comments? -
psychicaudio — 21 years ago(August 17, 2004 10:14 PM)
I am gradually learning to recognize and resist the temptation to engage trolls on message boards! The "ignore postings from" link available from any user's profile page has become my favorite feature of these boards, an invaluable time and energy saver.
http://about-vision.e-banshee.net/030819/Ot_troll_faq_long.html
I love to discuss topics with those who have opposing views, but it saves a lot of hassle to distinguish genuine participants in dialog from simple trolls. Why bother formulating a carefully reasoned argument for someone who isn't going to appreciate it and respond with civility? -
Unicorn-9 — 21 years ago(August 01, 2004 04:00 PM)
Well, it is a Jenny Agutter movie: I can't even think of one where she kept all her clothes on for the entire movie even in 'The Railway Children' I seem to remember her waving her knickers at a train to try to get it to stop.
As for the movie itself, for a story that's trying to contrast modern life with 'natural' living for an aborigine, it's hardly surprising that some nudity is involved. I think the puritanical responses to the nudity fully support the movie in that sense, showing just how far modern society has gone from that natural state. -
andrew-nunn — 21 years ago(August 18, 2004 08:08 AM)
I thought the film was very well photographed, with good cast-setting and scenes. The use of light was tremendous, and portrayed perfectly the sense of heat and desolation of the outback. The contrast between "civilisations" was well demonstrated, emphasising the inadequacy of today's society in surviving in the harsh realities of the scrub land.
Oh, and it was great to see Jenny with her kit off! What a body. Always fancied her!
Enjoyed the film. Scenes were breathtaking. The native Australian was cast brilliantly. Good story line. Jenny was amazing.
Art? What's that? I'll tell you what that is guys, its a room with a pile of bricks in one corner, that some arty-farty idiot says "I can see how the artist expresses himself, one can see what was in his mind when blah, blah, blah".
Crap! Absolute bollocks. I tell you what art is guys. Its Constable, it's Rembrandt, its Hieronymus Bosch. -
vbru — 21 years ago(February 27, 2005 05:32 PM)
The scene where Jenny Agutter goes swimming is an exact re-creation of a scene in the original novel. In the novel, she goes swimming after the boys leave to go hunting. The boy and girl in the novel are age 13 and 8, and they gradually shed their clothes as they become more accepting of living in the wild.
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cannescrwrtr — 20 years ago(March 14, 2006 10:12 AM)
Well almost correct. Swimming unclothed is natural for children, (except in the 'western' world of the past 25 years), but in the novel the girl's state of undress is due to an encounter with a koala. The 8-year-old boy decided early in the story (in the novel), that clothing in the outback was senseless and perhaps for a small boy it would be. hence his nudity was more natural, as author James Vance Marshall clearly states in the excellent novel. The same is effective for the aborigine teen.
I don't understand the debate over nudity.. because this is more natural than the ridiculous scene of violence and suicide being added to the beginning of this film, which has nothing at all to do with the great novel from which the story is adapted.
["Its never too late to do the right thing."] -
kwowen — 21 years ago(October 02, 2004 12:13 PM)
Just found this site. I too am a Jenny Agutter fan. Well more than that I suppose.
Nude scenes in Walkabout, what was so wrong with them?
My father owned a cinema in West Wales (Llandovery) and as a boy of 12 I remember the film when it was first released. I had been a J.A. fan since she appeared in the Railway Children which my father also showed at the cinema. Being impressionable at that age I fell in love with Jenny how could you not do so. That was nothing more than true love, a boyish crush maybe but love none the less. Knowing that i would most likely never meet the girl who i so admired, and still do. At 44 i find the film and the closing scene most beautiful and brings back fond memories when, as a lad in puberty, I fell for what was the most beautiful thing in the world to me. I have just bought on ebay a copy of the film score (Walkabout) and the memories just came flooding back. I try and watch the film every time it is on the small screen.
She will always be in my heart and to those people who criticse the film for the nude scenes they do not understand and never will.
Kenny:) -
vbru — 21 years ago(January 16, 2005 04:51 PM)
Very well said Kenny! When I was a teenager back in the 70's Walkabout was one of those films that was shown often on Sunday afternoons on TV. Being an American, I was always fascinated by the beauty of Australia and the mystical nature of the film and would watch it everytime it was on to try to get a better understading of what it was about. The final scene in Walkabout with Jenny day dreaming is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt endings of all time. A film about youth that is a memorable part of my own youth, and causes me to reflect back on "the happy highways where I went, and cannot come again."
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Fedorevsky — 16 years ago(November 11, 2009 09:43 AM)
"Just found this site. I too am a Jenny Agutter fan. Well more than that I suppose.
Nude scenes in Walkabout, what was so wrong with them?
My father owned a cinema in West Wales (Llandovery) and as a boy of 12 I remember the film when it was first released. I had been a J.A. fan since she appeared in the Railway Children which my father also showed at the cinema. Being impressionable at that age I fell in love with Jenny how could you not do so. That was nothing more than true love, a boyish crush maybe but love none the less. Knowing that i would most likely never meet the girl who i so admired, and still do. At 44 i find the film and the closing scene most beautiful and brings back fond memories when, as a lad in puberty, I fell for what was the most beautiful thing in the world to me. I have just bought on ebay a copy of the film score (Walkabout) and the memories just came flooding back. I try and watch the film every time it is on the small screen.
She will always be in my heart and to those people who criticse the film for the nude scenes they do not understand and never will.
Kenny:) "
That's a beautiful post Kenny and one that mirrors my own personal history with the film very well. I first watched the film as a young teenager more then ten years later than you and had the exact same reaction to it and to J.A. I also get the same nice feeling of nostalgia when watching it now at 32.
One should judge a man mainly from his depravities.Virtues can be faked.Depravities are real.Kinski -
Rauchdrachen — 21 years ago(November 08, 2004 04:01 PM)
Mr Movie Guy continues to amuse us all with his antics, but in spite of his not listening to any answers given, I would like to say something about the nudity in the film.
The film as a whole creates a comparison between tribal cultures, steeped in the ways of old, and modern civilization. While there is an element of sexuality in the film, the nude scenes do not support it, but rather support the contrast between the taboo of nudity in modern culture and its acceptance in the aboriginal culture. Jenny's character is swimming nude because she is gradually embracing the world she finds herself in (something her brother does much more easily), a world where nudity is not looked upon with consternation.
It is for this reason, and not for the sake of sexual provocation, that the nudity is present in the film. -
Mrs_Bundy — 17 years ago(February 17, 2009 05:20 AM)
But it should be pointed out that the scene is a fantasy, not a flashback, beause she was never comfortable enough around her guide to express her affection for him, much less to take off her clothing in front of him. It expresses a longing for what could have been.
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lazarillo — 21 years ago(November 18, 2004 02:10 PM)
This is really strange thing to focus on in a PG-rated movie based on a children's book. I had no idea Jenny Agutter was underage (she doesn't look it), but who really cares 30 years later? Normal men from pre-puberty to senility are going to look at certain body parts of sexually-mature females whether they're dressed or naked and they're not going to ask for ID to see whether the woman is 16 or 35. When I think of this movie, I think of the startling cinematography and editing and how amazing the Australian countryside looks and the incredible ending with that beautiful A.E. Houseman poem. Jenny Agutter swimming nude was just a detail in a whole beautiful tapestry.
By the way in the book the girl Agutter plays is 11 years old and she and her little brother are naked the whole story. That might have been uncomfortable to see on screen, but by making the character older they actually added an element of sexual tension that really wasn't in the book. There's nothing you can do about it thoughpeople just naturally have dirty minds (and the moralists most of all). -
hallogallo — 21 years ago(November 20, 2004 05:42 PM)
Jenny Agutter wasn't underage when the film was made as she was 16. Under UK law this means she was over the age of concent and it was perfectly legal to film and show her undressed in the movie.
I think certain people make to much of the swimming scene. Yeah there is a certian sensuality about it, but what do you expect? Here we have a very attractive young woman swimming naked in a what anyone would describe as a beautiful location while possibly John Barry's most loveliest music cue plays over the top. It's very memorable, but so are many of the other things from this wonderful movie. I echo the above comment of lazarillo when they say:
"When I think of this movie, I think of the startling cinematography and editing and how amazing the Australian countryside looks Jenny Agutter swimming nude was just a detail in a whole beautiful tapestry"
I could not have put it better myself. This film is memorable for so many other reasons, why many people home in on this part is a little beyond me (indeed the UK DVD actually features a slightly obscured still from this scene as it's front cover image).
As for the very last scene, I think it is somewhere on this board (or maybe on "my thoughts on Walkabout") someone says it that "there's something wrong with this scene". Like what? I think it's lovely, it works really well in the context of the film and ends it on a nice melancholy note. Infact if that were a real life situation (rather than staged for the movie) and, as this scene implys, they had stayed together at the farm rather than gone home, I would love to be in Luc's (young boy) position, or for that matter David (older boy) or Jenny's at that moment in time. The water looks so clean and fresh and warm, and they are having such fun, nothing sexual about the situation at all.
"I think you're a load of old crap too, Mr Mulligan!"