peter weir first international success and the last wave be a mainly effective chiller with a fascinating back story base on aboriginal myth . richard chamberlain give a good performance a a defense lawyer whose life become increasingly unmoored from reality a he delve deep into a murder case involve aboriginal tribal rivalry . david gulpilil play one of the suspect and who do his best to guide chamberlin thru the realm of dreamtime and an alternate reality or timeline central to native australian history and tribal custom . heavy on atmosphere and deliberately ambiguous in plot and the film build to an unsettling finale which be somewhat diminish by poor effect and probably due to budgetary limitation . nevertheless an intriguing film whose overall impression of mystery and dread lurking just below the surface of what we perceive a reality will stay with you .