In the film, The Last Wave, the director is trying to communicate the idea of a culture within a culture or sub culture. The dominant culture in the film is the white members of society living in Australia. The subculture in the film is the Aborigines who were natives to the land before the white people settled in Australia. The natives sustained their cultural beliefs and ideologies while living in largely populated cities.
The dominant white culture imposes their laws , ideas of societal values and moral beliefs on the native Aborigines. Forcing them to abide by a different law system and way of life than what their peoples have practiced for hundreds of years. In the movie
the lawyer, David, represents the dominant culture to the Aborigines because he represents the law that is controlling their fate in the white culture.
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