Nude scenes…
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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!"