History Film / TheLastWave

Meanwhile, in Sydney, a white lawyer named David Burton (Creator/RichardChamberlain) is called to help investigate the case of homicide that happened in the Aboriginal community. It seems like a fairly usual case at first. But why is the cause of death so difficult to explain? Why does David keeps seeing one of the suspects in his dreams? What is that strange symbol that keeps appearing along with him? There cannot be magic involved... can there? Before you know, the world around David and his personal life plunge to hell.

''The Last Wave'' (released in the U.S. as ''Black Rain'') is a 1977 Australian mystery/thriller film by Creator/PeterWeir.

* [[spoiler: GiantWallOfWateryDoom]]: Yep.

This film, along with ''Film/TheCarsThatAteParis'' and ''Film/PicnicAtHangingRock'', is part of Weir's EarlyInstallmentWeirdness period. It deals with many themes, such as: the difference between the world and worldview of the white Australians (and, by extention, modern Westerners) and those of Aboriginal Australian people (and, by extention, the traditional, so-called primitive, societies), the reaction of humans to natural cataclysms, mythology, the unknown and the indifference of nature towards her creations.

* UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventies in the 1970s]]: The setting. Myth/AboriginalAustralianMyths are featured rather prominently.

''The Last Wave'' (released in the U.S. as ''Black Rain'') is a 1977 Australian thriller film by Creator/PeterWeir.

''The Last Wave'' (released in the U.S. as ''Black Rain'') is a 1977 Australian film by Creator/PeterWeir.

* GaiasLament[=/=]GaiasVengeance: Subverted; [[spoiler: the upcoming disaster isn't caused by our neglect towards the nature, that's just the way things go - one era is succeeded by another, which is accompanied by a great flood]].
* GenreBusting: The movie can be classified as a horror film, a drama, a mystery, a disaster film, even a fantasy story - but at heart, it's not any of these.

* MightyWhitey: The Australian society as portrayed in the movie deconstructs it - the white and the Aboriginal people live in completely different worlds, don't know or understand one another, and it doesn't look like the Aborigines are all that better off under the white people's rule. However, rather interestingly subverted in David's case: [[spoiler: he is a Mulkurul, a clarvoyant with a connection to the Dreamtime from the Aboriginal folklore. However, the Mulkurul doesn't equal white people, and besides, David fails to inform the people about the upcoming danger anyway]].

* {{Psychopomp}}: David's stepfather reminds him how he thought that the taxi drivers take you into a different world when you sleep, when he was a child. That idea is actually very close to Australian Aboriginal beliefs about Dreamtime - [[spoiler: and since apparently Myth/AboriginalAustralianMyths are true, we can assume that's what really happens]].
* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: If the conflict between cultures in the movie could be classified at all, Aborigines would represent Romanticism, and white Australians - Enlightement.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, a white lawyer named David Burton (Richard Chamberlain) is called to help investigate the case of homicide that happened in the Aboriginal community. It seems like a fairly usual case at first. But why is the cause of death so difficult to explain? Why does David keeps seeing one of the suspects in his dreams? What is that strange symbol that keeps appearing along with him? There cannot be magic involved... can there? Before you know, the world around David and his personal life plunge to hell.

This film, along with ''Film/PicnicAtHangingRock'', is part of Weir's EarlyInstallmentWeirdness period. It deals with many themes, such as: the difference between the world and worldview of the white Australians (and, by extention, modern Westerners) and those of Aboriginal Australian people (and, by extention, the traditional, so-called primitive, societies), the reaction of humans to natural cataclysms, mythology, the unknown and the indifference of nature towards her creations.

* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: Chris is afraid that it happens to him and David and refuses to give more information about the case because of that.

* AllMythsAreTrue: All Australian Aboriginal myths, anyway.

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: According to Aboriginal mythology, each cycle of history is finished by a global cataclysm. [[spoiler: Too bad that the events of the movie are set before the end of the cycle]].

* {{Psychopomp}}: David's stepfather reminds him how he thought that the taxi drivers take you into a different world when you sleep, when he was a child. That idea is actually very close to Australian Aboriginal beliefs about Dreamtime - [[spoiler: and since apparently Aboriginal mythology is true, we can assume that's what really happens]].

''The Last Wave'' (released in the U.S. as ''Black Rain'') is a 1977 Australian film by Peter Weir.

''The Last Wave'' (released in the US as ''Black Rain'') is a 1977 Australian film by Peter Weir.

This movie, along with ''Film/PicnicAtHangingRock'', is part of Peter Weir's EarlyInstallmentWeirdness period. It deals with many themes, such as: the difference between the world and worldview of the white Australians (and, by extention, modern Westerners) and those of Aboriginal Australian people (and, by extention, the traditional, so-called primitive, societies), the reaction of humans to natural cataclysms, mythology, the unknown and the indifference of nature towards her creations.

Meanwhile in Sydney, a white lawyer named David Burton is called to help investigate the case of homicide that happened in the Aboriginal community. It seems like a fairly usual case at first. But why is the cause of death so difficult to explain? Why does David keeps seeing one of the suspects in his dreams? What is that strange symbol that keeps appearing along with him? There cannot be magic involved... can there? Before you know, the world around David and his personal life plunge to hell.