Three Refracted Visions

REPORT FROM CHINA I wan ami Productions Tokyo TAKING OFF Universal directed by Milos Forman WALKABOUT 20th Century JFox directed by Nicholas Roeg

Go ahead, bite: what do these three films have in common? Well, actually very little except on the level of their refracted vision, and even there the connection is tenuous. But let’s not quibble so early on or I’ll take off my wig and leave you with Rex Reed.

Taking Off is a stoty about a well known sorry and sliding society with no choice but to poke fun at itself. Report From China would give us just the oppositer a look at a new,, proud, and optimistic society. Walkabout (the first Australian production I can remember seeing) puts them both in perspective by giving us a glimmer of the idyllic yet anachronistic present of the Australian Outback, which either of the other alternatives must destroy.