Did he actually die?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Walkabout
dom-uk-freestuff — 13 years ago(April 21, 2012 06:03 PM)
Everything I've read seems to suggest that the aborigine boy hanged himself and died. He clearly didn't hang himself- he is hanging by his arms, which are on the branches of the tree, not by a rope around his neck. Also, as the camera is on his face, just before the next scene, his mouth seems to twitch. So is he really dead?
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rmax304823 — 13 years ago(September 01, 2012 05:32 PM)
Many of the tribes of Central Australia have a tradition of self-imposed death by unexplained means, probably something like fear- or depression-induced shock. They can "see death" in the eyes of someone who dislikes or rejects them. They die rather suddenly when they are "boned" by a sorcerer. It doesn't seem to be a myth. It's been attested to by Western doctors who have been unable to find a medical cause. I included some quotes from eye witnesses in an article called "Doomed Status" in the journal Psychiatric Quarterly from, I think, 1979, if you want to bother finding out more about it.
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Broadsman — 10 years ago(July 04, 2015 08:49 AM)
The act of as you called it boning is really called pointing the bone.
a leg bone of a emu or so I have been told is sharpen to a point at one end and certain herbs are placed in the hollow central channel.
This can be pointed directly at the subject or can also be pointed at quite a distance in a few cases many many miles.
So long as the tribal medicine man or witch doctor or sorcerer chants the name of the subject as it is being carried out.
The subject does not need to hold any believe in the ceremony at all for this to work.
Many white settlers who have had major falling out with local native Australian tribes have died soon after the bone pointing has been carried out.
When in a couple of cases the post mortems were carried out nothing to explain the deaths that took place and the tribes claimed responsibility. -
GuyOnTheLeft — 12 years ago(May 18, 2013 05:45 AM)
He was definitely still alive when they last showed him.
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Royalcourtier — 12 years ago(May 18, 2013 04:47 PM)
I think he was meant to be dead. The blow flies hanging around is a good indication of that. However if he was hanging by the arms, and twitched, that is just because they didn't want to actually kill the actor!
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GuyOnTheLeft — 12 years ago(May 18, 2013 04:58 PM)
He had flies on him throughout the movie. But based on the commentary track, I think it may be right that they intended for him to be dead. If so, they really screwed up and should have done another take or edited it better. The camera zooms in close to his face, he appears still and lifeless, but then at the end of the shot his eye very clearly moves, and not just slightly either. The effect it creates in film language is something we have all seen many times before: "Ha, you thought he was dead, but nopewe tricked you!"
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huwdj — 12 years ago(December 08, 2013 01:35 PM)
Yes. In the film he died because she rejected him. In the book he died because he saw his death in her expression of disgust when she rejected him. He simply spread himself on a tree, as in the earlier scene when the aborigines placed the father in a tree, and willed himself to die. I've read examples of this in some societies though I don't think it's usually achieved that quickly.
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lukn4frnz — 11 years ago(November 25, 2014 02:04 PM)
Based on the position of his neck (I backed up dvd and slowed it down to look closely) it sure looked like he'd asphyxiated himself. He neck was in an odd position and the rest of him was lifeless.
I liked how someone else pointed out the suicides at each end of film bookends the movie.
Man's despair -
daburgundy — 11 years ago(March 08, 2015 08:04 AM)
(FILM)
The Black kid didnt die you can check it again he's still breathing or its acting flaws. someone said there were flies on the body but theyre ants from the mango tree. from what i see the aborigine didnt die but let himself suffer like the modern emos today.
Les Noir -
stuntmanmike — 11 years ago(March 16, 2015 10:03 PM)
He is 100% meant to be dead. If you think otherwise, you are wrong. If it in any way appears that he isn't dead it is because of an acting flub. The books discusses his reason for dying at length and is very fascinating. I recommend checking it out. It's a very short book, I once finished it in one sitting while waiting in an airport. Granted the film is "loosely" based on the book (in the book there is no father-suicide aspect and the kids are stranded by a plane-crash), however in the book the girl expresses fright over what she thinks are sexual advances from the boy. The only explanation the boy can come up with for why she would look at him with fear is that he has developed some sort of death-curse. In his culture, if the shaman told someone they were going to die then it would be willed into reality by the subject despite them having perfect health. There is also the less-interesting but more grounded theory that the boy had never had any contact with the germs of civilization and dies from catching an influenza or a cold from the others.
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padzok — 10 years ago(January 31, 2016 02:39 AM)
He is 100% meant to be dead. If you think otherwise, you are wrong.
The makers might agree with your first sentence, but I'm sure they would disagree with your second.
His being physically alive at the end, but just outting himself in a pose of being symbolically dead to let the girl know that she should leave and not communicate with him further is a possibly valid interpretation of what we see.
She touches him. It seems reasonable to assume that she knows from the touch whether he is alive or dead.
If he is dead, then she is pretty callous, because she barely reacts.
If she is alive, then her reaction is consistent with her realising that she and her brother are now on their own in completing their journey back to the community she thinks of as "civilisation". -