Australia/USA | 1971 | Directed by Ted Korcheff
Logline: An English Outback teacher on route to Sydney finds himself trapped and out of his depth in a small township, caught up in the local pastime of drinking, gambling, and aggressive hospitality.
Based on a blistering first novel by Kenneth Cook written in 1961, with an excellent screenplay from Evan Jones, and helmed by the man who would direct the under-rated Rambo movie First Blood, Wake In Fright is a classic tale of one’s descent into a Dante’s Inferno of temptation and ridicule; a Dionysian-tainted bad dream where a naïve, mild-mannered man is forced to learn a few hard truths about the darker side of his own psyche.
It’s a terrific-looking picture, with stunning cinematography from Brian West (the opening 360-degree pan is a knockout), superb location shooting in Broken Hill (for all the exterior scenes set in the fictional township of Bundanyabba), and expressionistic editing from Anthony Buckley (the man who found the negatives!). The casting and acting is all top-notch: Gary Bond as the hapless English teacher, Donald Pleasence as his nemesis Doc, Jack Thompson (in his feature debut), and Aussie legend Chips Rafferty (in his last movie). There’s also memorable support from a myriad of other actors, including the hilarious monotone receptionist (Maggie Dence), the beer-guzzling hotel proprietor Charlie (John Meillon), and a brief exchange from Outback legend Jacko Jackson as a truck driver (“Ya mad, ya bastard!”)
With his earnest intent on rendezvousing with his Bondi surfer girlfriend John Grant (Bond) is inadvertently thrust into the dark heart of the Aussie machismo machine affectionately called the ‘Yabba. It’s a crash-course odyssey in Two-Up and West End tinnies, a listless and toey woman, a stodgy ‘roo breakfast, broke as a bicycle seat, and surrounded by the ever present stinking hot, filthy, dust-laden long arm of Murphy’s Law.
The dialogue crackles with a ferocious authenticity, but it can now be appreciated as a fantastic date-stamp of a different era (6.30pm closing time for starters). Still, the key themes are timeless and universal, and the kangaroo hunt is just as confronting and shocking, despite the disclaimer at movie’s end stating emphatically that the kangaroo scenes were legitimately staged hunts by professional marksman.
Savage ‘roo hunt (and boxing) aside, Wake In Fright is a sensational dramatic-thriller and seethes with cult status, standing alongside Nic Roeg’s Walkabout and Peter Weir’s Picnic At Hanging Rock as the finest classic Australian movies set in the Outback. In fact this almost forgotten desert gem is possibly my new favourite ocker movie, ‘struth mate! How the original negatives could lie in the long shadows, covered in dust, in a Pittsburgh bin marked for destruction is crazy. Thankfully, after lengthy negotiations with the American rights owners of the original film materials, they were shipped back to Australia to be held at the National Film and Sound Archive, which is where the recent digital restoration took place.
Wake In Fright, known as Outback in the States, richly deserves the restoration treatment, enabling a spanking new, pristine 35mm print screening as part of the Sydney Film Festival. This is essential Australian cinema.
EXCERPT:
Wake in Fright DVD (with deluxe packaging and extras) is courtesy of Madman Entertainment, many thanks!
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Director Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright honored at MOMA
A surprise private screening celebration in honor of Canadian Director Ted Kotcheff’s 80th Birthday.
(New York, NY, March 28,2011)— The restored 1971 Australian classic Wake in Fright was screened The Sunday on March 20th at The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in The Lewis B. & Dorothy Cullman Education & Research Building (The Celeste Bartos Theater) as part of a surprise private screening celebration given by his wife Laifun in honor of his 80th Birthday.
The event was co-hosted by Chris Meloni (Law & Order SVU) and Antonio Saillant (Angel Light Pictures). Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU), Brian Dennehy and Michael Talbott (First Blood) and many other close friends of the honoree attended this historical event and a special reception dinner followed immediately after the screening at the restaurant Bice NY.
Wake In Fright, released in 1971, is a sharply observed drama about a schoolteacher stranded in a hostile country town. Based on a novel by Kenneth Cook, it stars Gary Bond alongside Chips Rafferty, Donald Pleasence, Jack Thompson and Sylvia Kay. Directed by Canadian Ted Kotcheff, produced by George Willoughby and written by Evan Jones.
At the time of production, Kotcheff had directed two films, the Tiara Tahiti (1962) and Two Men Sharing (1969). After Wake In Fright, Kotcheff would continue to have a successful career as a director. His later films included The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1973), as well as the football comedy “North Dallas Forty” (1979), which he also co-wrote, Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), First Blood (1982), and Weekend at Bernie’s (1988). In the 1990s, he returned to directing for TV and the executive producer of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
38 years after its 1971 debut, ‘in competition,’ at the Cannes Film Festival, this film was declared a Cannes Classic in 2009 and was screened again as part of the 2009 Cannes Classics retrospective program, Kotcheff holds the honor of having one of only 2 films to have ever been screened twice at Cannes.
A landmark film in the renaissance of Australian cinema in the 70s, Wake in Fright was lost for many years and has been restored by Australia’s National Film and Sound Archive and re-issued and is now considered one of the greatest Australian films of all time. The film is distributed via Madman Entertainment.