The Tracker

Name: The Tracker
Genre: Drama, History
Released: January 16, 2004
Duration: 90 min
Rating: 71

2004

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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6.9

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6.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

ArtMattan Productions | Release Date: January 16, 2004

Summary: The year is 1922. The Tracker has the job of pursuing The Fugitive, an aborigine who is suspected of murdering a white woman, as he leads three mounted policemen: The Fanatic, The Follower and also The Veteran across the outback. (ArtMattan)

Director: Rolf de Heer

Genre(s): Drama, History

Runtime: 90 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

David Stratton

Think of an Anthony Mann Western made by an experimental film director and you get an indication of the challenging components of The Tracker, the story of a manhunt that is politically sensitive because of its depiction of atrocities perpetrated on aboriginals by a fanatical white cop. Read full review

Roger Ebert

The Tracker is one of those rare films that deserves to be called haunting. It tells the sort of story we might find in an action Western, but transforms it into a fable or parable. Read full review

Richard James Havis

Has the punch of a good Western with a clean and direct script plus an adventurous use of songs and folk paintings. Read full review

Walter Addiego

Much of The Tracker, a blunt morality tale about Australian racism, is heavy going. Read full review

David Sterritt

A third aspect of The Tracker is less successful. In a badly calculated move, Mr. de Heer and singer Graham Tardif fill the soundtrack with songs full of clichés, platitudes, and truisms. Read full review

Michael Atkinson

A decent little exercise in nativist outrage, Rolf de Heer's The Tracker, with its dynamic between indigene and colonial oppressor, could've easily been a western. Read full review

Jami Bernard

An underwritten drama. Read full review

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User Reviews

DawdlingPoet

Nov 27, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is an action advenute film, one with a historical setting or basis and it covers themes including murder and being a veteran. First off, I noticed the presence of various different accents with characters from different countries featuring - mainly New Zealand and English. One English officer has quite a stereotyped upper class accent which I did cringe at a bit but I can't say it wasn't accurate, not having been around at the time in any case. I did feel the accents were a bit distracting in general though, so I thought I ought to mention that. The use of incidental music is quite good at promoting a sense of mystery, fear and tension, while we watch scenes in which we're not sure what will happen to whom.

The plot pace was a bit slow and I suppose you could say it added to the sense of mystery present. I felt quite unsure where things were headed for some time. I felt the plot was somewhat unpredictable, which is a good thing, obviously. Given my obvious slating of certainly some of the characters accents, I was gladly and pleasantly surprised to find that Ray Winstone, who plays the main character of Arjan van Diemen, didn't provide one of the worst examples, you could hear traces of his characters Southern African accent. He seemed to give a decent overall performance, as someone who mostly keeps himself to himself and yet is surprisingly quick witted, with perhaps an element of reticence about him - he's certainly fairly philosophical, while looking a bit of a bruiser. I thought his character was quite intriguing and I found it an interesting watch, to see what happened to him, whether he'd get 'his man' so to speak. The only real criticism I can make of it was that at times the dialogue was relatively quiet, mumbled at times, which could be an issue for those who may be particularly hard of hearing. Other cast members include Gareth Reeves as Major Pritchard Carlysle, Daniel Musgrove as Private Rennick and Andy Anderson as Bryce, while Jodie Hillock plays Lucy.

Its fair to say that there's a certain amount of one upmanship which takes place between different characters, with one native New Zealander being particularly keen to get the measure of Mr. van Dieman, clearly hinting at having suspicious opinions of him.

If I had to describe this film, visually and otherwise generally, I'd say it seemed to me like a mix of a Pirates of the Caribbean type film (only with less frequent action/'swashbuckling fighting' type scenes) and a period drama, if that helps you to picture it a bit better?. It definitely seemed to have a bit of a sinister, spooky feel to it, which I can only attribute to the background music and also perhaps the grey and quite mildly stormy looking weather that some scenes are set in, demonstrating an element of turbulence. I also appreciated some of the cinematography present, mainly the landscape shots of some impressive regions of New Zealand.

Content wise, the film contains some moderately strong language and violence, with bloody injuries depicted but nothing very graphic otherwise. There is, however, discussion of some rather grisly war related events which could upset or frighten some people. The film has been given a 12 rating within the UK, due to this. For most of the film (although not all of it, as I've made mention of earlier on), the weather is relatively good, with bright blue skies shown and I found myself thinking about the irony of the main characters background, his grisly past, while also enjoying the visual spectacle of somewhat exotic and even maybe paradise-esque surroundings. The irony didn't escape me, put it that way.

I found myself appreciating van Dieman as a fairly introverted character, having a somewhat shady past which we, as a viewer, are slowly made privy to (i.e. made aware of - not a loo! lol). While the film is relatively slow, pace and character development wise, I didn't find myself feeling especially distracted or bored, so its not a bad film, although admittedly it isn't perfect either.

Overall, yes I'd say its worth a watch. Its neither really bad or great as such (as mentioned earlier) but it features a decent performance from Ray Winstone, plus good use of background/incidental music as well as a good sense of mystery and tension. However, it does include some rather cheesy and possibly exaggerated accents and some instances of mumbled or muffled dialogue, which may well irritate viewers who may be hard of hearing but otherwise I'd recommend it.… Expand

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