Occult Aboriginal mysticism. Dreams . Reality. Conflict.

In 1977, Australian director Peter Weir made a haunting film dealing with central themes of cultural understanding, tolerance and man's communication with the natural world. As a follow up to the critical success of his 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave was able to generate a similar foreboding presence of the unknown. Both films deal with mans' compelled acceptance of the spiritual forces that modern society has alienated itself from, all presented within a penetrating atmosphere of suspenseful mystery.

Right from the very first scene, the story intimates a parallel to the unusual weather circumstances that are occurring throughout Sydney at the time of the ongoing trial. Large hail falls violently on one day, blotchy mud from the sky's on another. The subtle background sounds of radio broadcasts detail proposed scientific explanations for the events. The plot thickens.

The DVDs of The Last Wave are compared to the Blu-ray HERE

The Gaumont doesn't look bad considering it is from a low definition source. We can categorically state here that the French subtitles are removable. There is a little bit of cropping at the bottom edge of the French DVD. The French has some unclean frame shifts (see very last capture). The Criterion is sharper with better skin tones and an obvious HD sourced tape was used. Criterion's 5.1 mix is marvelous, and also added an original option (but no menu option for it - must do it 'on the fly'). Extras go to the French with over an 1 hour long featurette, trailer and filmographies. Subtitles look well done on both, but the overall winner here is Criterion, unless you are keen on the Gaumont Extra featurette (more about history than the film). The Weir interview is more fitting.

 - Gary W. Tooze