For whatever reason, I’ve lately found myself very much enjoying films about the end of the world.  Who knows why.  Maybe it’s because I’m dreading having to sit through another election year.  Seriously, if the world just ended now, we could all be saved a lot of trouble.

Add to that, the weather’s been weird this year (and please do not take that statement to mean that I want to hear about climate change because seriously, that crap bores me to death).  We got hit by snow earlier in the year.  (I live in Texas, where snow is a big deal.)  It rained more than usual during spring.  Summer started late but when it did, it was hot and dry and there was not a rain cloud to be seen.  Two days ago, out of nowhere, it started raining and right now, we are under a flash flood warning.  Since I believe that existence is random chaos with no rhyme or meaning, I don’t necessarily think there’s any huge meaning behind the strange weather.  But still…

The 1977 film The Last Wave is all about strange weather and, in many ways, it’s the perfect film to watch while you’re stuck inside, waiting for the rain to stop.  (Watch it with Take Shelter and have a watery apocalypse double feature.)  The film opens in the Australian outback.  The sky is blue and clear.  And yet the children at a small schoolhouse hear thunder rumbling in the distance.  When it suddenly starts to pour down rain, the kids are excited.  Their soaked teacher manages to herd them back into the schoolhouse.  As the teacher struggles to calm the children down, we suddenly hear something pounding down on the schoolhouse’s tin roof.  Suddenly, the windows are shattering as huge chunks of ice crash through them.  Looking outside, the teacher is confronted with the sight of torrential rain, gigantic hail, and a perfectly blue and cloudless sky.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, three Aborigines are accused of murdering a fourth outside of a bar.  Assigned, by legal aid, to defend them is David Burton (Richard Chamberlain), a complacent upper middle class attorney.  Since David usually deals with tax law, he doesn’t understand why he has been assigned the case.  However, he take is because he feels a strange link to one of the accused men, Chris Lee (David Gulpilil).

Much like Michael Shannon in the previously mentioned Take Shelter, David has been visions and dreams in which he sees the world flooded.  As he researches the case, he begins to suspect that he may be seeing visions of the future….

Well-acted and visually stunning, The Last Wave is a thought-provoking meditation on nature of reality, the end of the world, the “old ways” vs the “new ways,” and whether or not humanity is even worth saving.  On top of all that, it features an absolutely brilliant final scene!

All in all, it’s not a bad way to pass the time on a rainy afternoon.