Deconstruction strategy and the search for life values in the film “Walkabout” (1971)

The purpose of this article is to study how the strategy of deconstruction is implemented in the film “Walkabout” (1971), created by British director and cameraman Nicholas Roeg. On the one hand, the film touches upon eternal philosophical questions, and with an arc — reflects the intellectual atmosphere of the time of its creation. “Walkabout” embodied the ideas of the French phi­losophers J. F. Lyotard and J. Derrida, with whom the form of post­modernism as a philosophical trend begins. The film presents phil­osophical ideas generated by modern capitalist society, such as the disintegration of identity, the decentralization of man in the world, disillusionment with scientific and technological progress and glo­balization of the world community, the collapse of traditional val­ues. The choice of location for filming reflects a trend characteris­tic of modern Western society — an increase in interest in exotic cultures and, especially, in their spiritual practices. The authors of the film use irony, hints, allegories and other favorite formalis­tic devices of postmodern thought. The film embodies postmodern ideas — the denial of identity as semantic and objective constancy, the decentering of the personality, as well as the delegitimization of the attitudes of classical culture based on the concepts of logo­centrism, phonocentrism, phallocentrism and criticism of Western rationalism. By deconstructing the rituals and values that underlie the social practices of representatives of modern and primitive cul­tures, the filmmakers reveal their difference, which is opposite to the rationalistic and mythological view of the world, and the similarity, which lies in the absolute absence of freedom in their lives. The ex­istence of representatives of these cultures is completely determined by factors external to their personalities. The authors of the article come to the conclusion that the filmmakers, using a rationalistic ap­proach and highly developed technology, without which it is impos­sible to create high-quality film, contribute to an understanding of the problems of modern culture. In addition, by going beyond the framework of postmodern thought, they tune the audience to certain life values, which are based on a synthesis of primitive solidarity and the technical achievements of modern civilization.

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