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Wake in Fright (1970)
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A sadly confused film, shot with something like a social realist's eye for accurate documentation - clothes, faces, sex habits, furniture, buildings, language. Into this very precise context, however, is dropped the melodramatic tale of a schoolteacher from the city (Bond) who goes to pieces in a remote desert township (a favourite piece of Australian mythology) under the impact of the hard-drinking, gambling, nihilistic pressures of life there, and is finally raped by Pleasence's renegade doctor. The end result is crudely exploitative.Author:
User reviews of this film
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- Buster H said...
- Posted on Jun 28 2009 18:20 For my mind, a close second to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in the Aussie film landscape... ;o)
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- godzillla said...
- Posted on Jun 26 2009 03:00 the movie is still very relevant in 2009. The hard drinking, male, misoogynist, isolationist culture is still very alive today, particularly in rural settings. but also in urban football codes. An excellent movie
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- Anthony said...
- Posted on Jun 16 2009 19:35 The re-release was greeted rapturously by a packed house at the Nova in Melbourne last night. I predict very few Australian moviegoers will agree with you Renee
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- renee b said...
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Posted on Jun 07 2009 23:57
mMethinks Chris needs to see more Australian movies if he/she thinks this 'the best Australian film ever made'.
I've seen the dvd release due out June 09.
It's not shot well.
The acting is more like a first year drama school read-through than the best takes.
And the script does not penetrate any part of the Australian outback psyche at all.
Wake In Fright is a film that holds up a mirror to itself - and a very accurate one I might add.
I nearly Walked In Fright - from the cinema. - Report as inappropriate
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- Chris said...
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Posted on Apr 22 2009 23:37
Methinks it is the author of this astonishing review who is sadly confused. For anyone who has actually spent time in the Australian outback, the film strikes right at the heart. It remains to my mind the best Australian film ever made; it holds up a brutal mirror to the unpleasant side of Australian men, producing a reflection a lot of people can't handle.
The good news is that the fully digitised DVD release will be in June 2009. Make up your own minds; I suspect that having seen it most people will find this person's jaded review a little pompous. - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Producer: George Willoughby
Cast: Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay, Jack Thompson, Peter Whittle, Al Thomas, John Meillon full cast
Duration: 109 mins
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