Wake in Fright (1971)

Director:

Ted Kotcheff

Writers:

Kenneth Cook (novel)
Evan Jones (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Have a drink, mate? Have a fight, mate? Have some dust and sweat, mate? There's nothing else out here.

Plot Keywords:

Morality | Sexism | Mining Town | Drunkenness | Australian Bush

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Donald Pleasence	...	'Doc' Tydon
Gary Bond	...	John Grant
Chips Rafferty	...	Jock Crawford
Sylvia Kay	...	Janette Hynes
Jack Thompson	...	Dick
Peter Whittle	...	Joe
Al Thomas	...	Tim Hynes
John Meillon	...	Charlie
John Armstrong	...	Atkins
Slim DeGrey	...	Jarvis
Maggie Dence	...	Receptionist
Norm Erskine	...	Joe the cook
Owen Moase	...	First controller
John Dalleen	...	Second controller
Buster Fiddess	...	Charlie Jones

Also Known As:

Outback

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

Australia | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:18 | New Zealand:R16 | Australia:M (2009) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Ajax Studios, Bondi, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Group W

Trivia:

Charlie mentions Ned Kelly. Ned Kelly is an infamous bushranger/ bandit/ folk hero in Australia and subject of several films - the earliest from 1906 and the most recent from 2003.

Goofs:

Continuity: Inside Doc Tydon's hut, there is a window near the back door seen when Grant wants to go to the toilet. However, from outside, the window is at least a meter from the door.

Quotes:

'Doc' Tydon: I'm a doctor of medicine. And a tramp by temperament. I'm also an alcoholic. My disease prevented me from practicing in Sydney. But out here it's scarcely noticeable.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008)

Soundtrack:

The Old Grey Mare

Quite Possibly The Most Realistic Film I've Ever Seen

The first time I watched this, I really didn't know what to make of it; it was so different from any other film I had ever seen. It seemed as if it was filmed with virtually no budget, the sets and atmosphere were completely dingy, the setting and much of the language was foreign to me, and it felt like a kind of homemade independent film. However, upon a second viewing, I see it for the richly-textured masterpiece that it is, and for the awesome attention to detail that must have gone into it which I had taken for granted the first time.

There have been other films with similar subject matter in alternate settings of cultured men reduced to a kind of forgotten primitivity, but I think the thing that sets this movie apart is the fact that director Ted Kotcheff remains completely neutral toward all of the characters - both the cultured schoolteacher as well as the locals. By the end of the film, no character remains unscathed, and yet no character is completely without sympathy, either. It must be quite difficult for a director to remain impartial, especially when most stories require audience sympathy for a protagonist versus an antagonist for story momentum. This impartiality establishes an incredible realism in the film which is difficult to shake off. Here, as in life, things just happen to the main character organically - whether there is any rhyme, reason, or moral to any of it is the complete burden of the audience to figure out.

Another key aspect to the film is its universality. Most people would like to believe that in the modern world, and especially a modern country such as Australia or the U.S, that such ugly colloquial primitivity has been largely purged from polite society, but they would be quite wrong. I can equate some of my own personal experiences with those of the main character in this film, and so felt an uncomfortable recognition as I was watching this. Moroever, virtually every scene in the film I could envision actually occurring - something I cannot say about any other I can think of. Sam Peckinpah's filmic explorations of perverse masculinity, some of Samuel Fuller's work, and "Deliverance" are the only movies that achieve something close to the kind of effect this movie has, and even Peckinpah felt the need to resort to flashy cinematic stylistics to get his points across.

This movie has not aged one bit, and probably never will. It is a tragedy that it has all but disappeared even in its own country of Australia. Director Kotcheff displayed an amazing early talent; it is too bad that his career never reached another peak like this - even in "First Blood" and "Uncommon Valor" - two of his other films with similar themes. And that the same man ended up directing "Weekend at Bernie's" and episodes of "Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries"!!! The world is a crazy place, and one need only watch this film to realize this fact.