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form y separately published work icon The Tracker single work   film/TV  
Issue Details: First known date: 2002... 2002 The Tracker
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A set of mountain ranges in the outback, 1922 ... horseback country, and the Fanatic leads the two other white men, the Follower and the Philosopher, and the Tracker, in the pursuit of the Fugitive. Through massacre and murder the hunt continues, until the clear-cut notions of truth and justice are subverted and the questions become not will the Fugitive be caught, but what is black and what is white and who is leading whom?'

Source: Screen Australia.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

At Nature's Mercy : The Contemporary Australian Western Brian McFarlane , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Screen Education , no. 96 2020; (p. 46-55)

'A genre mostly associated with quintessentially American landscapes and cultural tropes, the western has developed its own fascinating tradition in Australia - most notably, since the turn of the twenty-first century. Brian McFarlane surveys a range of films from the last two decades, dealing with subjects such as bushrangers, abuse and colonial dispossession, and finds both echoes of US antecedents and new visions that blaze their own distinctive trails.'

Source: Abstract.

From Massacre Creek to Slaughter Hill : The Tracks of Mystery Road Peter Kirkpatrick , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 10 no. 1 2016; (p. 143-155)
'Ivan Sen’s 2013 feature Mystery Road [dir., 2013. Sydney: Mystery Road Films] seeks to break out of the arthouse mould of most Aboriginal cinema in its calculated adaptation of two seemingly disparate Hollywood genres, film noir and the western: genres which are foregrounded in the style and marketing of the film. Aaron Pedersen in his starring role as ‘Indigenous cowboy detective’ Jay Swan strikes a delicate balance between his compromised role as agent of the state and as freewheeling hero, for his role as a detective is underpinned by the ‘treacherous’ historical legacy of the tracker. In this article, I trace the central importance of the tracker figure in a reading of Mystery Road, taking in, among other texts, Sen's 1999 film Wind [dir., 1999. Australia: Mayfan Film Productions] and Arthur Upfield's ‘Bony’ novels. The troubled status of the tracker feeds into the noirish elements of Mystery Road, which ultimately requires a new kind of hero to emerge so that retribution may be enacted for past and present wrongs. That hero is the cowboy, a part for which Pedersen has been dressed all along.' (Publication abstract)
The 100 Best Australian Films of the New Millenium Erin Free , Dov Kornits , Travis Johnson , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 22 September 2016;
Screen Memories : Film's Knowing and Historical Trauma in The Tracker Marita Jane Bullock , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 10 no. 3 2016; (p. 306-323)
This paper examines Rolf de Heer’s 2002 film, ‘The Tracker’, in the context of the ‘history war’ debates relating to frontier violence that were rehearsed in the Australian public sphere during the 1990s/2000s. I examine how ‘The Tracker’ challenges the very terms underpinning conventional forms of historiography, wedded to discourses of ‘fact’ and ‘truth’, in the way it investigates what it means to ‘screen’ memory within the context of the politics of the present. Focusing on ‘The Tracker's' self-conscious use of Peter Coad's arresting paintings of frontier violence, I argue that ‘The Tracker’ develops a nuanced engagement with frontier history in the way it highlights the dialectics of ‘revealing’ and ‘concealing’ – rupture and disavowal – at play in the nation’s ‘screening’ of frontier violence.
Postcolonial Longing on the Australian Cinematic Frontier Pauline Marsh , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Ilha Do Desterro : A Journal of English Language , vol. 69 no. 2 2016;
'The Tracker and Red Hill are cinematic re-interpretations of Australia’s colonial past, which they characterise by a sense of postcolonial longing and an expectation of intimacy. Both films are portals through which arguments about historical truth, subjective memory and contemporary realities are explored and tested. In this paper I argue that both these two films create the idea that the historical colonial space was a constant interplay of violence and beauty, and of hatred and friendship. As black and white characters negotiate their way in and around these seemingly polemical positions, viewers are also challenged to do the same.' (Publication abstract)
Untitled Kira Eghbal-Azar , 2007-2008 single work review
— Appears in: Zeitschrift fur Australienstudien , no. 21-22 2007-2008; (p. 237-239)

— Review of The Tracker Rolf De Heer , 2002 single work film/TV ; Ten Canoes Rolf De Heer , 2006 single work film/TV
Untitled Albert Fung , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , July-August no. 21 2002;

— Review of The Tracker Rolf De Heer , 2002 single work film/TV
Opening Night, The Tracker Fiona Villella , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , July-August no. 21 2002;

— Review of The Tracker Rolf De Heer , 2002 single work film/TV
Untitled Adrian Martin , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 72 2011; (p. 50)

— Review of The Tracker Rolf De Heer , 2002 single work film/TV
The Tracker (Rolf de Heer, 2002) Robert Picking , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , September no. 64 2012;

— Review of The Tracker Rolf De Heer , 2002 single work film/TV
Back Tracking Brian McFarlane , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 62 no. 1 2003; (p. 59-68)
Examines some issues raised by the making of Australian films about Aboriginal people in historical settings by white filmmakers.
Shared Dreamings Waiting to be Filmed Mark Byrne , 2005 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 31 May 2005; (p. 15)
Out from the Shadows Marcia Langton , 2006 single work criticism (taught in 1 units)
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 65 no. 1 2006; (p. 55-64)
Discusses the characterisation of the Aboriginal tracker in Australian films.
An Ethics of Following and the No Road Film: Trackers, Followers and Fanatics Fiona Probyn , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , December no. 37 2005;
'Fiona Probyn analyses filmic treatments of the Aboriginal tracker and their implications for conceptions of sovereignty, ownership and reconciliation.' (Editor's note) Probyn takes as her case studies Rolf de Heer's The Tracker and Stephen Muecke's No Road : Bitumen All the Way.
Disputing History : Remembering Country in the Tracker and Rabbit-Proof Fence Felicity Collins , Therese Davis , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , October vol. 37 no. 128 2006; (p. 35-54)
Last amended 29 Aug 2022 15:35:36
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