Walking Across Australia with Three Camels and A Dog

“Tracks” is the anti-roadtrip movie. Seriously. It bucks any attempt at glamorizing going cross country to ‘find yourself,’ not only because ‘cross country,’in this case is the 1,700 mile desert that is Australia’s mainland, but also because Robyn Davidson embarked on this journey to escape the trappings of society instead of searching for a spiritual awakening. So basically this isn’t “Eat, Pray, Love.” This is the grit and sweat and dirt and sun that Robyn Davidson put upon herself to get from point A to point B. And it’s what’s in between those two points that make for an interesting and almost hallucinatory film that captures the daunting real life story without dousing it in sappy music or sentimental voiceovers.

The always dependable Mia Wasikowska is center stage for the entirety of this film as Robyn Davidson, a young dissatisfied Australian woman.  Davidson moves to Alice Springs, Australia to learn how to train and care for camels so she can herd her own caravan to the Indian Ocean at Hamelin Pool. While this sounds pretty straightforward on paper, it’s the equivalent of walking from, say, Oklahoma through the Southwest dry lands to the Pacific Ocean. Add another hundred miles, subtract all the major populations points, crank up the temp and you might get an idea of what this lady did. On foot. In the 70’s. By herself. No small task.

So most of the movie takes place in the dry, unforgiving and sunbaked environment that is the Australia’s Gibson desert. If this is calling to mind a film chock-full of wide lens shots of the clay colored landscapes, think again. Stitched between Davidson’s seemingly neverending walk are scenes from her unhappy childhood, ranging from intimate dialogues she had with her father to sun dappled images of her depressed mother. Davidson’s backstory is part of what fueled her to take this trip. Her father was an explorer in his own right and her mother’s depression gets the best of her. So this trip isn’t so Davidson can find out more about herself, it’s so she can do something completely on her own. Robyn Davidson wants to be the mobile version of Henry David Thoreau and she did it the only way she knew how.

Davidson’s story isn’t the only one at play in this film either. Like many movies set in the 70’s it depicts a time of change, and director John Curran highlights the subplot of nationwide attitudes adjusting, especially concerning Aboriginal Australian and English Australian Relations. This is shown through Adam Driver’s character Rick Smolan, a National Geographic photographer who can get the funding for Davidson’s trip, but only if he’s allowed to document her and the natives she’s undoubtedly going to run into. Davidson does eventually enlist an Aboriginal guide for a portion of her trip, but can’t stand when Smolan and other tourists want to constantly take her picture because they’ve never seen a camel or a ‘native’ before. Davidson’s obvious disgust for these people make it clear that her walk across the country is an test of endurance with the benefit of isolation.

Aided by a sparse yet evocative score that never overpowers the images flashing across the screen, “Tracks” expertly weaves together Robyn Davidson’s story with the issue of exploited Aboriginals and adds on top of that the relationship between man and animal. Davidson trained her own caravan of camels to help her walk to the ocean and they are very much characters in this movie as is her beloved dog, Diggity. The animals in “Tracks” aren’t cuddly and warm, instead they’re primitive and expressive, as they are in real life. Davidson gets frustrated with the animals, just as they do with her. Camels are whipped. Kangaroos are shot. Dogs are yelled at. Davidson shows that true harmony is rarely achieved.

So “On The Road” this isn’t. “Tracks” isn’t about the picturesque that so many young people idealize when going on a road trip. It’s not about making new friends in new places. And it’s not about finding yourself in the middle of nowhere, whatever that means. “Tracks” is about finding out the brutal truths that lay just beyond your country’s horizons. The nearer you get to them, the clearer they become. The film ends on an uplifting note and with this quote, “Camel trips, as I suspected all along, and as I was about to have confirmed, do not begin or end: they merely change form.” That’s that perfect summation of the fever dream like quality that is felt throughout “Tracks.”

Rating: [Get down to a theater in the near future] While Robyn Davidson’s story can be written off as inspiring verging on hallmark territory, it actually serves as an entry into the questionable history of Australia.

Now playing at Angelika Film Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas