person or book cover
Screen cap from promotional trailer
form y separately published work icon The Last Wave single work   film/TV   horror   fantasy  
Issue Details: First known date: 1977... 1977 The Last Wave
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Based on an original idea by Peter Weir, The Last Wave concerns a young Sydney lawyer who, while defending four Aboriginal men against a murder charge, becomes troubled by dreams. He soon begins to feel the pull of magic forces beneath the surface of civilisation. A series of apparently random occurences assume a disturbing pattern and the city becomes a facade for a place of ancient ritual.

Notes

  • This film is included in Australian Screen's collection 'Horror in Australian Cinema': http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/the-last-wave/ (Sighted: 6/7/2012)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Come in, the Water’s Fine”: The Drowning World of Peter Weir’s The Last Wave (1977), Adrian Danks , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Gothic in the Oceanic : South Maritime, Marine and Aquatic Uncanny in Southern Waters 2023;
How the World Spins Mark Baker , 2021 single work essay
— Appears in: Inside Story , March 2021;

'Mark Baker recalls an encounter with David Gulpilil in 1998'

Dead Heart : Australia’s Horror Cinema Geoff Stanton , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 31 October 2018;
They Are My Totem : We Sing and Dance to the Pelicans Penelope Debelle , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 10 October 2015; (p. 16)
Return to The Last Wave Andrew Nette , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , October 2015;

— Review of The Last Wave Petru Popescu , Peter Weir , Tony Morphett , 1977 single work film/TV
Return to The Last Wave Andrew Nette , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , October 2015;

— Review of The Last Wave Petru Popescu , Peter Weir , Tony Morphett , 1977 single work film/TV
Breaking the Frame: The Representation of Aborigines in Australian Film Graeme Turner , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 10 no. 1-2 1988; (p. 135-145)
Tracking Gulpilil on Screen: Changing Representations of Indigenous Identity Jane Steinhaeuser , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Credits Rolling: Film & History Conference, Canberra Australia 2-5 December 2004 : Selected Papers 2004; (p. 43-48)
Fear in Peter Weir's Australian Films : A Matter of Control Theodore F. Sheckels , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 23 no. 1 2009; (p. 75-80)
Many have noted the prevalence of the emotion of fear in Peter Weir's Australian films. In dealing with this fear, commentators have directed their focus at the world external to that which Weir's characters inhabit. The commentators have asked what is it 'out there' that these characters are so afraid of. As is wont of all good scholars they have attempted to discern an answer that unites Weir's oeuvre.
From Aboriginal Australia to German Autumn : On the West German Reception of Thirteen ‘Films from Black Australia’ Andrew W. Hurley , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 3 no. 3 2009; (p. 251-263)
'This article examines some aspects of the West German reception of a series of Australian films about Aborigines - including Peter Weir's The Last Wave (1977), Phillip Noyce's Backroads (1977) and Michael Edols' Lalai and Floating (1973 and 1975) - which were shown in Germany and elsewhere in Europe in 1978 and 1979. It explains how these films came to be shown in Europe, how and why they caught the imagination of German reviewers and film-makers at the time, and how they themselves contributed to the begetting of several German films on Aboriginal themes - including Nina Gladitz's documentary Das Uran gehört der Regenbogenschlange (The Uranium Belongs to the Rainbow Serpent) (1979), Werner Herzog's Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) and Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World (1991).' (Author's abstract)
Are You a Fish? Are You a Snake? An Obvious Lecture and Some Notes on The Last Wave William D. Routt , 1994 single work essay
— Appears in: Continuum : The Australian Journal of Media & Culture , vol. 8 no. 2 1994;

Awards

1978 Nominated Australian Film Institute Awards Best Screenplay - Original
Last amended 29 Aug 2022 15:41:29
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