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Picnic at Hanging Rock - Nature
Intro to Media Studies (Massey University)
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This essay I need to ace otherwise I will probably cry a lot
Picnic at the Hanging Rock, 1975, directed by Peter Weir, is a film about a group of schoolgirls that
go on a picnic on an eerie old rock, during which some of the girls mysteriously disappear. The
movie explores many different themes, but in my opinion the most dominant theme is nature, and
the relationship humans have with nature. The director uses many visual and verbal techniques to
explore this theme.
Throughout the movie, symbolism is used to show human relationships with nature. Characters are
shown trying to control nature, and to shape it themselves. For example, near the start of the
movie, a girl’s hand is shown pressing a flower. The way the rose is crushed makes it seem like
nature is powerless against humans when we try to change it. Another example of this is when one
of the characters, Bertie, lazily catches a cicada and throws it away. These scenes imply that
humans are unwisely trying to change the way nature is, just the way that one girl pressed her rose
and that one cicada that got flicked away.
The setting of the rock is the main re-enforcement of the idea that humans are not the dominant
species on this planet. When at the rock, one of the schoolgirls, Edith, comments, ‘Except for those
people down there, we might be the only living creatures in the world’. Straight after this, close-up
shots show ants busily carrying food, lizards moving up the rock, and trees moving in the wind.
These shots are used to contradict Edith’s disregard for nature. This is accompanied by panpipes,
which is a verbal technique used to create an unsettling atmosphere. The use of panpipes is also
an implication to the Pan, the God of Nature. This technique is repeated throughout the movie as a
reference the idea of nature. Later, when the girls are sleeping on the rock, close-up shots show
ants and cicadas crawling freely over their faces. This shows that no matter how much humans
may think they are in control, nature is more dominant than they may think.
One of the main ideas the film shows is that humans are just one part of nature, no more important
than any other part. The movie suggests that when we die, we just become part of nature, another
plant or animal or being. One of the ways this is shown is through one of the main characters,
Miranda. For example, on several occasions, Miranda’s face as she looks up at the sky is overlaid
with the image of flying birds. The way that both Miranda and the birds go upwards unites them and
shows that, in the grand scheme of things, they are the same. Miranda is also often compared with
swans. This is shown by close-up shots of Miranda’s face as she looks in the mirror, with a picture
of a swan beside the mirror. Later, Miranda’s face is overlaid with a swan, clearly showing that she
is connected to swans, and implying that when she dies, her spirit is likely to go to a swan. This
idea means that humans have a life-force no more important than that of other creatures, and the
energy passes onto another body after we are dead.
Nearer the end of the film, the gardener at the school, Mr Whitehead, is talking to a younger
gardener. They are discussing the disappearance of the girls and the older gardener suggests that
some things cannot be explained. He shows the younger man the way that a fern leaf moves and
closes when he touches it. In this scene, he is suggesting that parts of nature can unexpectedly
have a life of their own. Another greenhouse scene is at the end of the movie, when one of the
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characters, Sara, is found dead in a greenhouse, a close-up shot shows a praying mantis crawling
across her face. This shows that she is connected with nature, and that her death makes her just
another part of nature.
I believe that Picnic at the Hanging Rock presents the theme of nature in an effective way. Through
visual and verbal techniques, the viewer is shown that there isn’t clear line between human and the
rest of nature, but instead a spectrum that connects us with nature.
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