Wake in Fright

John Grant (Gary Bond) is a bonded teacher. He arrives in the outback mining town of Bundanyabba, only intending to stay one night before taking the flight to Sydney to meet his girlfriend. But once in “The Yabba” he is drawn into a gambling game, tempted to win just enough to buy him out of teaching – and loses everything. So begins a five-day period of boozing, fighting and discovering a whole dark side to himself that he never knew was there...

Films were made in Australia since silent days. In fact, the first feature (The Story of the Kelly Gang from 1906, originally an hour long but of which only fragments survive) was Australian. Local productions were made up until the mid 1950s, but after that most filmmaking on the continent was in the form of overseas productions using Australia’s landscapes as exotic locations. Jump forward to 1966, and the domestic success of Michael Powell’s They’re a Weird Mob renewed calls for a local film industry. Tiny-budgeted independent works were made, most notably Tim Burstall’s Two Thousand Weeks from 1968, often regarded as the real start of the Australian film revival. But far higher-profile was an American-Australian coproduction, directed by a Canadian director then working in England, Ted Kotcheff - Wake in Fright. Kenneth Cook’s novel was originally to be filmed by Joseph Losey and to star Dirk Bogarde, which would have been interesting. English actor Gary Bond is no Bogarde, but he manages well enough with this role.

If Powell’s film used Australian stereotypes as a vehicle for comedy, Wake in Fright (released outside Australia as Outback) is an altogether darker version, particularly on the perennial theme of mateship. Before the film’s production and after its release there were concerns that the Outback lifestyle shown here would be seen as an unflattering reflection on Australia’s image overseas. (Similar concerns were raised over the ocker comedies which began the 1970s revival in earnest, such as The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Alvin Purple.)

Masculinity in crisis was not a current term in 1968, but it’s prevalent in this film. John Grant is clearly less than fulfilled as a teacher: we first see him silently supervising a roomful of bored children until the end of class bell sounds. His fatal temptation is to gamble his money to win enough to leave the profession. In “The Yabba” he is drawn into a savage beer-soaked, gambling, fighting, roo-hunting world and the veneer of civilisation is soon stripped away. This is a world where women are incidental: a barmaid, the bored receptionist of his hotel. Apart from John’s girlfriend Robyn (seen only in brief flashbacks), the only woman of any significance is Janette (Sylvia Kay), a sad-eyed woman whose promiscuity causes her to be dismissed by the men as a slag.

As I say above, Gary Bond makes a decent fist of his role, but the acting honours go to the rest of the cast. Top-billed Donald Pleasence shows that he spent too much time being typecast as icy bastards, as he excels as the doctor both repelled and enticed by the Yabba lifestyle, and resolving the contradiction with the bottle. He also manages a very convincing Australian accent. Chips Rafferty, towards the end of his life, is chilling in a smaller role, and Jack Thompson makes an impression in his debut.

Wake in Fright was made at a time when film censorship was breaking down worldwide. You can sense the makers of this film taking advantage of what they could do, and steering clear of what they couldn’t. So we have some nudity (partial breast exposure and full male nudity from behind – though the latter was covered by underpants in the American release version), moderate violence (fisticuffs), implied homosexual assault but none of the strong language you suspect these characters would have used. We also get a bloody kangaroo hunt in the latter stages, which is not for the squeamish. Anthony Buckley’s editing is first-rate, integrating real hunt footage (involving licensed hunters) very convincingly with the actors. As a notice before the end credits states, this is why the film does not breach animal cruelty laws of the UK or any other country. As a result the film was passed uncut by the BBFC in 1971. (It had a cinema release in the UK, but as far as I can trace no television showing. I had certainly not seen it before this DVD release.)

The film takes a little while to build momentum, but once it has, Kotcheff keeps the tension high. His direction shows a few markers of its time, such as the occasionally jagged editing – particularly the flashbacks of Robyn, emerging bikini-clad from the sea. This style – much influenced by directors like Alain Resnais, particularly his film Muriel - was very much in the air in the late 60s, and became particularly associated with the director of the next major co-production to be made in Australia, namely Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout. Kotcheff and Buckley’s use of fades to black in the final scenes is also very effective. Brian West’s photography is excellent, in that orange-toned colour prevalent at the time.

Wake in Fright was critically acclaimed, and played the Cannes Film Festival, but it was not a box-office success, except in France. No doubt the film was too bleak, downbeat and disturbing for mass acceptance. But the film’s importance was in showing that a film of world stature could be made in Australia. Although the director, scriptwriter (Evan Jones) and DP (Brian West) came from overseas, much of the crew and of course the cast were local, and the film acted as a showcase for their talent. (At least three of the supporting cast – a surprisingly young-looking John Meillon, Robert McDarra and Carlo Manchini – also appear in Walkabout.)

The story of Wake in Fright has a coda. By the turn of the twenty-first century, surviving 35mm and 16mm prints of the film (under either title) were in a poor state, and the original negative could no longer be located. Anthony Buckley set himself the task of hunting down the negative before this film was forever lost – and it was eventually found in the US just as it was about to be destroyed. The film has now been fully digitally restored in its complete form. Originally shown at Cannes in 1971, it became only the second film to be shown twice at the festival (the other being L'avventura), when it was reshown as a Cannes Classic in 2009.

The DVD

Wake in Fright is released by Madman Entertainment on a dual-layered DVD encoded for Region 4 only. This is a review of that edition, but there is also a Blu-ray, which I believe is a first for a 70s Australian film.

The DVD transfer is in the correct ratio of 1.85:1 and anamorphically enhanced. The film was fully digitally restored from its original negative, and as Anthony Buckley says in the commentary, you can see fine detail that didn't show up in the original, chemically-processed cinema prints. Grain is noticeable, but it looks natural and filmlike.

The soundtrack is the original mono, clear and well balanced. There are no subtitles available, which is always regrettable.

The commentary features Ted Kotcheff and Anthony Buckley. Kotcheff says the most, and especially tells us what's happening on screen rather too much. But there is interesting material here. He also points out some intended symbolism, such as the recurrent image of a light shining in John's face. Buckley tends to act as feed for Kotcheff's anecdotes, especially the one about the man sitting behind him and making appreciative noises throughout the 1971 Cannes screening – a young director called Martin Scorsese.

Kotcheff also speaks to camera in an interview (22:20). He covers a lot of ground in discussing a film he is obviously very proud of, though necessarily much of it is also covered in the commentary.

Next up is the international theatrical trailer, which seems more like a TV spot as it is in 4:3 and runs 34 seconds. It has the Outback title and quotes the MPAA R rating.

The next items come from Australian television. First up is a segment of “Who Needs Art?” (5:46) from 1971 on Wake in Fright. Along with behind-the-scenes footage, much of the piece is a discussion on the whys and wherefores of a local film industry.

The second item is a piece on Chips Rafferty (3:26), featuring interviews with the man himself and pioneering Australian filmmaker Ken G. Hall, who had worked with Rafferty since the late 1930s. As Australian television did not start broadcasting in colour until 1975, these are both in black and white and 4:3. Rather strangely, the Rafferty piece is anamorphic, in other words the 4:3 image is pillarboxed with thick black bars to make a 16:9 picture.

A short restoration demonstration (1:54) follows, comparing selected scenes (with John Scott's music taking the place of the soundtrack) from the original negative and the final restored version. It's notable how much darker the negative is.

From ABC's 7:30 Report from 2009 comes an item on the rediscovery and restoration of Wake in Fright (6:28). This is naturally in colour and 16:9 anamorphic. Finally, there is an extended scene from Not Quite Hollywood (not on the UK DVD but on the Australian one) (5:55) discussing Wake in Fright.

The disc extras conclude with “Madman Propaganda”. After the anti-piracy ad at the beginning you can play trailers for Romulus, My Father, Ten Canoes, Look Both Ways and My Brilliant Career.

Madman have enclosed a useful booklet. “Lost and Found” by Anthony Buckley details his search for the believed-lost original negative. Other articles are “Restoring 'Wake in Fright'” by Graham Shirley, “Rediscovering a Classic” by Meg Labrum, “Film Restoration” by Anthos Simon. Last and longest is “Dreaming of the Devil” by Peter Galvin which discusses the film's critical and public reception (respectively, largely positive and largely negative) and its cultural importance in Australian cinema.