Picnic at Hanging Rock - Criterion Collection (1979)

Artistic but boring!

I saw this film when it first came out. It was such a boring farce. I kept watching the film in the hope that it would make sense, but it never did. Don't waste your money. July 31, 2008

My Favorite Scary Movie of All-Time

I adore scary movies! As a writer, I don't think I can afford to shut myself off from any human emotion, including horror. I love the first HALLOWEEN. I love the first NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT scared the bejeebers out of me and hey, I even enjoyed SAW! Instead of slasher pics, my true favorites are psychological thrillers like THE OTHERS and THE INNOCENTS. Which may be why I think PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is the scariest movie ever made.

This 1975 Australian film from Peter Weir (who would later go on to make GALLIPOLI, WITNESS, DEAD POET'S SOCIETY and MASTER AND COMMANDER) is a lyrical, brooding masterpiece set at Appleyard College (an all-girls school) in 1900. When a group from the college sets out to celebrate Valentine's Day with a picnic jaunt to Hanging Rock--an ancient volcanic outcropping in Victoria--disaster ensues. While the other students are napping, four of the girls defy their teacher's instructions and set off to explore the interior of the rock. The next thing we know, one teacher and three of the girls have vanished into thin air.

Only one girl is found--hysterical and with no memory of what happened to the others. The disappearances send shockwaves of fear and suspicion through the community. The movie's cinematography is exquisite and Weir captured the dreamy quality of the film by actually filming parts of it through a bridal veil. Although the students drift about in white dresses plainly chosen to symbolize their purity, the movie is rife with repressed sexuality. In their darkest hearts, the girls seem to have more in common with the chaotic wildness of the Australian outback than the rigid propriety of their society, which makes it easier to believe that they may have gone willingly to their mysterious fate. Without shedding a single drop of blood, this movie continues to haunt me years after I first saw it. July 15, 2008

Another meditative outpouring of emotion from Weir

Peter Weir has directed some amazing and unique films--Cast Away, Truman Show, Dead Poets Society--and this one is another mesmerizing one to contemplate. Picnic at Hanging Rock is an engrossing true story that is still an unsolved mystery.
A group of young students at a female boarding school take a field trip to a scenic volcanic outcropping. This excursion turns disasterous as some students wander off and mysteriously vanish. A teacher goes after the trio and also disappears.
Now what makes this such a consuming mystery are the circumstances that surround this story. It happened on Valentines Day, Saturday the 14th. One student was found alive, with noticeable scratches on her hands and face. She couldn't remember anything. There was an extensive search with dogs but no bodies were ever found.
Superbly shot and executed, this movie really captures the subtle devastating effects this had on the school and town. Suspicion, sorrow, and hatred flare as the questions only envoke more questions.

*To my gore bros: This has no blood, gore, or nudity, so you might get a little bored. Good to watch with the girlfriend or family though. Or while chopping up dead bodies. March 28, 2008

"Director's Cut" a disaster.

Am I crazy, or has the original 1975 version been butchered?

The original 1975 film I remember as a masterpiece, whoever edited it. This "director's cut" seems duller, more replete with pointless dramaturgy and jarring plot mutations. My memory of the original may have been distorted over the years, but I don't think this is the same film I remember and love.

Am I wrong, or has the original version been kidnapped?
February 25, 2008

A Haunting Period Mystery

"People don't just disappear; not without a good reason," muses one of the characters in Peter Weir's excellent film. Yet, it appears that one day while on an outing to Hanging Rock, three students and one teacher from Mrs. Appleyard's boarding school do exactly this. Of course, to the film's characters the disappearance seems truely bizarre and irrational; yet to the modern viewer it seems perfectly reasonable to want to escape from the rigid, repressive Victorian world the ladies inhabit - a world where dancing, sewing, and memorizing poetry are the only activities available to young ladies on the verge of womanhood. Indeed, the dream-like scenes of the ladies in their orderly school uniforms as they move through the chaotic and untamed beauty of Hanging Rock further serve as a contrast to the absurd and artificial culture they inhabit. Not a thriller or a suspense film in the traditional sense, "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is more of a mystery about how people cope with events they don't understand. Over the course of the film, we move from worrying and wondering about those who vanished, to sympathizing with those left behind. Peter Weir's direction is haunting and effective, and the acting performances are quite good all around. The film does have a few flaws however: the music is pretty dated by now and the pacing of some scenes does drag a little bit. Over all, this is a unique mystery/period film definitely worth viewing. November 25, 2007

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