71
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90VarietyDavid StrattonVarietyDavid StrattonThink 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.
- 80Film ThreatFilm ThreatThe film is a stunning piece of visual poetry that will, hopefully, be remembered as one of the most important stories to be told in Australia’s film history.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterHas the punch of a good Western with a clean and direct script plus an adventurous use of songs and folk paintings.
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittA 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.
- 75New York PostMegan LehmannNew York PostMegan LehmannDialogue is sparse in this leisurely paced chase; instead, the bluesy vocals of indigenous singer Archie Roach -- singing de Heer's lyrics -- are layered over the action as a kind of musical narration.
- 70The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThese stylized images by the Australian artist Peter Coad create an aesthetic distance from the cruelty, lending the atrocities the stature of events in a historical mural that freezes the past into an eternal present.
- 60Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonA 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.
- 60TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghThe film's bleakly inevitable ending packs a wallop and its hauntingly desolate images linger long after the story is told.
- 50The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinGulpilil, a solid cast, and gorgeous scenery keep The Tracker watchable, but they can't mask the fact that as an adventure, it's sluggish, and as a film about racism, it's often reductive and clumsy.
- 38New York Daily NewsJami BernardNew York Daily NewsJami BernardAn underwritten drama.