Director: Ted Kotcheff
Talent: Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay
Release Date: 7th March
After decades of being lost, the print for Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 outback thriller Wake in Fright now receives a lavish restoration and cinema re-release. The Australian cult film proves to be a remarkable achievement. An examination of masculinity in the ultra-macho Outback, it tells the story of a genteel schoolteacher (Gary Bond) who becomes stranded in an isolated mining town and is quickly led astray by its violent and disturbed citizens, including an outstanding Donald Pleasence as ‘Doc’ Tydon.
Wake in Fright is relentless in its portrayal of alcohol abuse and casual brutality, including a truly unnerving kangaroo hunt which uses un-simulated footage, but nothing proves more troubling than the film’s everyman protagonist’s eagerness to indulge in such behaviour. Brian West’s masterful photography creates a palpably oppressive atmosphere, the Outback’s desolate vistas reflecting the personal hell each character goes through, a journey conveyed by scene after scene of daring, challenging, and profoundly accomplished filmmaking. – Felipe Deakin
