Okay, I sort of lied in the title, promising kung fu and what not. I will get to it eventually, but having just re-watched one of my favourite films of all time, I felt I needed to review this first.
Wake In Fright (1971) [Uncut]
“The Best Place In Australia”
Wake In Fright, starring Chips Rafferty (Classic Australian film icon in his final performance before his death at the age of 62) is a movie based on the 1961 novel of the same name written by Kenneth Cook. A gem of Australian cinema, the film was extremely difficult to find decades after its initial release until recently, when the original negatives were found.
John Grant is a teacher in the small outback town of Tiboonda, made virtually out of the schoolhouse, a hotel and a train stop. The opening scene sprawls across the vast and barren landscape before showing John at his life’s work – Quietly waiting for the clock to tick to schools completion in deathly silence, his students ranging from the age of 12-18 no less eager than he himself is to escape the dull monotony that his life has become. Locked into a contract to serve out x amount of years teaching in a rural community, John has no choice but to stick with it.
At schools term completion, John revels in the fact that soon he will be boarding an aeroplane to Sydney, his home city, away from the suffocation air and dust to a relaxing beach with his girl, even if for a short while. With sufficient dollars to make the trip, he expects relatively few issues as he boards the train to the airfield. The airfields, however, are situated on the outskirts of Bundanyabba, a larger rural town, and as such John is forced to spend an evening in “the best place in Australia”. The place seems innocent enough, with a largely hospitable community that nonetheless seems a little too eager to try and make John love the place. It comes to the extent where to turn down the offer of a free beer is almost a criminal offence, one for which you would be sorely punished.
Over the evening, John meets Jock Crawford, the local police, who forces his sociable nature on John to the point of asphyxiation. Crawford takes it upon himself to make sure John is well looked after, with a few rounds and promises of a hearty steak. Despite all this, the air of welcoming feels contrived, as he gets John’s name wrong straight off the bat, as well as the less and heartening news that suicide is a popular way to ‘escape the town’. Jock takes John to a local pub for an exclusive bunch, with dollar steaks up front, and the biggest game of
two-up in town out back. John is left to his own devices, and gets seduced into the gambling arena.
After hitting a particularly lucky streak and making 400 dollars, John runs back to his hotel in ecstasy. Elated with his victory, eventually he realises it is almost all for naught, as he will still have to return to teach in 6 weeks time. He had the 400 dollars, plus his work pay (290 dollars) so he feels he can afford one more spin, hoping to get enough money to pay off the bond to break away from his contract, and thus, no more teaching. 400 dollars, gone with the flip of 2 coins. Shaken, obsessed, and surrounded by the reek of stale smoke and beer, he bets his work money. Needless to say, John is stuck in the Yabba. He tries to find small time work, but the labour office doesn’t open weekends. As such he is forced to stay in the Yabba and endure its overwhelming hospitality.
The guts of the movie revolve around John discovering the underbelly of the town, one whose entire point of existence seems to be alcohol. John, a normally well structured individual can not turn down their hospitality, and eventually gets absorbed into a world of alcoholism, debauchery and general ignorance of ones own morality, which is quickly lost in a flood of ‘free’ beer and contrived generosity. John’s veneer of cleanliness and decency is swept away as the author/director explores the depths of humanity in hell on Earth.
The film suffered poorly in the box office, despite generally good reviews, however, this is understandable. The film is raw, and displays a side of Australians (Whom would have been the primary audience) that most find unsettling, even if we ourselves are not directly like that, our culture was perceived to be so from those from around the world, hard drinkers who would go til dawn.
There is a particularly brutal scene which used actual footage from a kangaroo culling process. Violent, in your face and vicious, although it would be ridiculously frowned upon today, adds a level of realism that, although not totally necessary, is a huge boon to the film. This is life at its pure, unadulterated worst.
Personally, this is the greatest Australian film ever made, not that it has a lot of competition. It involves a level of directness and barbarity that is both revolting and absorbing at the same time. The acting is solid, and there are some ripper scenes, particularly when a character by the name of Doc Tydon (Actor Donald Pleasance in a spectacular performance, best known for his role as Blofeld in the 1967 James Bond film ‘You Only Live Twice’) starts quoting Socrates philosophy in a drunken stupor with a fight going on behind him. The film is fully available to watch on youtube, but I do suggest a decent torrent download of the uncut version, or a DVD purchase.
It is a staple book in Australian school kids English Studies nowadays (Was how I was originally introduced). A ridiculously good film that I easily give…
10/10
If there ever was an Australian film you HAD to see, in my opinion, this is it. Classic Australian film.
Didn’t intend this to be too long, but it is that good. One of Nick Cave's favourites.