Do you think that if the girl had understood the aborigine boy's dance that she would have accepted him? They both seeme
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dustypistol — 10 years ago(February 09, 2016 06:59 PM)
Wikipedia
is
wrong in this case.
I just watched the movie, and while I don't remember the EXACT words she uses while he's still doing the mating dance outside, she says to her brother, "we have to leave tomorrow, and we're going alone." Little bro says he doesn't want to go alone. She continues, "We're going alone. What if he tries to" [looks off in distance, sighs, is at a momentary loss for words] "what if he leaves us."
She understands. She's old enough to understand, and she's not stupid. She doesn't say it explicitly because the little one wouldn't understand. -
DeepFriedJello — 9 years ago(April 24, 2016 09:14 PM)
I was wondering if suicide was the expected and/or traditional response to mating rejection with aborigines.
The Girl didn't seem very distraught with seeing him dead. And the Boy just thought he was ignoring him. I don't think they had a very deep affection to him. I'm sure they were both grateful to him, but not much else. The girl didn't want to spend her life eating dirty gross meat and burning to a crisp in the desert, raising babies. She still liked her fine clothes and cleanliness. -
huwdj — 12 years ago(December 08, 2013 01:23 PM)
I think it was more a question of bad timing than totally misunderstanding the dance. Once at the old farm house the relationship began to change. She became more European again and started ordering him to do things. Even if initially the dance frightened her I think she knew what it meant but was no longer in a state of mind to go with him. Perhaps if it had happened earlier at the waterhole they would still be wandering around the outback together - or at least had a couple of good nights.
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Professor59 — 11 years ago(May 25, 2014 05:54 PM)
Yep. But even though they were each about 16, I think she should have shown him a little bit of affection. After all, not only did he rescue them, he cared for them like a family for however long.
As an adult she seemed to regret that, and also be wistful about the kind of life she could have had.
So, yes, she was not emotionally ready to deal with his mating dance / marriage proposal, but still, you can't be naked all the time around a teenaged boy without getting him all riled up. -
Rory_Brandybuck — 11 years ago(November 09, 2014 08:31 AM)
Actually she's never naked around him. She goes skinnydipping while he's hunting, and when he sees her topless she hides and covers herself up. The scene at the end where all three are naked together is probably a fantasy of her adult self wondering what might have been. Anyway, as we see when the other aborigines discover the burnt car, he would be quite used to seeing naked girls in his tribe.
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parisionescu — 11 years ago(July 22, 2014 11:01 AM)
I haven't read the novel so I can only interpret the film, but in my opinion it's not black and white nor is it meant to be.
As one poster wrote, any teenage girl confronted by a boy with an erect penis understands the implication. While I think that's more true than untrue, it doesn't mean she understands (fully) the implications of a ritualistic dance like the one he performed. Nor does she have the time, in the film, to completely digest or reflect on it before he commits suicide.
Regarding her feelings, it is pretty clear she had some degree of sexual desire for him at the time, possibly repressed, and that later the vision of remaining in that situation indefinitely stuck with her and that she potentially viewed it with fondness and regret.
That said, her leaving works on the level of a critique of European and/or so-called civilized values and social norms, but also on the level of a difficult, possibly unanswerable question about communication and love. What kind of relationship could've subsisted between lovers from essentially alien cultures and without the ability to communicate using language? For how long would it have been fun or satisfying, for either of them? It makes sense that the montage at the end featuring the three of them swimming looks like a fantasy - because it is. But who knows what Girl (and her brother) would have thought about the long-term reality of living in the outback? Would that have been accepted by his family? Would they have been disgusted by some of the unfamiliar values held by these people? Would the sex have been good?
I think it's fair to posit that these kinds of questions, if not all of them, were in Girl's mind. To me the surreal shot with the unknown woman atop the hill asking Black Boy something about his health (or his opinion on something) and him not registering it represented a future version of Girl in her own fantasy/thoughts. She was picturing herself "married" to this man (according to her own teenage perception of what this would look like), quite possibly feeling resentful and lonely.
I also think she just wasn't ready, didn't have enough information, and was most concerned with the primary objective of getting home. And that she simply felt scared, confused, and possibly a little threatened by the dance given the whole situation, even knowing and potentially being attracted by some of its implications. Women get scared off by bold advances from men they have feelings for all the time. In the West (granted maybe more so today or in Victorian England than in 1970s Australia) men are conditioned to be more subtle with their advances, and women are conditioned to be cautious about accepting them. And people, not just teenaged girls or women, have a difficult enough time settling on a partner in their own city, who speaks their language and has most of the same cultural referents they do. Think of the stakes she was facing. Perhaps she changed her mind later and wished she really could go back - that possibility is one of the tragic aspects of the film.
But what I love most about this film is that all these possibilities are ambiguous and not shoved down our throats like canned ham (nothing against canned ham). -
PoppyTransfusion — 9 years ago(January 15, 2017 04:28 AM)
@parisionescu
As one poster wrote, any teenage girl confronted by a boy with an erect penis understands the implication. While I think that's more true than untrue, it doesn't mean she understands (fully) the implications of a ritualistic dance like the one he performed. Nor does she have the time, in the film, to completely digest or reflect on it before he commits suicide.
I don't think any teenage girl confronted by a man with an erect penis understands the implication in a positive way. I think his ritualistic dance frightened her, which is why she wanted her brother to stay when he returned from his adventures.
What I would add to your comprehensive post, which follows my comment about her fear, is that she has constant flashbacks to her father's murderousness and subsequent suicide. So she is in a state of trauma and this might affect her being able to understand the young man as her brother seems to able. Also, her advanced age, in comparison to her brother, means she is more inured in the Western culture and so the young man is more alien to her.
Ever tried, ever failed?
No matter.
Try again, fail again.
Fail better. -
MadDoctor61 — 10 years ago(May 13, 2015 05:57 PM)
I think she understood the erection and was not ready for that kind of relationship. In fact, it terrified her and I think she was afraid of being raped. She didn't have the cultural knowledge to interpret it as a courtship (mating dance) If she did, I think things may have turned out differently.
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solovoyager — 9 years ago(May 31, 2016 01:10 PM)
Wow three commenters here said the aboriginal boy was dancing with an erect penis. How did you guys come to that conclusion? I mean obviously it is not something they could show. And I did gather that he was doing some ritualistic dance to impress her. But an erect penis?!
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MajDutch — 9 years ago(November 26, 2016 08:48 AM)
Wow three commenters here said the aboriginal boy was dancing with an erect penis. How did you guys come to that conclusion? I mean obviously it is not something they could show. And I did gather that he was doing some ritualistic dance to impress her. But an erect penis?!
They did show it. How it was done could be prosthetic. But he really did have a woody, you can view in multiple shots.
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http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5151/madutch.png
