BLACK WATER
Australia, 2007, 90 minutes, Colour.
Diana Glynn, Maeve Dermody, Andy Roderida, Ben Oxenbould, Fiona Press.
Directed by David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki.
Black Water, like Greg Mc Lean’s Rogue, which was made at the same time, is about crocodile menace. Whereas Rogue used the conventions of the terror film and of menace, a tourist group with some whining complainers and some heroic leadership, Black Water confines itself to a family group of three with a guide. This means that most audiences could very readily identify with characters, the dangers, the sense of hopelessness – and no foreseeable rescue. This could happen if you were in such circumstances, an easy excursion for fishing in allegedly safe waters, the crocodile attack, deaths, being stranded on the mangrove branches with no one knowing you went out – plus heat, mosquitoes, thirst and the horror and look of the crocodile, its teeth and its maw.
This gives the film a blend of documentary style and home movie tone that makes it more real than the disaster genre realism. The small cast does all that is required of them in terms of fear and resignation to fate. This does make watching it not only uncomfortable but creates a definite sense of unease and fear.
1.The tradition of animal menace? Audience expectations?
2.Northern Territory, crocodile territory, the swamps, black water, the title?
3.The moods, the musical score, themes for menace, themes for joy?
4.The introduction to the three characters and their mother, the Christmas holidays and celebration, their going on holidays, the credits and the collage of photos? Setting a tone?
5.Driving, the holidays, Grace discovering she was pregnant, not telling her husband? Lee as the baby’s sister? The visit to the crocodile farm, the information, the jaws, the dangers?
6.The decision to go to the Backwater, meeting Jim, going in the boat, fishing, the tin can and the scare, the sense of safety, peaceful? The fish?
7.The attack of the crocodile, the overturning of the boat, Jim and his being killed, the two going to the tree, Lee trapped under the boat, the rope, her going to the top of the boat, floating, eventually throwing the rope?
8.The desperate situation, the different response from each, the sense of waiting, hoping people would come by? Grace trying to get out via the trees, seeing Jim’s ear? Adam and his going to the boat? The heat, the mosquitos, thirst? No-one knowing what would happen?
9.Night and the storm?
10.Adam, going to the boat, turning it over, his being taken, Grace trying to say goodbye to him?
11.Grace and Lee, going to the boat, the attack, Grace’s wounds, Lee helping her, in the tree, her silent death?
12.Lee, with Grace, her fears, the attack, going to the boat, the crocodile coming onto the boat, the lower tide, getting Jim’s gun, testing it, her wounds, the pursuit and shooting the crocodile?
13.Lee and Grace’s body, moving the boat to safety?
14.Audiences able to identify with the characters and the situations? Plausibility? What if …?
