A giant salt water crocodile, known as Numunwari by the aboriginal people, is feasting on unwary locals in Northern Australia. Wildlife ranger Steve Harris (John Jarratt) sets out to capture the toothy terror and return it to the billabong it calls home.
Dark Age is a routine creature feature that, like so many others, takes its lead from Spielberg's Jaws and delivers countless clichés along the way: a group of ignorant hunters who anger the croc, an innocent kid snatched from shallow water, an ignorant official concerned about how the rampaging reptile will affect tourism, and a final showdown between three brave men and the croc. The biggest cliché of all, however, is the rose-tinted representation of the indigenous people as peaceful, noble, wise, spiritual and in tune with their surroundings, just like the Native American in every revisionist western since 1970 (the movie thereby seeking to recompense for years of oppression by the white man).
The film trundles along at a reasonable pace, and there are a couple of half-decent animal attacks (accompanied by suitably sickening bone-crunching sound effects), but for the most part this is unexceptional stuff, not helped by the fact that the croc is rarely seen and, when it does appear, it's a rather inanimate fibreglass model. While this 'less is more' approach worked for Jaws, director Arch Nicholson isn't in Spielberg's league, unable to generate the necessary tension and excitement; likewise, the film's cast cannot hold a candle to the likes of Scheider, Shaw and Dreyfuss, their characters instantly forgettable.
Still, at least this one has a gratuitous sex scene (featuring the lovely Nikki Coghill) and features the wholesale slaughter of innocent reptiles. Spielberg never gave us that!
N.B. Twenty years after starring in Dark Age, John Jarratt would appear in Rogue, another film about a killer croc.
Dark Age is a routine creature feature that, like so many others, takes its lead from Spielberg's Jaws and delivers countless clichés along the way: a group of ignorant hunters who anger the croc, an innocent kid snatched from shallow water, an ignorant official concerned about how the rampaging reptile will affect tourism, and a final showdown between three brave men and the croc. The biggest cliché of all, however, is the rose-tinted representation of the indigenous people as peaceful, noble, wise, spiritual and in tune with their surroundings, just like the Native American in every revisionist western since 1970 (the movie thereby seeking to recompense for years of oppression by the white man).
The film trundles along at a reasonable pace, and there are a couple of half-decent animal attacks (accompanied by suitably sickening bone-crunching sound effects), but for the most part this is unexceptional stuff, not helped by the fact that the croc is rarely seen and, when it does appear, it's a rather inanimate fibreglass model. While this 'less is more' approach worked for Jaws, director Arch Nicholson isn't in Spielberg's league, unable to generate the necessary tension and excitement; likewise, the film's cast cannot hold a candle to the likes of Scheider, Shaw and Dreyfuss, their characters instantly forgettable.
Still, at least this one has a gratuitous sex scene (featuring the lovely Nikki Coghill) and features the wholesale slaughter of innocent reptiles. Spielberg never gave us that!
N.B. Twenty years after starring in Dark Age, John Jarratt would appear in Rogue, another film about a killer croc.