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The veteran (Grant Page) has been wounded by a spear. The fanatic (Gary Sweet) wants to leave him, but the tracker (David Gulpilil) refuses – even when horse-whipped. The tracker knows he is indispensable.
Curator’s notes
A difficult and confronting scene, for its obvious cruelty, but also mysterious, in the way the two men laugh at the end, over the prospect of the tracker being hanged when they get back. This may be the point at which the tracker decides he’s not going back – or he may have decided this earlier, which might explain his laughter. It’s certainly the point when the fanatic realises the limits of his physical power over the tracker. He may kill him, but he can’t force him to go forward. The fanatic’s response is to rid himself of the problem. In camp that night, as everyone is sleeping, he kills the veteran in his bed-roll.
