Plot
In 1922, in the Australian Outback, an Aboriginal tracker (The Tracker) leads three white men (The Fanatic, The Follower, and The Veteran) in the search for an Aboriginal man (The Fugitive) accused of the murder of a white woman. Along the way, the group encounters a group of Aboriginal men and women, with one wearing the uniform of a tracker. After a tense interrogation, the Aboriginals are shot and hanged. The incident leaves The Follower visibly distraught, although The Fanatic tries to justify their actions. From this point, the local Aboriginals begin to take retribution on the group. They first spear their packhorse, which falls off a cliff. With the loss of their supplies; The Veteran tries to convince The Fanatic to turn back, yet he remains adamant about capturing The Fugitive.
As the group continues, The Fanatic begins to become suspicious of The Tracker. When The Tracker leaves the camp one night to find bush tucker, The Fanatic has him chained on his return. Although The Fanatic is distrustful of The Tracker, he has The Tracker show The Follower how he tracks to prove him wrong.
When The Veteran is speared, the group is initially oblivious until alerted by The Tracker who heard it. As a result of his injury, The Veteran lags behind the others and The Fanatic attempts to leave him behind. The Follower resists this idea until The Fanatic points a pistol at him. The group is then stopped by The Tracker, who refuses to move until The Veteran catches up, even when whipped and threatened by The Fanatic. At night, The Fanatic has The Veteran killed, unaware that he is being watched by The Tracker. After giving absolution to The Veteran, The Tracker gains a new level of respect from The Follower.
Still in chains held by The Fanatic, The Tracker purposely falls into a watering hole where he attempts to drown The Fanatic, yet both survive. After another horse is speared and flees, the group comes across a group of Aboriginals. The Fanatic quickly begins shooting, killing an elder and child. He is stopped by The Follower, who disarms The Fanatic and places him in chains. Once The Follower is knocked out after eating bush tucker at night, The Tracker organises a British-style court to try The Fanatic for murder. He is subsequently hanged, while The Tracker uses a rock to make his head bleed to make it seem that local Aboriginals hanged him.
After awakening, The Follower and The Tracker continues their search for The Fugitive until surrounded by Aboriginals. Disarmed, they are led to a group of elders where The Fugitive is also being held. Although The Tracker convinces The Follower that he is innocent of the accused crimes, he carries out Aboriginal justice by spearing The Fugitive in the thigh for the crime of having raped a woman [earlier in the film]. Returning to camp, they find the body of The Fanatic missing. Bidding The Follower farewell, The Tracker rides off towards his country.
Production
The film was shot in the semi-arid, rugged Arkaroola Sanctuary, in South Australia's Flinders Ranges. De Heer used an intentionally small film crew, saying that "It's all a much better process ...". [3] Lyrics of the soundtrack (written by De Heer) form part of the narrative, and are sung by Archie Roach with music composed by Graham Tardif. [4]
Peter Coad, an artist from South Australia, was hired by de Heer to create paintings that intercut the film to portray the brutal actions not shown. As preliminary work, Coad spent a month in Arkaroola. [5] In total 14 paintings appear in the film, each painted on location in the same ratio used in the film, 1:2. [6] Paul Byrnes, curator of the National Film and Sound Archive's Australian Screen, wrote that this artistic choice was to "disrupt the place that violent scenes usually occupy in violent cinema – there is no payoff for the viewer who wants the thrill of gore. Instead, each killing becomes a kind of instant history." [7]
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has a score of 88% based on reviews from 33 critics, with an average 7.1/10 rating. [8] Based on 16 critics on Metacritic, the film have a score of 71 out of a 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [9]
Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four calling the film "haunting" and the performances "powerful". [10] David Stratton described the film as "remarkable". [11] Walter Addiego of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote "See the film mainly for the quiet and powerful work of Gulpilil in the title role". [12] Slant Magazine 's Jay Antani was quoted saying "The Tracker is the first significant movie to find its way into American theaters in 2005". [13]
Jane Lydon of the University of Western Australia wrote critically of the film in 2004, saying that as an allegory to frontier violence it simplifies Australian history by constructing a "manichaean opposition between the brutal white trooper and his saintly Aboriginal victim." She also argued that "in representing colonialism as an 'old, unhappy, far-off thing', [The Tracker] ultimately releases us, modern Australian viewers, from responsibility to acknowledge the larger, and continuing effects of colonization in our own time’". [6]
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