[review]

		David Gulpilil in THE TRACKER
		Director: Rolf de Heer 2002 movie review by Kiri Close

David Gulpilil shines in The Tracker as he always has with just about every second he’s on screen in his countless other features: as Tracker Moodoo in Rabbit Proof Fence, the star in Walkabout, sidekick of Crocodile Dundee (Paul Hogan NEVER should‘ve been allowed to Dundee our screens!), inspiration supremo in Storm Boy, star of Boney TV series, just to name a few. Director Phillip Noyce of Rabbit Proof Fence claims David is after all, “arguably the most experienced and accomplished film actor in Australia“.

“Acting” for David, he says in the documentary of his namesake Gulpilil: One Red Blood, “is a piece of cake“. Perhaps this is largely due to his never actually acting, per se, while the cameras roll. Instead, Gulpilil is simply himself and candid, replete with dancing, chanting, hunting, thinking, redeeming, listening, law giving, teasing -- all in Pacific aboriginal style as effortless, and naturally following his own innate script (says Noyce).

The majesty and magnitude of this Pacific genius is endlessly fueled by David’s inherent insistence to live as authentically Aboriginal as possible in his real life: hunting for his own food for the wife & kids everyday, built his own home, distributes his money and Hollywood goods to his entire indigenous community, his marriage to a traditional wife chosen for him by the elders, activist for indigenous Aboriginal rights, etc. He stuns (me) particularly because he is so genuine and proudly Aboriginal without even trying. His current Mandelpingo Gulpilil river home was his father’s, and his father’s before him, and his father’s before him and so on. It would never cross his mind to permanently live elsewhere and outside of Ramingining (where 16 Aboriginal language groups thrive and David is fluent in just about all of them). This luminescent charisma in David is in no way absent in Rolf de Heer’s under appreciated 2002 diamond, The Tracker. Herein, our eyes remain glued to the misdirection and overall tricky agenda of its characters--David‘s the most clever, cunning, acute, stealth.

Tracker is set in 1922, one year of many when the cruelty of colonizers leads to unspeakable massacres of Australian Aborigines. Gulpilil is scripted as the nameless tracker of which the film circumvents in a situation (spoiler: you don’t realize he has the starring role until the second half of the film). The ‘tracker’ is cornered by some makeshift sheriff and deputies into tracking down one of his own. By the end of the film, you hope there is no end to watching and hearing Gulpilil outwit a handful of idiots. There is, however, a surprise twist of law and instinct moments before credits roll.

Beautiful, piercing still paintings (made from Outback red clay?) are inserted in between the moving frames in various sequences. It’s as if particular moments (violent ones especially) appear as a reminder about the past/present racism and mistreatment of the indigenous by suddenly, randomly appearing. These incite a mental lingering within us--one of several sobering mechanisms a la de Heer. Master trickster Gulpilil will undoubtedly move you like no other on screen.

Not even Nicole Kidman, Mel Gibson, Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, and these other Euro-Aussie exports put together hold a candle to Gulpilil’s resilience and importance as an actor, artist from the Pacific.

Other Gulpilil films of interest:

Crocodile Dreaming (2007)
Ten Canoes (2006)
Gulpilil: One Red Blood (2002)
Rabbit Proof Fence (2002)
Walkabout (1971)

Kiri Close, Phd lives in Boston occasionally teaching film/literature/writing, and haunting several campuses. When she and her husband aren’t planning their next trip for world travel, she is preparing for law school and works with the Young Women’s organization of her church.