 He became a film director at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in 1965 and subsequently a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sydney in 1973, a post he held until he retired in 1993.Sandall was a strong critic of romantic primitivism and the concept of the noble savage; he was an advocate of modern civilization.In Sandall's view, romantic primitivism places far too high a value on cultures that were often characterised by, among other aspects, limited human rights, religious intolerance, disease and poverty.