Wake in Fright was filmed in my hometown of Broken Hill in 1971. It has been restored and screened in the city this week. The following review was written for the local newspaper, where I happen to work.
As brutal and unforgiving as its outback setting, Wake in Fright is a valuable look at Australia's regional heart.
Filmed mostly in Broken Hill in 1971, Wake in Fright follows John Grant (Gary Bond) as he grapples with a world he is ill-equipped to deal with.
Grant leads an unwelcome existence as a teacher in the Australia outback.
He is heading to Sydney to reconnect with the girl of his dreams, but he has to pass through Bundayabba first.
"The Yabba" as the locals call it, is Broken Hill in everything but name. The film is based on Kenneth Cook's novel which details his experiences in the Silver City.
Well-educated and well-spoken, Grant is an obvious outsider in the Yabba, and he derides the locals and their game of two-up as simple and crude.
Seeking to raise enough money to flee far away, however, he bets big and loses everything. He wakes the next morning penniless and more enmeshed with the Yabba than ever.
Subject to the locals' hospitality, Grant is enveloped in their hard-working, hard-drinking world, and any mention of escape is met with the demand to relax and have another beer.
Wake in Fright is a confronting film that pulls no visual punches. The graphic result of a kangaroo shoot is laid out on screen and intercut with the hunters' joy, and a drunken night out with the boys is heavily implied to end with rape.
The portrayal of outback Australians can be hard to swallow, but ultimately feels genuine. Everyone in town is honest to a fault and endlessly hospitable, but the celebrated trait of mateship has been forged into a frightening point of brutality.
Drinking is a way of life. Anyone will buy you one, but be prepared to drink it down swiftly. Friendly wrestles turn sour. A night out might have you grappling with a wild animal.
When local cop Jock (Chips Rafferty) befriends Grant, he buys him a beer and stares imposingly until it is sculled. Excellent performances and solid direction make moments like these - and there are plenty - feel suffocating and uncomfortable despite the wide-open landscape.
It all conspires to make the Yabba seem welcoming yet terrifying. Grant could easily live there forever, but he may never leave - or return to sobriety - again.
It's not hard to see why a 1970s audience, unaccustomed with seeing themselves up on screen, would've rejected such an unflattering portrayal. Modern audiences may dismiss it as the past, but the message rings true. The brutality of a population that is drinking its way through a hot, dirty existence is food for thought.
The character of Doc (Donald Pleasence) is repulsive. Unable to practice medicine in Sydney due to his alcoholism, he has come to the Yabba where his condition is "barely noticeable". He isn't a local, but he's has been welcomed by all and that is in itself a damning indictment. His character exhibits the most obvious homosexual undertones, but the tension of that with the blokiness inhabits much of the story.
Local lads and good mates Dick and Joe (Jack Thompson and Peter Whittle) loom large as towers of bush masculinity. They drink, fight, drink and shoot together, and seem like genuinely nice guys as long as they aren't too drunk - but they often are. The entire cast comes through as well-rounded and each character feels full.
The scenes of a roo shoot include animals being shot to death on camera. It's disturbing and something that could not be done today. A note at the end of the film informs that the shots were fired by licenced hunters, but it still stings.
Wake in Fright has special significance for Broken Hill viewers, as their city takes pride of place. Watching the city's unique architecture move by in the background is a treat, even for those too young to have seen it back then.
It's a testament to the city's heritage value that, while the city looks different in many ways, its spirit - for better and for worse - remains the same.
Filmed mostly in Broken Hill in 1971, Wake in Fright follows John Grant (Gary Bond) as he grapples with a world he is ill-equipped to deal with.
Grant leads an unwelcome existence as a teacher in the Australia outback.
He is heading to Sydney to reconnect with the girl of his dreams, but he has to pass through Bundayabba first.
"The Yabba" as the locals call it, is Broken Hill in everything but name. The film is based on Kenneth Cook's novel which details his experiences in the Silver City.
Well-educated and well-spoken, Grant is an obvious outsider in the Yabba, and he derides the locals and their game of two-up as simple and crude.
Seeking to raise enough money to flee far away, however, he bets big and loses everything. He wakes the next morning penniless and more enmeshed with the Yabba than ever.
Subject to the locals' hospitality, Grant is enveloped in their hard-working, hard-drinking world, and any mention of escape is met with the demand to relax and have another beer.
Wake in Fright is a confronting film that pulls no visual punches. The graphic result of a kangaroo shoot is laid out on screen and intercut with the hunters' joy, and a drunken night out with the boys is heavily implied to end with rape.
The portrayal of outback Australians can be hard to swallow, but ultimately feels genuine. Everyone in town is honest to a fault and endlessly hospitable, but the celebrated trait of mateship has been forged into a frightening point of brutality.
Drinking is a way of life. Anyone will buy you one, but be prepared to drink it down swiftly. Friendly wrestles turn sour. A night out might have you grappling with a wild animal.
When local cop Jock (Chips Rafferty) befriends Grant, he buys him a beer and stares imposingly until it is sculled. Excellent performances and solid direction make moments like these - and there are plenty - feel suffocating and uncomfortable despite the wide-open landscape.
It all conspires to make the Yabba seem welcoming yet terrifying. Grant could easily live there forever, but he may never leave - or return to sobriety - again.
It's not hard to see why a 1970s audience, unaccustomed with seeing themselves up on screen, would've rejected such an unflattering portrayal. Modern audiences may dismiss it as the past, but the message rings true. The brutality of a population that is drinking its way through a hot, dirty existence is food for thought.
The character of Doc (Donald Pleasence) is repulsive. Unable to practice medicine in Sydney due to his alcoholism, he has come to the Yabba where his condition is "barely noticeable". He isn't a local, but he's has been welcomed by all and that is in itself a damning indictment. His character exhibits the most obvious homosexual undertones, but the tension of that with the blokiness inhabits much of the story.
Local lads and good mates Dick and Joe (Jack Thompson and Peter Whittle) loom large as towers of bush masculinity. They drink, fight, drink and shoot together, and seem like genuinely nice guys as long as they aren't too drunk - but they often are. The entire cast comes through as well-rounded and each character feels full.
The scenes of a roo shoot include animals being shot to death on camera. It's disturbing and something that could not be done today. A note at the end of the film informs that the shots were fired by licenced hunters, but it still stings.
Wake in Fright has special significance for Broken Hill viewers, as their city takes pride of place. Watching the city's unique architecture move by in the background is a treat, even for those too young to have seen it back then.
It's a testament to the city's heritage value that, while the city looks different in many ways, its spirit - for better and for worse - remains the same.
2 comments:
I first saw Wake in Fright in 1975, long before I had even heard of Broken Hill. Now that I have lived there and with some of the same type of characters as portrayed in the movie I am really looking forward to seeing it again. I remember the violence of the film, both real and implied, left me feeling a little disturbed. I wonder what the next watch will feel like.
Hi, I just saw the re-released version of this film. It's awesome. Ran straight home and wrote a review of it for my blogsite. If you'd like to read it, please have a look at the link below.
http://crackernight.com/2009/07/14/wake-in-fright-a-lost-mastpiece-found/
Yours sincerely
Justin Sheedy
http://crackernight.com/
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