Wake in Fright(Ted Kotcheff, 1971): Australia/USA

Reviewed by Brian Livesay. Viewed at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre during AFI Festival 2009

Wake in Fright is a  film set in Australia and was directed by Ted Kotcheff who also directed notable films such as Weekend at Bernies and Rambo First Blood among others.

I saw this film at at the AFI film festival 2009 and had a Q&A with the director afterwards. During this Q&A the audience learned that this film was nearly lost and was re-discovered in a Pennsylvania warehouse where it had been labeled for destruction the following week. How fortunate for it to have been saved as this was a very interesting film.

It portrays the outback as a lonely and barren landscape almost like a wasteland. The movie starts out in a classroom setting with the children around 10 years old or so. The main character John Grant (portrayed by Gary Bond) is a burned out school teacher looking to get away for a little vacation. In the first scene he dismisses the classroom and they quickly cut to a scene of John enjoying an ice cold beer (which is a recurring theme during the film). He makes his way by train across the open landscape and finds himself in a city with a friendly sheriff who shows him around and buys  him a few drinks. The bar is a little rough and definitely male dominated. I don’t recall seeing a single female in there. As he wanders through the bar he finds a gambling ring and decides to get in on the action. At first he is very lucky and triples his money in a matter of minutes. He is ecstatic and runs up to his hotel room and lays his money out on the for in front of him and admires it. Just one more he says and I can quit my job. This greediness is the start of a downward spiral for our main character. He not only loses his winnings but his entire paycheck is gone in a matter of minutes.

 This rollercoaster of emotions takes its toll on John and he is left wondering how he is going to get home. A gentleman at the bar offers to take him into his home until he figures out what to do. He takes him up on the offer and meets the mans wife, Janette Hynes who is portrayed by Sylvia Kay. She is a lonely housewife type who tends to stay away from her husband and his rowdy friends while they are partying. Being a school teacher, John seems more comfortable talking to her than drinking it up with the men and before long they decide to go for a walk. As soon as they are alone she lays down and invites him down for a romantic rendesvous. He later learns that he is not the only one that she has been frisky with and the other men have all had there times with Janette.

Later on the men decide to let off a little steam and embark on one of the more controversial segments of the film where they go on a drunken kangaroo hunt. They take turns shooting shooting kangaroos from a truck, and even run one over! It is pretty brutal and not for people with a weak stomach as this is footage is real. The director confirmed this during the Q&A segment and let the audience know that this was common practice at the time and the kangaroo meat was sold to the pet food industry.

Another scene that was a bit controversial was when John and one of the men (Donald Pleasance) are drunk (again) and have a wrestling match. The scene goes dark and Joh wakes up partly undressed suggesting a homosexual act had taken place Which really upsets John. The film ends with John on the train heading back to his old mundane routine.