TRACKS (2013) – The DVD Review

Sometimes a movie is worth waiting for.  If you know anything about the production of motion pictures you may know that it can take years, sometimes decades, to get a film made.  One such Hollywood story was the movie Jacob’s Ladder, the script for which became legendary as having been read by almost every producer, director and actor who works in the production of movies.    When it finally did get made, well, if you’ve seen it, you probably know its pretty damn good.

In  the 1980s I read Robyn Davidson’s book Tracks about her crossing the Australian Outback with camels starting at Alice Springs, the largest town in the outback.  The journey was almost  2000 miles and was covered by a photographer from National Geographic, at Robyn Davidson’s request.

Her book was fascinating, and at the time,( this was in the 1980s,) I thought it would make a great movie.  Her story was filled with irony and very poignant  memories.  She went into great detail about the problems involved with rounding up camels and training them to carry your gear and supplies.  The Australian Outback is a rough place and, as she was told repeatedly, not really a place for a young, single woman.  She took a job as a bartender and had to scramble to find enough money for the trip.

She wrote to National Geographic offering them the rights to her story and to take photos in exchange for some funding. She would come to regret that as one of the main goals of her trek across the outback was to be alone.  Davidson was disillusioned and frustrated with main stream society and, at the same time with the counter culture, and with humanity in general.  She found more comfort and peace in the company of animals and decided she wanted to walk across the Outback, starting at Alice Springs, all the way to the Indian Ocean, a trip of over 1,700 miles, with camels carrying her gear and a dog, (named Diggity) for companionship.

Her book and the movie go into great detail about how hard it was to raise money for this journey.  We get a lot of the “nuts and bolts” of training camels.  My fiancé Radah was surprised to learn there are camels in Australia.  They are not native but  have been there for decades, brought in to help with settling and exploring the Outback and a great many of them got loose.  The Aussies assumed they would die out, no, they flourish in the wild, go feral and can be quite dangerous if aroused.

Davidson finds a professional camel trainer and we see, possibly too much, of how a camel is neutered. Trust me guys you may not want to see this part, painful to see!  Human testicles are tiny by comparison!   The movie doesn’t spend a lot of time on Davidson’s preparation for the trip.  If I recall in the book she said it took a couple of years to get ready.

We learn that camels are really huge, can be very dangerous and each has their own distinct personality. Davidson give names to each camel and eventually even we the viewer have no trouble telling them apart.

As you would expect she encounters obstacles all along the way. The Australian Outback is not a nice place, drawing parallels with the American Wild West even in the town of Alice Springs it looks like a hard place to live in. Every person in town gives her a hard time and tries to talk her out of her plans.  National Geographic sends a photographer, Rick Smolan (Adam Driver) who immediately pisses her off by always being around, and getting in the way.  He has to constantly remind her she asked for National Geographic’s help in getting the trip underway.  Worse yet word gets out about her trip and tourists come from all over the world to see “the camel Lady.”  Several times she actually hides to avoid these encounters.  Her wish to be alone with her camels and dog are constantly thwarted.    She also wanted to get to know Aboriginal people who mostly live in the outback at “missions”, Australia’s version of our Native American  “reservations.”    She succeeds in this and manages to find Mr. Eddy a tribal elder who helps her part of the way and offers advice on how to survive in the Outback.  In a great irony she comes to depend on Rick the photographer who goes ahead of her to leave containers of water in a particularly arid part of the Outback.

Her worst heart break comes when her faithful dog Diggity eats poison meant for Outback nuisance animals.  This part is also hard to watch, if you have ever loved a dog this is truly wrenching.   In fact Davidson encounters opposition at every turn.  Every single person she tells about her goal advises her not to even try it, even the Aborigines are aghast at her plans.  Adam Driver’s character is truly dumb founded by her and constantly tries to get her to stop.  She ends up having sex with him at one point and we get the idea she did that to make him stop talking. This part is also just a bit queasy, in her book and as is obvious in the movie, Robyn Davidson did not get much chance to wash regularly.  I’m sure you can imagine what I’m talking about here.

It’s part of my post duty orders here at We Are Movie Geeks to shine a light on movies that get lost in the shuffle.  Tracks is certainly one of those movies that got lost, if it had a theatrical release I did not hear of it. Tracks came out about the same time as another “based on a true story of someone taking a long walk,” namely Wild, 2014, with Reese Witherspoon, a good movie in its own right, (although my friend here on the website Tom Stockman did not care for it much – his review HERE.)  We also had A Walk in the Woods, 2015, with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, also based on a true story.  And in 2010 there was The Way with Martin Sheen about a father walking the El camino de Santiago in Spain to honor his deceased son.

These movies in one way or another are about taking a long walk as a spiritual journey or a journey of self discovery or both.  Tracks isn’t really about either of those themes.  Tracks is a long meditation on what it really means to be human.  Why do we do the things we do?  Why does one person stay within fifty miles of where they grew up and another travels all over the world trying to visit every country on Earth?  Is either way of living better?  We all have choices we make and who is to say what is a better way to live? Just as an example I have never been attracted to or tried gambling very much, many people become addicted to gambling and have to enter rehab to stop placing bets.   Gambling is one of those things that I just don’t get. Does that make me any better or more intelligent than someone who likes to play poker every Saturday night?  Doubtful.    So if we don’t “get” why Robyn Davidson took that long walk with her camels does that make her wrong or crazy for doing it?  As Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay  famously said, when asked why they climbed Mt. Everest “because it’s there!”   She rounded up her camels, took a long walk and that’s all we really need or want to know.

After losing her beloved dog and being bone weary from her journey she actually is ready to give it up at one point.   Rick the photographer, of all people, talks her into continuing.  Sunburned, dirty and exhausted she and her camels finally reach the ocean and a certain closure to this remarkable adventure.

In one of the best making of documentaries I have ever seen we meet the real Robyn Davidson who admits even she does not know why she did it.  And we realize just how great and spot on the casting of this movie is.  Mia  Wasikowska looks and sounds so much like the real Robyn Davison it is spooky.  She is proving herself one of the best young actresses working today, her take on Davidson brings an obvious intelligence, determination and at the same time a forlorn quality to the role. This young woman is obviously very unhappy and we don’t know if her long walk across the Australian Outback will bring her any hope or comfort. Likewise Adam Driver (who is also proving himself an excellent actor with a tremendous range) not only looks like the photographer he is portraying he sounds exactly like him, their voices match!  The entire movie was filmed along the same route that Davidson and her camels took.   It has been years since I read her book but the movie, as clearly as I can recall follows every last detail, as written.

And finally one can’t help but compare this film to another long walk across the Outback movie, the now legendary Walkabout, which if you have not seen I would highly advise you experience this remarkable classic film as soon as possible.   There are several moments that recall Walkabout, but that was yet another spiritual journey, and a clash of cultures story. Tracks is about something else altogether.

Was it worth the wait to see this remarkable film made from an incredible book?  Absolutely, I’m glad it finally got made and it deserves a bigger audience. And I highly recommend reading Robyn Davidson’s book first.  At one time I even had the National Geographic issue with all of photos we see being taken in the movie, if you can locate it that is also rewarding.   I have to give Tracks five out of five stars, please see this movie.