Overrated and overhyped

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I love the old P. Weir films, this and Picnick are my favorites and absolute masterpieces I carry in my heart + have seen many times without loosing fascination. Many have described this story-line , so I won't....Just saying great, great, great film. Good good good good good ( I must fill 5 lines......but words are useless...) good good good.

Mood, Atmosphere, and Dread. How's that for a Supernatural Movie Template. The Aussie Director Peter Weir (now entrenched in Hollywood with critical acclaim) uses His Once Limited Resources to Display Artistic Flourishes with Enhanced Realism that Never Allows the SFX or the Sensationalism of the Story's Surrealism to Draw Distracting Attention to Itself.It's an Eeriie and Ominous and at times Chilling Clash of Cultures. The Stoic Portrayal from Richard Chamberlain as a Confused and Confounded Lawyer Bombarded with a Bizarre murder Case and Dreams and Experiences He Struggles to Comprehend is Fine. His Family is Literally Drowned out of the Movie by the Power of Aboriginal Mind Control and His Inability to Understand.There are Images to Impress and a Very Creepy Soundtrack where both Music and Sound Effects are Unique and Important to the Movie's Tone. The Native Aboriginal "Actors" are Used for Effective Enhancement and the Polar Opposite of Chamberlain's Blonde Hair, Blue Eyed Caucasian Race.The Climax in the Cave is Haunting and may Drag On a bit too Long, but that is a Nit-Pick because it does Look Literally like a Haunted Cave. The Titled Last Wave is Shown as a Minimalist Make Up Your Own Mind Ending.

Peter Weir made a classic with Picnic at Hanging Rock in 1975, a mysterious, intriguing little film arguing there are things out there we can't really understand, in the world generally and the Australian wild in particular. The Last Wave follows some of those themes and has much of the same mesmerizing, dream-like style.That said, there are differences. Much of the movie is a legal drama, following a white lawyer handling a criminal case of Aborigines accused of manslaughter of one of their own. Although this happened in the city, he becomes convinced the Aborigines are not city people but members of remnants of a tribe. He argues the victim died of sorcery and defends his clients under tribal law. At the same time, he is experiencing strange dreams while Australia becomes subject to strange weather patterns, including large hail and black rain.I'm a kind of person who likes legal dramas, including unorthodox and complex ones- bringing sorcery into the courtroom is unusual, with tricky undercurrents (the lawyer is confused of racism in romanticizing the Aborigines). The supernatural elements are also intriguing, but that said, I was a little disappointed when the movie drops the courtroom story completely (it's mentioned he's lost his case) to focus on the dreamtime story. The remainder of the movie becomes abstract and harder to explain, but it can still draw you in.

The Last Wave is an atmospheric and moody film about a man's premonition that a giant wave is going to engulf Australia and most likely the world. It begins with scenes of everyday life in various parts of Australia being disrupted by freak weather patterns. Only the Aboriginal people seemed to understand what is going on. Enter a lawyer who is representing a group of Aboriginal men after an altercation in a pub ends in the death of a young man. He agrees to defend them although he is not a criminal lawyer and that is when his life starts to unravel. Strange weather and visions of an upcoming apocalypse plague the lawyer and slowly he realizes that the world is going to end. This is one of the finest films of the genre and one of my favourite Peter Weir films. The settings are dark and at times, almost Gothic. The acting is spot on and Richard Chamberlain is absolutely perfect in the role as the lawyer, a rational man caught in a terrifying situation. While it's not easy to find a copy of the movie here in Australia, if you can, see it. It is a chance to see Australian film making at it's best