Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Wake in Fright

  • 19711971
  • RR
  • 1h 49m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
12K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
9,513
49
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
2 Videos
99+ Photos
DramaThriller
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.
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
12K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
9,513
49
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Ted Kotcheff
    • Writers
      • Evan Jones(screenplay by)
      • Kenneth Cook(based on the novel "Wake in Fright" by)
      • Ted Kotcheff(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Donald Pleasence
      • Gary Bond
      • Chips Rafferty
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Ted Kotcheff
    • Writers
      • Evan Jones(screenplay by)
      • Kenneth Cook(based on the novel "Wake in Fright" by)
      • Ted Kotcheff(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Donald Pleasence
      • Gary Bond
      • Chips Rafferty
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 116User reviews
    • 115Critic reviews
    • 85Metascore
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination

    Videos2

    Re-release Version
    Trailer 2:02
    Re-release Version
    Wake in Fright
    Trailer 2:03
    Wake in Fright

    Photos202

    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)
    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)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Donald Pleasence
    Donald Pleasence
    • Doc Tydon
    Gary Bond
    Gary Bond
    • John Grant
    Chips Rafferty
    Chips Rafferty
    • Jock Crawford
    Sylvia Kay
    Sylvia Kay
    • Janette Hynes
    Jack Thompson
    Jack Thompson
    • Dick
    Peter Whittle
    Peter Whittle
    • Joe
    Al Thomas
    Al Thomas
    • Tim Hynes
    John Meillon
    John Meillon
    • Charlie
    John Armstrong
    • Atkins
    Slim DeGrey
    • Jarvis
    • (as Slim De Grey)
    Maggie Dence
    Maggie Dence
    • Receptionist
    Norman Erskine
    • Joe the Cook
    Owen Moase
    • 1st Controller
    John Dalleen
    • 2nd Controller
    Buster Fiddess
    • Charlie Jones
    Tex Foote
    • Stubbs
    Colin Hughes
    • Stockman
    Jacko Jackson
    • Van Driver
    • Director
      • Ted Kotcheff
    • Writers
      • Evan Jones(screenplay by)
      • Kenneth Cook(based on the novel "Wake in Fright" by)
      • Ted Kotcheff(screenplay) (uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Walkabout
    7.6
    Walkabout
    Wake in Fright
    6.1
    Wake in Fright
    The Devils
    7.8
    The Devils
    Ms .45
    6.8
    Ms .45
    Long Weekend
    6.6
    Long Weekend
    The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
    7.3
    The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
    Images
    7.1
    Images
    Straw Dogs
    7.4
    Straw Dogs
    The Last Wave
    7.0
    The Last Wave
    The Servant
    7.8
    The Servant
    Thief
    7.4
    Thief
    Two-Lane Blacktop
    7.2
    Two-Lane Blacktop

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • 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

      'Doc' Tydon: [to a semi-conscious John Grant] I cannot accept your premise, Socrates. Affectability... progress... are vanities spawned by fear. A vanity spawned by fear. The aim of what you call civilisation is a man in a smokin' jacket, whiskey and soda, pressing a bottom... button, to destroy a planet a billion miles away, kill a billion people he's never seen.

    • 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 remains 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

    User reviews116

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    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.
    helpful•151
    30
    • Sturgeon54
    • Aug 21, 2005

    FAQ7

    • Is this movie based on a book?
    • Were real kangaroos killed during the making of the film?
    • Did Doc and John have a homosexual encounter?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 9, 1971 (Australia)
    • Countries of origin
      • Australia
      • United States
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Outback
    • Filming locations
      • Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
    • Production companies
      • NLT Productions
      • Group W
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • 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

    Technical specs

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

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Wake in Fright (1971)
    Top Gap
    By what name was Wake in Fright (1971) officially released in India in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    View list
    List
    New & Upcoming Superhero Movies and Series
    See the full list
    View list
    List
    Fall TV Guide: The Best Shows Coming This Year
    See the full list
    View image
    Photos
    These Stars Are on the Rise
    See the gallery

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Back to top
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more access
    Sign in for more access
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Interest-Based Ads
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2022 by IMDb.com, Inc.