In this first installment of our webblog for 2010, I would like each of you to offer comment on "The Last Wave." You may try to sort it out for yourself as one way of writing about it, although I would like it best if you would comment on the film in light of the dialectic of civilization and savagery we have studied these last several months. Should you like to learn more about what Peter Weir was trying to get at by way of the film, have a look at the text of an interview conducted with him in 1979 (2 years after the completion of the film) at:
http://www.peterweircave.com/articles/articlei.html
You may also find some added inspiration for your commentary in the next section of Mazlish we will be reading this coming week. OK, you have until 5 pm Friday to get your comments up. I look forward to seeing them.
"You cannot have have both civilization and truth."
Iris Murdoch
"The savage in man is never quite eradicated."
Henry David Thoreau
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In this film, Peter Weir tries to force the two sides of the “civilization vs. savagery” into the closest contact as possible. This is evidenced in the very first scene, although we may not understand so until later. The Aboriginal tribe that the movie focuses on has its sacred sites below the sewers of Sydney, which in addition to keeping “civilization” and “savagery” centered on the same geographic area also transmits a strong symbolic opinion. The Aboriginals are placed beneath the tremendous physical weight of the skyscrapers of the foreign civilization brought to their country by white men, symbolizing the way their culture was crushed under this foreign culture, much the way an invasive weed can devastate native plant life. In addition, the fact that the Aboriginals are placed beneath the sewers, full of civilization’s waste, symbolizes the frequently awful treatment they have suffered at the hands of the foreigners.
ReplyDeleteThis symbolism of “savagery” crushed by “civilization” aside, the movie also forces the viewer to question who is really the “savage” culture in this meeting. The lawyer (not the one played by Chamberlain) who is supposed to be a professional advocate for Aboriginal rights seems remarkably callous to their suffering and adamantly denies the idea that they could continue to carry on their tribal practices while living in the city of Sydney. This failure of the supposedly “civilized” man to respect the other men’s culture makes the white Australians appear to be almost as barbaric as the “savages” they think the Aboriginals are.
This questioning of the clear cut distinction between “savage” and “civil” is further expounded by the lawyer played by Chamberlain’s discovery of a sort of “primitive” power inside of him. He discovers his ability to have prophetic dreams which, according to the Aboriginals, identifies him as a member of the Mercural (my best attempt at spelling the word phonetically). Civilization is neither tolerant nor particularly accepting of the idea that dreams can be prophetic, as evidenced by his wife’s shocked reaction when he told her to flee Sydney because he had a bad dream about the Sydney being completely covered in water. “Civilization” seems to regard this idea as absurd and pagan. However, the fact that these dreams convey the truth about the future to Chamberlain seems to reinforce and support Iris Murdoch’s quip that, “You cannot have both civilization and truth.” Civilization encourages Chamberlain to repress these prophetic dreams, which in an indirect way works against the discovery of truth. The fact that this ability appears even in a man who works as a lawyer, arguably the profession most emblematic of “Civilization’s” repression of the “savage,” surely reflects Thoreau’s conviction that “The savage in man is never quite eradicated.”
The destruction of Sydney via a tidal wave is also symbolic of the tension between “civilization” and the “savage.” The romantic view of “savagery” always identifies supposedly primitive man as having a far deeper connection with the natural world than “civilized” man. The irony of all the supposed power of civilization being completely eradicated from Australia through the violent power of nature is Weir’s attempt that “civilization” simply cannot afford to completely ignore nature. After all, whatever the power of “civilization,” nature can never be tamed or completely conquered. This is evidenced both by Australian society’s failure to completely stop the “savage” tribal practices of the Aboriginals and also by “civilization’s” eventual destruction by an awesome and powerful natural force.
In his book Civilizations and Its Contents, Bruce Mazlish describes how, following the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, the previously linked concepts of culture and civilization became two separate ideas. After this point, those who considered themselves part of the “West” instead used the concept of civilization as a means of asserting their ideological superiority over those they considered to be “savages”. This distinction between those who are “civilized” and those who are “savages” is a major theme of Peter Weir’s film The Last Wave.
ReplyDeleteThe struggles experienced by the group of Aboriginals living in Sydney results from those who consider themselves to be civilized failing to understand the tribal traditions and culture of the Aboriginals and from the Aboriginals being unable to fit in with the culture of the rest of the city. The Aboriginals are living within Sydney, which suggests that there is a sort of frontier emerging between them and the other inhabitants of Sydney. In truth, however, even though they are living amongst one another, there still exists more of what Mazlish would refer to as a boundary between the Aboriginals and the “Western” inhabitants in which there really is no cultural flux between the two groups.
Reason, another major theme of the Enlightenment, is another idea that The Last Wave emphasizes in relation to how one perceives the world around them. The lawyer David Burton must come to terms with the contradiction which arises between his own “reason” and the Aboriginals’ seemingly radical beliefs in a dream time and curses which kill people. This contradiction is one which is made all the more difficult to overcome because the “civilized” culture is one which tends to see itself as the introducer of ideas and is closed to ideas from “inferior” cultures. In many ways, Burton’s obstacle resembles the challenge which Cabeza de Vaca faced even before the Enlightenment in trying to reconcile his practices, which he had also taken for granted as being superior, with the also valid practices of the Native Americans.
Another major obstacle faced by Burton in coming to accept the dream time as a valid idea and premonition is the concept of the progression to civilization. The mentality of many who consider themselves to be “civilized” is that, rather than participating in an exchange of ideas between different cultures over time, there is a constant progression towards civilization. This is an idea which in many ways seems to be expressed by Jack Weatherford. This is evident through Weatherford’s defense of technology through his claims that it creates more cultural diversity than homogeneity and that it allows cultures to be freed from geography and to become producers of their own cultural identities. This mentality discourages the acceptance of other cultures’ beliefs by the supposed further progressed “civilized” society. It is also this mentality which proves to be detrimental to the Australians in The Last Wave, which Weir makes clear in his 1979 interview. There were many signs which foreshadowed the apocalyptical wave that ultimately took over Australia, but the “Westerners” did not recognize these signs because they had lost touch with their dream time. Furthermore, the “Westerners” had come to believe that they were so dominant that they could control nature. In the end, the wave shows that this was not truly the case. Thus, The Last Wave demonstrates the flaw in the post-Enlightenment perception that there is a superior “civilized” society.
In his most popular movie and one of my favorite films, The Truman Show, Peter Weir places Truman Burbank’s entire life on a television show without Truman even realizing the fake reality of his life. The questions that one is left to ponder after the movie include simulated reality and the making of Christianity. In every Peter Weir film, Weir creates an obscure situation that forces the reader into a series of moral questions. As for The Last Wave, Weir tells the story of David Burton, a lawyer, who is in charge of defending a group of aborigines who killed a man with tribal rituals. Weir brings up the topic that we have been discussing for the entire year of what civilization is and what makes something savage.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind, Weir is trying to convey a couple of main points about modern civilization. The first and most obvious point that Weir shows in the movie is the disrespect and ignorance of modern civilization towards very different cultures. A key moment where this ignorance occurs in the movie is during the courtroom scene when Chris is on the stand for the murder of the man in the opening scene. When Burton questions Chris and asks if his tribal people killed the man with tribal spells, the prosecuting lawyer screams out that this is absurd and cannot happen inside of city limits. The people of Sydney find it logically impossible that tribal practices that would normally occur in the outback are occurring on the streets of Sydney, the most civilized part of Australia. Also, the disrespect in the movie comes in various forms, whether it is the wife of David Burton racist fears or the aborigines being confined to the sewers. Weir is definitely trying to cement the claim that the native culture has been oppressed by modern civilization.
Stemming from Weir’s point of oppression of the savages by civilization comes the second point of the movie: these savage people are not that much different than civilization itself. Charlie, Chris and the rest of the aborigines in the movie live in apartments of Sydney just like any other Australian person. They have normal jobs and go about their daily routines. The only difference between them and an average white Australian is the set of ritual practices embedded in their separate cultures. The white Australians have their western religious beliefs including Christianity, while the aborigines have their dreamtime beliefs. This is the only difference between the typical Australian and the Aboriginals besides skin color. As previously discussed in class, Freud would call this incident the “narcissism of minor differences.” We are truly close to how these aboriginals live; however, we have to make a big deal about the minor differences in culture.
This is what causes the disrespect and ignorance of modern civilization towards the natives. The civilized white man cannot come to grip with the fact that these aboriginals on the large scale are basically at the same level as him. Therefore, they define the term civilization and force the natives on the scale of savagery to create a larger difference between the two. On its most basic scale, the term civilization is just a masking term that helps one group separate itself further from another group of people. The two terms civilization and savagery are just arbitrary social constructs that vary between perspectives.
After watching “The Last Wave,” and in thinking about what the film meant to our investigation of the “civilized” and “savage” worlds, one image in particular stood out to me. In the trial, when Chris was called to the stand as a witness, the image of him holding his right hand on the bible and swearing to tell the truth reflected the ridiculousness(sorry if that isn’t a word) that characterizes many cultural encounters.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the movie, one of the major points of contention was that of the existence of tribal people in the city. The white men, for whatever reason, considered it impossible that anyone within the city limits could live tribal lives. Whether there was some law forbidding their residence in the city or the white men just thought that tribal people would not enjoy life in the city, the ignorant Western view that their “civilized” ways would both remain pure as well as stamp out their “savage” counterparts is brought into the foreground. The post-enlightenment progressive view of civilizations made this possible as people thought that, when presented with the “newest, best model” of civilization, savages would eat it up and convert. It was the logical course of events. Who wouldn’t want to jump on the Western bandwagon?
The answer to this question, as this movie as well as books like the one written by Perrin demonstrate, is often the conquered non-Westerners. In many cases, the West tries to force its “package of ideas” onto another culture. As the “savages” are forced into this mold of civilization, they often react strongly, vehemently opposed to becoming something other than what they view themselves to be. Sometimes this reaction is brought about by widespread policy change, like in Japan. Other times, as this movie shows, the reaction goes along silently, as the natives give the impression of ‘playing by the rules’ but continuing to do things ‘their way’ under the radar. The Westerners arrogantly assumed that their way had taken hold, and we end up with situations like the one in the movie. The Westerners thought that, logically, the only aboriginal people to stay in the city would be the ones who had adopted the Western package of ideas and those that wanted to hold onto their dying tribal ways would leave to go about their business in the desert. Misunderstandings like this drive the plot for the majority of the movie and scenes like the one in the courtroom shed some light on the Western way of expecting the Other to become Western without regard for what the Other wants to become.
Peter Weir’s “The Last Wave” establishes a stark contrast between the ways of the savage and the ways of the civilized. The seemingly savage Aborigines are unwilling to cooperate with the legal system as it does not reflect or comprehend the manner in which they handle conflicts—what the Europeans would refer to as a “savage” system. It appears as though the “savage” and “civilized” systems are irreconcilable.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, though, a distinct amalgamation of the two seemingly irreconcilable systems arises. Chamberlain, the attorney who at first glance fits perfectly within the civilized Australian society, soon finds himself entangled in the ritual activities of the Aborigine people. Upon revealing his visionary dreams, Chamberlain finds that he is in fact a member of the Mercurial community. Here we witness a manifestation of Thoreau’s idea that “The savage in man is never quite eradicated.” Similarly, in reference to Captain Cook’s experience in New Zealand, Bruce Mazlish states, “Implied is the subconscious knowledge that civilized man is capable of uncivilized behavior as well” (Mazlish 36). Though Weir initially portrays Chamberlain as the antithesis of savagery, he dispels this notion through his deepening involvement in the Aborigine myth. As Chamberlain recognizes his inherent savagery, the viewer too is forced to consider that possibility.
Thus, Weir presents the idea that even civilized culture fails to achieve a state of complete civilization. For the past several centuries, the goal of many societies has been to suppress any sense of barbarian behavior. The ultimate goal has been to acquire a completely civilized society. Nevertheless, “The Last Wave” demonstrates that savagery is inevitable within the individual and thus a situation of absolute civilization within a society is, in fact, impossible.
The attempt to stifle any semblance of a savage culture was particularly evident in Australian culture. The white Europeans came in and progressively eliminated the visibility of Aboriginal culture. Essentially, the Aborigine people were pushed to the furthest extent possible, underground in the Sydney sewer system. In this sewer system, the Aborigine people held their most sacred possessions, including drawings foretelling the end of Australian civilization. Thus, it appears Weir may be attempting to show the need to accept seemingly barbaric cultures rather than striving to eliminate any trace of that culture. If civilization’s incessantly oppressive nature is not impeded, conflict will be inevitable and threatening to the welfare of the global society.
Within the book of Genesis lies a story of human creation, where an almighty creator shaped a pile of dust into the form of a human, then breathed into it to create human life. Such a story underlines the point that humans are merely compositions of natural elements; it emphasizes the inherent tie to nature that all humans possess. Nevertheless, this relationship is hidden from much of modern society, buried underneath the vast social constructs of “civilization”. Civilization carries with it the feature of technological modernity, and this technology in turn works to liberate humans from nature’s constraints: it provides energy, surplus of food, shelter, and transportation. These technological aspects produce a strong sensation of independence among citizens of the civilized “West” where nature is assumed all but conquered. Because these citizens believe they possess the power to conquer their natural ties and overcome their animalness, they in turn assume they possess some kind of superiority and advancement over those who have not already done so, and thus classify these people as savages.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that uncivilized societies are savage is a longstanding plague to western culture, one that came to prominence during the imperialistic encounters of the Sixteenth Century. The term savage implies that these peoples are undeveloped, and thus “civilized” people have taken it as their responsibility to catalyze a “development”: The White Man’s Burden. Nevertheless these beliefs are unfounded; as Levi-Strauss and Clastres have noted, these tribal people are as equally developed and capable as their western counterparts, only they have chosen to focus on development in natural sectors rather than technological ones.
Peter Weir portrays the extent of fallacy that lies within the claims of savagery in his film, “The Last Wave.” The European colonizers in Sidney had little respect for the indigenous culture during the imperial days, and hence paved a city over tribal lands. These efforts were clearly in the name of civilization, and the Aborigine tribesmen were forced to adopt a city environment in order to become “developed.” The only way to preserve the indigenous culture from this civilization was to hide it, and thus, the modern-day tribesmen cannot even execute their own tribal law without being punished by the westerners or compromising their secrets. The native culture is clearly repressed into apparent oblivion in the name of progress, yet ironically the supposed “savages” are the only people with the tools advanced enough to interpret David’s visions. Even though the indigenous people had not developed advanced technology, they had obtained a keen understanding of nature and its mysticism. Not only are they shown to be as equally capable as the civilized westerners, their talents can be argued to be more valuable because of the naturally-founded truths they maintain. The tribesmen are fully imbedded in nature’s essence, and are thus able to utilize its subtle mysticisms to gain understanding of the world’s cyclical structure. The civilized David could not find any meaning in his dreams; rather he had to submit himself to a development of “savagery”, and could not understand the underlying truth in his visions until he was literally underneath civilization’s influences. Truth and understanding could only be found in oneness with nature; David’s greatest knowledge came directly through his own “savagery.”
The core problem of civilization’s ignorance stems from its dependence on technology and the façade of invincibility it generates. While technology may ease the burdens of life, it is progression is aimed at perfection; civilizations are constantly building their own towers of Babel in attempts to gain more and more paramountcy over the elements of their universe. Yet civilization, as Mazlish notes, is merely a social construct, and thus, any truths or strengths that it yields are merely social constructs as well. Rather than manipulating the elements of the earth, Tribal people embrace their subservience to their environment, and through this submission they are able to discover nature’s intricacies and truths in ways pure science cannot. On the other hand, civilized societies continue to distance themselves from their natural ties, and are thus becoming further removed from this reality. Civilization is building its “developed” stronghold with mountains of sand, yet no matter how high it builds, it can never escape its natural foundations, and nature still only requires a single wave to undo all of its progress. Rather than labeling uncivilized cultures as savages, westerners should seek to learn from them and their extraordinary ties with humanity’s true natural foundations.
ReplyDeleteIn The Last Wave, many of people, such as the other lawyer, are quick to classify the Aboriginal men on trial as murders and in this sense savages. Their single-mindedness does not allow for deviation from this stance, even when an alternative situation is presented. David Burton suggests that these “city men” are actually tribal aboriginals who are protecting sacred secrets and have a life different then most white men can understand. However, the civilization David and the lawyer live in does not believe that the tribe still exists or that magic is a possible means of death. This becomes immediately apparent in the courtroom when David presents a “magic bone” an aboriginal chief might have used to kill someone; the lawyer on the other side protests is completely irrelevant. It doesn’t seem to matter that the cause of death was extremely obscure and that this tribal magic was what actually killed him. To most of the people there, the idea of tribal laws and magic probably seems quite “savage.” David’s family also expresses a similar sentiment towards the Aboriginals when they come to the house for dinner. The children sit at the top of the stairs giggling seemingly at this “other” and the wife never seems comfortable around them. These situations illustrate how civilization has taught people to be skeptical of “the other” and has given some a sense of superiority over “savages” who have different beliefs and cultures. Throughout the course of The Last Wave, David seems to escape this cycle by gaining understanding of the Aboriginals and their beliefs which turn out to be correct over those of the supposedly superior civilization.
ReplyDeleteIn the progression of the case, David realizes he is not who he thought. With a little help from the Aboriginals, David uncovers an ability not normally accepted by his civilization. No longer does he only consider himself Australian, white or a lawyer; he’s a dreamer and a mukuru who can foresee the future. His perception of himself and his civilization are turned upside down with the help of an Aboriginal tribe. David seems to understand that being “civilized” has led him away from himself. At one point he says, “We've lost our dreams. Then they come back and we don't know what they mean.” Chris’s explanation of dreaming shows why they are important to life and existence; “Dream like hearing ... seeing ... talking ... the way of knowing things.” If the way of knowing comes from dreaming and people like David, who might have been able to understand these dreams if not for the pressures of his civilization, no longer “know things”, then the perception of civilization seems to be somewhat convoluted. In fact, David only truly understands when he steps out of the realm of civilization and into the “savage” Aboriginal state.
Both of these aspects of the movie seem to illustrate a couple points: civilization suppresses an individual’s true nature and civilization creates harmful perceptions of superiority. In David’s case, he learns that his dad has been keeping patterns about David’s dreams and life hidden for years. This fact seems to indicate that foreseeing the future is not accepted by his society, though the Aboriginals readily believe in this power. This example shows that civilization clouds people’s perception of who they are naturally outside the confines of their civilization. Peter Weir said in his interview, “I'm an Australian in a sense, but I've lost something. And that's what I made a film about.” Civilization seems to be the major reason why this something has been lost.
The Last Wave illustrates the modes of perception that "civilization" has repressed in us. Weir believes that "civilization" has robbed us of a way of thinking about the world which is innate in us. We experience things "for which there are no words" but we try to explain away these experiences so that we can bring order and reason into our lives. In the case of The Last Wave, the lawyer begins having prophetic dreams and tries to explain them away as simple nightmares. If the same thing had happened to me, I too would have looked for a logical explanation or simply forgotten about it. This is because I have been taught to discredit nightmares since I was a child. My parents taught me to reason in the face of fear and to discredit strange experiences such as vivid nightmares. I look at the world the way I do because my parents have initiated me into civilization. I take for granted that my way of experiencing reality is better than any competing worldview because I seldom come in contact with people like the aborigines whose modes of perception are significantly different than mine. However, by repressing dreams and focusing only on the concrete and the proven we are significantly limiting our experience of reality. It's as if we are wearing blinders allowing us only to see straight ahead. The aborigines were not initiated into civilization from childhood so they were never taught to repress their dreams and intuitions. They had not, as Chris said, "forgotten what their dreams meant."
ReplyDeleteCivilization is a social construct that is opposed to our nature. This is symbolized by the cave underneath Sydney in The Last Wave. We have pushed our innate way of seeing the world deep underground and built Civilization on top of it in order to repress our "savage" nature. Another example of this phenomenon is given in Mazlish's Civilization and its Contents. Mazlish says that when the Spanish first arrived in a new colony, the first thing they would do was build an organized city center in the belief that "cities were synonymous with civilization." The Spanish quickly destroyed the centers of the native's communities and built their modern cities on top of their ruins. "Westerners" were so sure they had eradicated "savagery" by building cities that during The Last Wave, Australian's often repeat the belief that "there are no tribal people in the cities." In Europe, "Westerners" had similarly tried to eradicate any remnants of their "savage" past. "Civilization" became the only acceptable worldview and "savagery" was the name Europeans gave to any group that refused to repress our innate modes of perception in favor of what they termed "reason."
Another major theme of The Last Wave is the "Western" Australian's mistaken belief that they , unlike their aboriginal predecessors, had defeated the forces of nature and would be the permanent inhabitants of the land. The lawyer in The Last Wave struggles to define where he is from or where he belongs. He is descended from Englishmen, was born in South America, and now lives in Australia. The aboriginals, on the other hand, have lived in the same place for generations. The civilized man has no past and no sense of belonging while the savage man is deeply connected to the land and to the practices of his ancestors. Unbelievably, it is the wandering newcomer who believes he has the rightful claim to the land. Shortly upon arriving in Australia, "westerners" developed the idea that they were now the permanent owners of the country.
. As the apocalyptic wave demonstrated, "westerners" grossly overestimated their control over their environment. Perhaps this is because the term "civilization" was developed during the Age of Enlightenment, a period in which people were overly optimistic that they had discovered the laws which govern nature. They did not understand that their ownership of the land was just as tenuous as the aborigines'. The "westerners" too could be wiped out and replaced with a new group of inhabitants. In the end, the Australian's were doomed because they couldn't process the warnings they were given and because they were overconfident that the "civilization" they had built would last forever.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Wave provides a video interpretation of the diaphanous line that separates "savagery" and "civilization." The two terms, considered contradictory, influence cultural encounter by creating a chasm of definition; "civilization" is considered to overtake the "savagery." Director Peter Weir muddles the clear break between the terms by creating a story with the backdrop of Australia. Creating an interaction between a lawyer, David Burton, and aboriginal people, Weir attempts to distort the common view of otherness as "savagery." The Last Wave offers insight into the murk of cultural encounter and the lack of separation of "savagery" and "civilization."
ReplyDeleteThe film presents the difficulty of understanding cultural encounters. To the European-Australians, the aborigines are a mysterious group with veiled customs; the customs define a "savage" bygone period. Within the city environment, Australians abhor the idea of tribal customs existing, and they believe that the "savage" rituals of the tribal aborigines no longer exist. However, David Burton discovers the existence of tribal customs and beliefs when he investigates the aborigines for a murder. Richard becomes ensconced with the ideas of the tribal customs and experiences some; the "dream time" idea of the aborigines explains some his foretelling dreams. Because of this, Richard personifies the film's attempt to evaporate the line between "savagery" and "civilization." A "civilized" man reverts from his behavior and adopts "savage" customs. Using these terms, he reverts to savagery. However, he discovers truth within the "savagery;" he discovers a spirituality much more connected with him than that of the "civilized." Through these actions, Weir works to muddle the distinction between the "civilized" and the "savage" and personifies the continuity between the two.
The film further works to destroy the clear break between savagery and civilization by separating culture and civilization. Just like Bruce Mazlish, Weir addresses the ideas of culture and civilization as two different entities. For the people of Australia, the aboriginal culture appears almost inferior. As Zhang Longxi would denote, "cultural conquest" occurs; the "civilized" European culture attempts to crush native "savagery." Without a complete understanding of the other, the conquering culture believes that it controls the superior "civilization" and should dispel all "savagery." The film actively works against this claim. Weir clearly distinguishes between the culture and the civilization that the aborigines live in. The civilization clashes with them when another aborigine dies for violating an aboriginal custom; the courts attempt to persecute the natives under law of imported European culture. The film shows the distinct difference between this civilization and the aboriginal culture. The culture still maintains tribal customs. This differentiation helps intertwine the ideas of "civilization" and "savagery" further. The "savagery" in this case can appear to be either the murder or the prosecution of the aborigines. Conversely, the "civilization" can appear to be the aboriginal customs or the court system. Because of this, the two terms lose their opposition and become very unclear in their distinction.
With these terms unclear, the perception of the viewer affects the terms most profoundly. "Civilization" and "savagery" only exist within the confines of one's mind. The two different cultures of the film, the aboriginal and the European-Australian, view each other differently within the confines of "civilization" and "savagery." Because of this, the perception of the other most determines the actions of the self. Blockage occurs within the encounter as different cultures do not possess adequate respect for the other; cultures do not fully understand each other because they cannot comprehend the perspective of the other. Under the definitions of "civilization" and "savagery," they simply attempt to crush the culture with the different perspective. In the efforts, the attempts to crush the "savagery" appear savage, and by the end of the encounter, the "civilization" and the "savagery" appear indistinguishable.
ReplyDeleteI feel the quotation above from Henry David Thoreau fits well with “The Last Wave.” David is the model of a man from “civilization.” He has a wife, two children, and a good home outside of the city (could be in the suburbs but that is never confirmed). Being a lawyer, he represents the intelligence and family-man value of an upper middle class citizen. Yet he still has prophetic dreams foretelling of the future. The aborigines’ customs tell of a man from the “land of the rising sun” who will predict the coming apocalypse, and David is that man. Even without effort – or maybe with effort to avoid being savage-like – David is key to the tribe of “savages.”
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I find it challenging to truly classify the tribesmen as savages. Just as with most of the cultures we have encountered thus far, they have developed skills and technology that matches those found in the “civilized” society. The tribe has its own set of laws which play a role in the ability of the Sydney government to prosecute the men. It also has medicine, although ritual based, which proves to be in working order. The coroner initially stated he could find no reason why the man had died, leaving the deathbone to be a plausible culprit. They even keep historical artifacts under the sewage system. These qualities, to me, definitely scream society, if not civilization.
It is clear that the city of Sydney sees the differences between the two civilizations as a boundary rather than a frontier. The agency that convinces David to represent the aborigines would only have been created if the government thought they could not represent themselves. Yet the tribe has its own set of laws and while their form of justice may be different from the formal court system of Australia, by setting up an agency just for them, it is like providing a translator to an English speaking person instead of teaching them French. Sydney is not giving the tribe the tools to cross into the “westernized” frontier, but instead sending out a messenger to meet them at the border.
In the movie, The Last Wave, the director Peter Weir uses the contrast of cultures between the aboriginals of Australia with the 'civilized' white city-dwellers as the backdrop for this film in order to highlight this seemingly vast separation. One of the most striking parts of the movie occurred when David, the lawyer and main character, asks the aboriginals, "Isn't a man more important than the law?". Chris, one of the aboriginals, replies, "No, the law is more important that just man." To me, this signifies the stark contrast between the aboriginal ways and the views of the white man. The aboriginals value the law and the clan above all else, while the lawyer believes that the rights of the individual transcends all else. This is illustrated even further when considering the laws of each side, as much of the English common law (on which Australian law is based) protects the rights of the individual, but the tribal law protects the whole clan regardless, it seems, of the individual's rights. Yet, even though the movie uses this difference in the law as a backdrop for this story, this is not the main plot of the movie.
ReplyDeleteIn the interview with the director, Peter Weir says his true focus of the film is the loss of dreamtime. According to Weir, the film is about the loss of dreamtime that is the result of the transition from 'savagery' to 'civilization'. In Australia, circa 1977, science is the only accepted rationale, but in the movie the death of the aboriginal can not simply be explained by science. In the beginning of the film the coroner is unsure of the the cause of death, because he can find no concrete evidence proving how the death occurred. The lawyer is also unable to use reason to explain away his vivid dreams. Yet, Chris is not surprised when he hears that lawyer dreamt of meeting him. This because Chris maintained his connection with the dream time, while the lawyer lost his connection. The evidence that the lawyer once had a connection with the dreamtime is found at the end of the film when the lawyer's father explains that the lawyer once had a premonition of his mother's death. The loss of connection with the dreamtime ultimately leads to the demise of the entire nation of Australia, through the 'last wave'. This also validates the quote by Iris Murdoch, "You can not have both civilization and truth," because emergence of the Australian civilization led to the loss of the truth, in this case the truth of dreamtime.
Peter Weir’s “The Last Wave” exemplified man’s struggle with civilization and savagery in my eyes. Not only did the film show fixation of “civilized” men with the “savage” or “primitive” lifestyle, but also the fear that comes along with that idea. The main character, David, is clearly drawn in by the aboriginal life, as shown when he decides to take on a case about dealing with Aboriginals that is clearly outside of his usual corporate tax law for some unknown reason. This shows the wonder and curiosity that all “civilized” or “Westernized” people have about the “savage” life, the allure of their seemingly ignorant and simple lifestyle is appealing to people who feel they are overwhelmed by development. However, at the same time, there is a fear about this life as well, it is almost too mystical. Especially to David in the movie, his curiosity in the subject matter led him to see the magic of the killing bone and the terrifying secrets in the caves under the city. This fear comes from the fact that often associated with the “savage” and “ignorant” (which are clearly mistakenly too often put together) people have beliefs in something unexplained by “Western” rules and laws. For example, in the film the judge and other lawyers would not accept the death of the man was done by Aboriginal magic because that did not fit into their way of viewing the world. One of the questions in the interview with Weir addresses this fear: “It seems that in your film primeval forces are gaining control over a part of the world that was previously considered civilized.” The question is very thought-provoking, especially after seeing the movie, because it seems to me that part of the “civilized” man’s mentality is being able to control everything in his surroundings; however, the biggest fear of “savagery” is that it might be the one thing greater than civilization; the only force in the world that can destroy civilization.
ReplyDeleteThe other interesting aspect of the movie to me was the merging of how David grew up white, Christian, and completely disconnected from the Aboriginals, but managed to share in their dreams and have some sort of connection with them. It was most interesting because so often there is such a great divide drawn between the “civilized” and “natives,” as if they are two separate species. It was a remarkable way to show not only the unity in humanity, but also the “savage” in each man that possibly exists but is covered up with all of the civilization man has built around himself. It’s difficult to understand how David was able to participate in the dreams but not be able to comprehend what he was seeing, a quite bizarre idea, but one that is seen every day with people in their faith lives.
Overall, the most stimulating aspects of the movie boiled down to the allure and fear that “savagery” causes in “civilized” man and the savagery that is part of each man, regardless of whether he identifies himself as savage or not.
This movie attempts to portray the haunting inescapability of nature and man’s savage origin. Many of the images and themes in The Last Wave fit into this description through the portrayal of the dominance of the most natural forces and peoples over the artificial forces and people. The director’s lost past fits excellently into the frame of this narrative, as the world below Sydney and the true identity of the lawyer rise with the wave to retake their ancient claim. In every case, this eldritch identity overwhelms the impudent stripling that is the city, the Australian identity, and dry land.
ReplyDeleteThis theme is most likely distilled from the experience of the director in his encounters with the Australian aboriginal peoples and the Roman ruins – an ancient, decayed view of the world that retains its power in the idea that not everything has so decayed, or as a warning for the future; this is the stone head, which Weir considered to be evidence, granted by an alternate perception of the world; this is Gulpilil’s seemingly disjointed phrase, an artifact of a separate perception, which cannot be understood through the modern English perception; it is the ancient flood, dismissed as myth now, but told as fact in times bygone, according to Velikovsky and his adherents. It is, at its most base, an argument for the concept of the Truth of ancient man, the savage.
Within the movie proper, several visual elements reinforce this assertion. The first and foremost of these is the power of water overtaking all isolation and control man attempts to develop. This is furious Neptune wiping away the mortal’s pathetic attempt to impose limits upon him; water invades the radio, sealed to prevent water’s intrusion. Hail pierces the schoolhouse windows. Water engulfs land, whom man has trusted to stay true, despite the sea’s advances; water summits the edges of the bathtub (in a parallel to Weir’s perception of an unrestrained tap), water changes its very identity to challenge the definitions that man has established for it, becoming frogs and oil, and water drives the storm that casts trees upon the house, opening the roof to rain’s invasion. Every barrier man makes for the primitive is surmounted. The law of natives triumphs over the law of men. The apocalyptic Truth of the ancient past (the flood) is revealed to surpass the truths of the city-folk (isolated incidents and freak storms). David’s premonition comes to life regardless of his attempt to prevent the final wave. Weir makes it clear: there is no controlling nature, no denying it, no hiding it.
In order to encourage the viewer’s mental division and opposition of modern civilization and ancient savage, Weir invokes the dichotomy of spirit and substance, with substance subordinate to spirit, in accordance with his argument. The “real world,” that existence tangible to all, is consistently portrayed as secondary to the “Dreamtime,” whose influence supersedes its derivative world. Charlie, an aboriginal spirit of the ancient natives of Sydney, is quite capable of leaving the realm of Dreamtime of his own volition, appearing wherever he pleases, regardless of the spatial and chronological constraints of this world: he can be before David’s home, in the city apartment, in the parking lot, under the city, in the temple, or nowhere at all, with any paint, dress, weapon, or comprehension of language he desires. David’s visions, by being part of Dreamtime, surpass the constraints of time and space in their portrayal of what is yet to occur in the mortal coil civilization inhabits. The Dreamtime readily generates tulpas, or thought-forms, yet the waking world rarely possesses messengers like David, who are able to view Dreamtime in their slumber. David himself exhibits this dichotomy, as the director readily admits that he wanted a man of methodical thought to experience premonition with no basis in the current world, and the lawyer rids himself of his assumptions in deigning to travel beneath the city to investigate his predictions, and finds a temple of spiritual treasure beneath a plant processing physical waste. The bone needle’s use is a spiritual action with substantial impact – the death of a man. The trial involves both white law, which finds killing to be the greatest of crimes, and native law, which finds sacrilege to be the most heinous act. One of Weir’s anecdotes can explain this perception quite effectively: when Gulpilil was instructed to introduce Charlie, he placed no value upon that character, when he was asked to introduce Nanjiwarra, Gulpilil placed more emphasis upon his words, as he discerned the difference between Nanjiwarra, the chief, the true identity, and Charlie ,the character, the artificial identity.
ReplyDeleteNevin Peeples
ReplyDeletePeter Weir’s movie, “The Last Wave,” provides an additional perspective on the relationship between civilization and savagery. In the movie an aboriginal tribal man, Chris, is charged for manslaughter in an Australian court of law. Throughout his interactions with his lawyer, David Burton, and the Australian court, Chris is forced into a dead space between two cultures, his native aboriginal culture, and the “Westernized” Australian culture, neither of which he can fully reconcile. In time David Burton, the protagonist of the movie, finds himself in the same dead space as the Chris. In order to discover what actually happened the night of the manslaughter, Burton must leave his own society and become aboriginal himself. The interaction between these two cultures highlights the dialectic between civilization and savagery, and how there is no clear distinction between the two of them.
“The Last Wave” challenges our views of the terms civilization and savagery. To the Westerner, the aborigines are seen as savages due to their “primitive” practices that appear meaningless and out of date. Westerners believe themselves to be civilized through their advanced technologies, capitalist business strategies, and in the case of the movie, methodical law system. However when Western society is compared to aboriginal society, Westerners have practically no culture. In his interview with Judith M. Kass, Peter Weir comments on this aspect of Western society, reflecting on his own experience. “I, with a basically Scottish-Irish-English background, have lost my past. I have no past. I'm nobody. I ask my parents who these people are in the photograph album and they can't remember. Nobody knows. I have no culture. I'm a European who lives in Australia. I'm an Australian in a sense, but I've lost something. And that's what I made a film about.”
The film focuses on discovering the savage in the civilized, and the civilized in the savage. It breaks down the categories between what is considered civilized and savage. Through its intensive law practices in seeking to prosecute the aboriginal man for his manslaughter, the presumably civilized Australian culture is seen as savage. On the other hand the seemingly savage aboriginal culture is perceived as civilized because of its numerous practices that give it a true cultural identity.
Sarah Forde
ReplyDeleteThe concept of the Other has been considered through hundreds of centuries. Perhaps it is not always in a philosophical sense as being the path to self-discovery, but recordings of the initial interactions between cultures have revealed much about the difference between the “other” and the “self.” Most often, each culture sees (or at least records) the other culture as being, at least to some degree, barbaric. While there may be deep respect for their culture or technology, that which is foreign, exotic, and different often is construed to become something fearful, evil, weak, or in need of reform. Sometimes, especially when the Other is weak, they are exploited and manipulated as a means of acquiring cheap labor, land, or goods. This can be seen easily in Joseph Conrad’s novella The Heart of Darkness as well as Peter Weir’s movie The Last Wave. By considering the other in relation to a number of examples from books and records of encounters, we can learn more about not only cultures around the world, but also about ourselves.
Iris Murdoch, an English novelist, made the statement, “you cannot have both civilization and truth.” This follows the idea that we have touched a few times during the course of this class year, that is, the thought that as people approach a more unified system of living, they lose some of what makes them individuals. This is not to say that there is not individuality within civilizations, quite the opposite, actually. In truth, it is difficult, probably impossible (we have yet to accomplish it), to create clear-cut boundaries which delineate where one civilization ends and where the next begins. In Weir’s The Last Wave, the setting is contemporary Sydney (at the time of the film’s production, 1977) and includes an interesting array of interactions between the whites and aborigines living in the city. Even though the aborigines seem to have assimilated (mostly) into city life and appear to live similarly to the whites, David Burton, the white lawyer defending Chris, comes to realize that there is much more to them than what most of his colleagues think. Most prominent is the fact that the aborigines convinced the whites that the aborigines are no longer tribal people, while in fact, the reason for the trial, a murder attributed to Chris, occurred because of a tribal dispute. Relating back to Murdoch’s quote, this proves the fact that, at least for the aborigines, the civilization they are ostensibly a part of is not truly what they consider to be an accurate representation of themselves or their culture. They continue to live tribal lives, fraught with tribal disputes, all while forsaking white civilization in their hearts for the truth of their tribe. However, they are also not entirely truthful about their role in tribal civilization (if you wish to call it that) either, because they are forced to live a lie in order to pass for non-tribal people to the outside world in order to remain on their traditional tribal land (which happens to be within the city of Sydney).
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ReplyDeleteDavid, in the beginning of the movie, was reluctant to even defend Chris because he knew that such a case was well out of his area of expertise. However, during the process of researching for the trial, he meets Charlie, a aboriginal tribal elder with shaman-like abilities. Through Charlie, David learns that the dreams he has wondered about throughout his whole life are intertwined with the customs and beliefs of Charlie and Chris’s tribe, and that he has far more to do with them than he originally could have imagined. Chris helps David realize that he is Mukuru and that he is (and has always been) able to connect, through Dreamtime, to an ability to see the future. This allows him enough time to realize that his dream, a dream of a wave, is actually the last wave that Australia as he knows it will ever see.
Peter Weir agrees with Iris Murdoch’s quote, in a way, when he acknowledges in his interview that “I'm an Australian in a sense, but I've lost something.” Weir seems to lament the fact that his homeland of Australia holds such a tumultuous background with the struggle between the aborigines and the “invading” whites. The mixed background of Australians leads to some loss of truth in their individual meaning of civilization, whether they align themselves with the modern white areas of Australia or the traditional tribal areas. It is a constant balance between traditional and contemporary, white and black, truth and lies.
Iris Murdoch’s quote “You cannot have both civilization and truth” is emphasized in Peter Weir’s film The Last Wave. This quote is based on the line of reasoning that civilization determines what we think and believe, and therefore inhibits the blossoming of truth. It is not the truth and civilization are inherently contradictory, but it is rather that civilization holds back the discovery of truth.
ReplyDeleteIn Mazlish’s Civilization and Its Contents, he explains that civilization is a social construct that determines all of the ways in which its inhabitants live their lives. An individual’s free will within a civilization is diminished because the decisions that he or she will make are significantly influenced by the society in which one lives. In light of this realization, it is difficult to trust the authenticity of our own decisions since they are not the result of our actual nature. Within a civilization, an individual’s inherent nature is diminished as the civilization determines large aspects of a person’s personality.
Although I agree that decisions are often shaped by civilization rather than an individual’s nature, I believe that Murdoch’s assertion is a gross exaggeration of civilization squashing truth in the world. There are obvious contradictions to the statement that civilization and truth are contradictory through the scientific and mathematical truths discovered by those who have been living within civilizations in the last several hundred years. Murdoch’s intention with this quote is to describe how civilization constrains personal freedoms, and truth can only be discovered through uninhibited personal discovery. Since civilization has a tendency to influence and define the individuals’ experiences that live within it, self actualization is much more difficult to achieve within a civilization. Therefore, I agree that civilization and personal truth are in opposition to each other, but civilization and general truth can coexist and in certain situations they are even mutually beneficial.
In The Last Wave, Richard Chamberlain becomes aware of an impending apocalypse in a dream. This sort of vision though is not something that would be considered legitimate by civilization since it was not founded through traditional scientific data. Therefore, civilization is holding back truth since no one within the Australian civilization would accept this premonition of an oncoming apocalyptical wave. Peter Weir is asserting in this movie that civilization has conditioned its inhabitants into a certain mode of thinking where anything outside of its scope is considered incorrect. Therefore, civilization has limited civilization’s inhabitants’ full awareness of the world as many ideas are rejected since they are considered primitive or savage regardless of their actual truth value. Since Richard Chamberlain is a lawyer, his story is an especially salient reflection on how a member of civilization reacts when exposed to a very real experience that appears savage or mystical to the “civilized” psyche. His profession is significant because lawyers are the epitome of civilized thought, relying solely on traditional logic when addressing situations.
The Last Wave also demonstrates how civilization can never escape the natural world no matter how hard man attempts to gain control over it. In civilization, humans have developed a detached relationship with the natural world never since they are rarely affected by nature more than putting on a coat when it is raining. The inhabitants of civilized societies also believe that man controls nature rather than vice versa except for anomalies such as Hurricane Katrina. The apocalyptic last wave demonstrates that civilized man cannot escape nature no matter how advanced civilization may seem.
My reaction to the film The Last Wave was initially a positive one. It was an entertaining, interesting movie, and it touched on some themes that are uncommon in modern cinema. However, after reading the interview with director Peter Weir, I have to admit that my opinion of the film changed seriously. To me, the whole story seemed completely fictional. The reality of seeing the future, harnessing the power of nature, and a gigantic wave swallowing up Australia just didn’t seem too plausible to me. It made for an entertaining movie, but definitely not one that would cause me to see the world in a different light. It seemed that Weir, on the other hand, considered all of the strange happenings to be real, plausible occurrences. In response to a question about “the occult and the mysterious” aspects of the film, he said, “I don’t think those things are occult and mysterious – I think they’re natural.” This, to me, just seems foolish. Some of the aspects of the film go completely against the laws of modern science, and while this is acceptable in the context of a fictional story, to take these things as natural or ordinary is simply unrealistic. I appreciate how Weir emphasizes the unique aspects of the aboriginal culture, but I just can’t accept how he portrays Charlie as having “magic” powers, or how David’s ability to see the future is tied in to the aboriginal “dream time.”The idea that native peoples have a deep tie with nature, and therefore have powers and abilities that civilized people do not, is a romantic idea that does not hold much truth in reality. It seems that Weir would agree with the quote, “You cannot have both civilization and truth” (Iris Murdoch). Again, I think this is just too romantic of an idea, that somehow civilization has eroded a great knowledge and wisdom rooted in nature. I do believe that we have lost a certain way of perception that native peoples have, which Weir emphasizes in the film, but I do not think that this prevents us from seeing the “truth” or somehow blocks our understanding of reality. The aboriginal concept of “dream time” is definitely an interesting one, and I appreciate its uniqueness in that it is closely tied with nature, and that it cannot be defined through words. However, I think of it as just another way of perceiving the world, not as some sort of mystic wisdom that allows aboriginal people to see into the future. There is definitely a great deal of value in the “savage” life and way of thinking, but unlike Weir seems to suggest, this does not erode the value of modern life and civilization. All in all, they are just different ways of life and thought, and one does not detract from the other.
ReplyDeleteI think Peter Weir's film successfully depicted the contrast between aboriginal and city life in Australia. Whether or not the story itself is true is irrelevant, as Weir points out in his interview. The real accomplishment of the film was that it drew out many of the boundaries between the "civilized" and the "uncivilized."
ReplyDeleteThe first interesting juxtaposition was between tribal and city law. Though the aborigine (cannot remember his name, actor was Gulpilil from Walkabout) was on trial for murder, he seemed much more concerned with breaking tribal laws. He feared the punishment he might receive from Charlie or other tribe members much more than a prison sentence -- but was did this mean for the trial? How does a lawyer trained in Australian law advise a man who is uninterested in federal court processes? The defendants were fully prepared to lie about their actions, but reluctant to discuss the bone allegedly used to kill the victim and its magic. Even though the jury would have had little interest in a whimsical description of a flimsy bone, it held incredible importance and secrecy for the tribe. The trial illustrated how ineffective legal interactions with the aborigines would be. What is important to note here is that the boundary drawn between civilization and tribal life is NOT that we have law and they do not. It is, rather, that the two systems do not coincide and neither group is willing to respect the authority of the other's.
Another way Weir chose to illustrate the separation between cultures was his way of physically isolating tribal objects/sacred sites/living spaces. For example, the lawyer consistently has to travel across the city to visit any of the aborigines. Even contained within urban life, they are clearly placed in different sects. Charlie's place is a far cry from the lawyer's family home: bare walls and floors, earthy colors everywhere, very simple living. On another note, the sacred objects could not be located in a less convenient place for a city man to get to. There are chemical plants, longs winding sewer systems, and treacherous rock terrain between anything "civilized" and the sacred site. Granted, the location of the site is totally fictional and Weir's creation, but it is an interesting choice on his part to put it so out of reach. It dramatizes the gap between urban settings and tribal grounds -- even though it is said in the interview that there are, in fact, "things buried under Sydney."
Finally: the lawyer's premonitory dreams. You would think that an obvious line would be drawn between white and black men for who could access dream time, and yet it is proposed by the aborigine that the lawyer could be from this spiritual tribe. It would be one thing for the lawyer to read about such a concept and fantasize that he was one of them, but it is another for a black man to recognize special spiritual authority in a white "civilized" man. Even the researcher the lawyer consults scoffs at the idea. What does Weir mean to convey by this? It seems by his responses in the interview that Weir believes that all men once had this capability, but that civilization has had us un-learn it. So another boundary discovered here is the one between what aborigines have retained and we have lost, or elected to give up.
Few have managed to straddle the gaps between our worlds and the tribal world. The actor, Gulbilil, is an excellent example. He maintains his involvement in tribal life, but has broken free of some traditions in his marrying a nontribal black woman and in featuring in films like this one. He has managed to find a balance that allows him to represent his tribe and carry it into city settings. His success in doing this is a testament to the idea that we could one day pull our "uncivilized" roots closer and fasten it back to our current world, creating a hybrid culture with one foot in the past and another moving forward.