TRACKS
Australia, 2013, 112 minutes, Colour.
Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver, John Flaus, Jennifer Tovey, Robert Coleby.
Directed by John Curran.
Tracks is the film version of Robyn Davidson’s book of 1978, detailing her 1977 trek from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean, past Uluru, out into the deserts, encountering some small settlements as well as aboriginal women and men. She was 27 at the time and was sponsored by the National Geographic magazine. It was an outstanding achievement.
The film visualises the trek, inviting audiences to share something of the experience of Robyn Davidson, not an easy sitting back to watch a touristic episode, but rather to feel the heat, the desert rocks and sand, the isolation, the sometimes-monotony, the irritation at the photojournalists and their intrusions, the possibility of reflecting on what she was doing and its meaning.
This means that the writer, Marion Nelson, a first-time scriptwriter and director, John Curran, have to move between drawing the audiences in with spectacular photography (by Mandy Walker), a musical score by Garth and an interesting series of episodes during the trek a well as enabling the audience to experience the outer and the inner journey through the Australian deserts.
This also means that some audiences will be willing to surrender to what the film makers put before them. But it also means that some audiences will soon tire of the journey, find it less than interesting, possibly boring, and not find Tracks the engrossing film that they might have hoped for.
Mia Wasikowska, only 23 when she made this film, four years younger than Robyn Davidson herself, has had a distinguished career, even at a young age, from Alice in Wonderland to Jane Eyre, playing Australian characters and American characters. She communicates the ccharacter of Robyn Davidson, her determination, her willingness to spend long months in the outback with camel training, persuading her family that this was something that she must do, writing to National Geographic to enlist their financial support for the trek. Younger audiences might immediately identify with her. Older audiences will look at her with interest, perhaps remembering their younger adventurous days, or concerned with how this will all turn out for the young woman.
Before she sets out on her journey, she encounters a range of characters in the outback, especially Kurt, Rayner Boch, who works with her and the camels, and John Flaus as Sallay, who also trains and encourages her. Before she leaves, she meets Rick Smolan (Adam Driver), the photographer assigned to cover her journey. She is not too enthusiastic about him, realising that she likes to be by herself, away from built-up cities, out in the desert, out in nature, living her introverted journey.
Once she is on her journey, having been excluded from the camp at Ayer’s Rock, because of her camels, and camping outside - and the audience relishing the beauty of the rock with her - the film relies on the beauty and range of the changing landscapes, the people that she meets, an old white couple who welcome and encourage her, the aborigines, especially the women who chant and invite her to dance with them, the elder who accompanies her through the sacred sites (after Rick Smolan has secretly filmed men’s business but has been discovered and Robyn is to pay the penalty of his indiscretion by having to take a longer route around the sacred sites).
There are also dramatic episodes, the camels running away, beautiful drinking water, dry riverbeds, moments of despair. However, her attitude towards Rick Smolan changes, her allowing him to photograph her, sexual moments, and reliance on him to get rid of the photographers.
Tracks, of course, can serve as a symbolic journey for anyone, as we all move through our deserts, the isolation, and longings and ambitions, the moments of relief, the moments of challenge, the moments of despair.
1. The film based on a true story? On the book record of the track? The experiences of a young Australian woman at 27? The 1970s?
2. The adaptation, the challenge is to keep audience interest? In writing, directing, editing? The musical score and its moods?
3. Australia in the 1970s, the allusions to what was going on, Gough Whitlam…? The old traditions, change?
4. Mia Wasikowska as Robyn Davidson, a character, actions, interior life, her quest?
5. Robyn Davidson and her age, her Queensland background, the farm, the cattle? Her father and his work, appearance in the film? Her mother, dead, the memories? The flashbacks to Robyn’s childhood? The family visiting her before she left? Talking about the plan, their understanding? Her sister?
6. The importance of having her dog as a companion, throughout most of the journey, her sadness when the dog was killed by strychnine poison?
7. The plan, the journey, it’s plausibility? Difficulties, dangers, isolation, the possibility getting lost? Her accepting these conditions?
8. The plane with the camels, the German man and her work with him, his harsh manner, the woman? Training the camels? Her ease with the animals?, His background, training her, friendship, his advice, the rifle and the warning about oncoming bull camels? The months passing? The young man and his inability with the camels, her helping him to calm them, his selling her the camels? Her building up the provisions?
9. National Geographic, writing to them, the letter coming back, their acceptance? Rick Smolan and his arrival, with the friends, his return as photographer, his character, Robyn not liking him, posing for him and politically?
10. Going to Uluru, prevented entry with the camels, camping outside, the visual beauty of Uluru
11. the visuals of the journey, Robyn walking, 20 miles a day, leaving the camels, camping at night, night and the stars? The range of scenery, the mountains, the desert, the sand, rugged? The flowing stream? The dry bed? The kangaroo and its providing for the meal? The wild camels and her shooting? The snakes? Fears?
12. Rick Smolan and his arrival, the range of pictures, talking, the sexual encounter, Robyn relying on him, especially with the journalists and photographers?
13. The old couple, they’re welcome, their characters, help? Swimming in the dam? Washing?
14. The aborigines, the group of women, the dancing, inviting Robyn to dance with them? Rick and his photographing the secret meetings? The penalty, on Robyn, the longer journey? The aboriginal men, their help, the elder and his walking her through the sacred sites?
15. The photographers, the pressure on her? The journey and avoiding them? Her arrival, the lake, exhilaration?
16. The meaning of the journey for her, the audience? Symbolic and real? Her achievement?
