Wake in Fright

19711971
RR
1h 49m

Wake in Fright (1971)

The story of John Grant, a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough outback mining town of Bundanyabba planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney. But his one night stretches to five and he plunges headlong toward his own destruction

Play trailer2:02

After a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.After a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.After a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.

Director
- Ted Kotcheff
Writers
- Evan Jones(screenplay by)
- Kenneth Cook(based on the novel "Wake in Fright" by)
- Ted Kotcheff(screenplay)
Stars

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination

Videos2

Re-release Version

Re-release Version

Wake in Fright

Gary Bond and Chips Rafferty in Wake in Fright (1971)

Jack Thompson in Wake in Fright (1971)

Gary Bond in Wake in Fright (1971)

Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Tex Foote, Jack Thompson, and Peter Whittle in Wake in Fright (1971)

Donald Pleasence in Wake in Fright (1971)

Gary Bond, John Dalleen, Slim DeGrey, and Owen Moase in Wake in Fright (1971)

Gary Bond in Wake in Fright (1971)

Wake in Fright (1971)

Wake in Fright (1971)

John Meillon in Wake in Fright (1971)

Donald Pleasence and Gary Bond in Wake in Fright (1971)

Chips Rafferty in Wake in Fright (1971)

Walkabout

7.6

Long Weekend

6.6

Wake in Fright

6.2

Picnic at Hanging Rock

7.5

Picnic at Hanging Rock

The Long Goodbye

7.6

The Long Goodbye

The Devils

7.8

Images

7.1

Cure

7.4

Angst

7.3

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

7.4

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Don't Look Now

7.2

Straw Dogs

7.5

John Grant, a teacher working in the remote Australian town of Tiboonda, is under a financial bond with his Government job. At the end of term before Christmas holidays, he plans to visit his girlfriend in Sydney. In order to catch a flight to Sydney, he takes a train to the nearby mining town called Bundanyabba (or "The Yabba"), and plans to stay there overnight before moving on further to the airport. But things go grossly out of script as he is engulfed by the Yabba and its disconcerting residents. —PipingHotViews

australia drunkenness kangaroo male full frontal nudity male frontal nudity 142 more

Taglines
- Have a drink, mate? Have a fight, mate? Have some dust and sweat, mate? There's nothing else out here.
Genres
- Drama
- Thriller
Certificate
- R
Parents guide

Trivia
Director Ted Kotcheff recalled that Chips Rafferty, whose last film appearance this is, insisted on drinking real pints of beer during the bar sequences. Kotcheff substituted non-alcoholic beers for the real stuff, but Rafferty could tell immediately that it had no alcoholic content and demanded proper pints be served. He told Kotcheff: "You concentrate on the directing, I'll concentrate on the drinking." The director calculated that due to this, Rafferty was drinking up to 30 pints per day.

Goofs
As Grant leaves the hotel bar in Tiboonda, he takes one last swig of beer - leaving his glass half full. In the next shot, when the camera focuses on the interior of the bar, his glass is now empty.

Quotes
[a stranger has just given John a ride in his jeep and dropped him off at a bar]
John Grant: [grabbing his suitcase] Alright, thanks a lot.
Van Driver: Come and have a drink, mate.
John Grant: No thanks.
Van Driver: Come on, have a drink!
John Grant: [wearily] No, I'm just not at the moment...
Van Driver: It'll only take a minute. Come on, come and have a drink!
John Grant: [angrily] Look mate, I've given up drinking for a while.
Van Driver: What's wrong with you, you bastard? Why don't you come and drink with me? I've just brought you fifty miles in the heat and dust, and you won't drink with me! What's wrong with you?
John Grant: What's the matter with you people, huh? You... sponge on you, you, burn your house down, murder your wife, rape your child, that's all right! Not have a drink with you, not have a... flaming bloody drink with you, that's a criminal offence, that's the... end of the bloody world!
[storms off]
Van Driver: Yer mad, yer bastard!

Crazy credits
[Australian version] PRODUCERS' NOTE: The hunting scenes depicted in this film were taken during an actual kangaroo hunt by professional licensed hunters. For this reason and because the survival of the Australian kangaroo is seriously threatened, these scenes were shown uncut after consultation with the leading animal welfare organisations in Australia and the United Kingdom.

[International version] PRODUCERS' NOTE: Photography of the hunting scenes in this film took place during an actual kangaroo hunt conducted by licensed professional hunters. No kangaroos were killed expressly for this motion picture. Because the survival of the Australian kangaroo is seriously threatened these scenes were included with approval of leading animal welfare organisations in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Alternate versions
The international TV version that, until 2009, replaced the uncut Australian version in circulation, runs approximately 101 minutes (97 minutes on most copies due to NTSC to PAL conversion), roughly eight minutes shorter than the original. The changes are as follows:
When John awakens the morning after the two-up game, an alternate take of the scene is used: instead of being naked, he is wearing underpants.
When Janette is seducing John, the scene fades to black when she nuzzles her head against his groin and cuts to Doc's handstand. In the original, she then unbuttons her dress and kisses John, who drunkenly vomits; disappointed, she wipes his face and leads him back to the house.
The entirety of John's conversation with Doc outside his shack is missing.
The daytime kangaroo hunt lacks most of the brief scene in which Doc cuts off a kangaroo's testicles, and only shows the shot of Joe handing his knife to Doc before cutting to John's bemused close-up.
The night-time kangaroo hunt is severely truncated: only the first two kills are shown, and prior to the sequence in which Joe fights the one-eyed kangaroo, the sequence consists entirely of close-ups of the actors firing at the screen. Similarly, the shot of Joe slashing the kangaroo's throat and a lingering shot of kangaroo carcasses post-carnage are cut.
During the bush pub fight, Joe's line "You bastard!" is cut, as is Doc rising from his chair saying "You bloody bastards!"; Doc's further utterances of the phrase in this scene are cross-faded so that only the first vowel is heard.
After Doc grabs John by the neck during their post-hunt "tryst", the scene fades to white when the ceiling lamp swings toward the screen and cuts to the following morning, thereby eliminating Doc's suggestive mounting of John (curiously, the part of this scene featured during the montage of John's mental breakdown remain intact).
The following have been removed from the montage of John's mental breakdown: Doc spitting beer into Janette's mouth; Doc playfully slapping Janette; John breaking into a run; both shots of Doc having sex with Robyn. John Scott's music is cross-faded over the penultimate crescendo so that the final sting is still synchronized with the reversed shot of the two-up pennies over Doc's eyes, although much of Dick, Joe and the two-up patrons' howling laughter is eliminated as a result.

Connections
Edited into Terror Nullius (2018)

Soundtracks
She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
(uncredited)
Traditional, based on a Negro spiritual song known as "When the Chariot Comes"
Sung by passengers on the train

Top review

highly recommended

i first saw this in New York City in the early 1970's. it was one of the very few movies i have seen in my life that deserved a second viewing. for some reason i have always been fascinated by Australia. it just seemed to have animals and scenery that didn't exist anywhere else. another plus was that they spoke English there which is the only language i know. i did finally get to Australia in 1997 and it was every bit as fascinating as i had expected. this film is also fascinating although it paints a very dark and disturbing picture of the island continent. it is about a schoolteacher who for some reason becomes stranded in a tiny town in the remote outback. until he is able to leave he decides to socialize with the locals. they are a rough and tumble group unlike the teacher who is somewhat timid and sensitive. the main entertainment in this region is drinking, fighting and killing kangaroos. the latter scenes are the most disturbing with heads being blasted off the cute creature's bodies. sadly,it all ends tragically.

helpful•10

9

crabturtle
Aug 30, 2001

Release date
- October 9, 1971 (Australia)
Countries of origin
Language
- English
Also known as
- Outback
Filming locations
- Silverton, New South Wales, Australia
Production companies
- NLT Productions
- Group W
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Budget
- A$800,000 (estimated)
Gross US & Canada
- $50,394
Opening weekend US & Canada
- $6,761
- Oct 7, 2012
Gross worldwide
- $218,229

See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

Runtime
1 hour 49 minutes
Sound mix
- Mono
Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1

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