by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: Discs: 2; The Film: 5/5; The Extras: 4.5/5 Overall: 9.5/10
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Cast:
Gary Bond, Donald Pleasance, Al Thomas, Jack Thompson, Chips Rafferty, Nancy Knudsen
Intro:
... a must have for even casual fans of this unique, iconic descent into boozy, blokey madness.
The Film
What film best typifies the Australian national identity? It’s a question that has been floating around for yonks. Could it be Peter Weir’s Gallipoli? Or Bruce Beresford’s Breaker Morant? Perhaps it’s unrelated to historical wars and is more about our larrikin sensibility, like Crocodile Dundee or the you-beaut battlers with hearts of gold in The Castle. Maybe, just maybe, it’s more about the undercurrent of insanity that runs through our consciousness with genre works like Mad Max or Razorback. While these are all worthy choices (with the possible exception of Paul Hogan’s vanity vehicle), one film nailed the assignment before the release of any of these. Wake in Fright, the 1971 classic from Canadian director Ted Kotcheff (First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s) took an unflinching look into the dark heart of this great southern land and gave us one of the most memorable, iconic Aussie films of all time.
Wake in Fright is the story of schoolteacher John Grant (Gary Bond), who works off his financial bond in the flyspeck town of Tiboonda, teaching sweaty, disinterested youths and counting the minutes until he can knock off for the Chrissy holidays and travel to Sydney to see his girlfriend, Robyn (Nancy Knudsen). The time finally arrives and Johnno heads to the larger town of Bundanyabba (aka “The Yabba”), where he’ll stay overnight before catching a plane to the big smoke the next day. At least, that’s the plan. However, John gets curious about The Yabba and with some gentle manipulation from loquacious local copper, Jock Crawford (Chips Rafferty), the prickly teacher soon finds himself double-fisting beers, meeting unsavoury locals and losing all his money in an illegal game of two-up. Waking up with a monstrous hangover and barely a dollar to his name, John finds himself drifting into the orbit of locals like Tim Hynes (Al Thomas) and dodgy, nihilistic doctor Clarence F. Tydon (Donald Pleasence). What follows is a grimy, downward spiral of alcohol-fueled mayhem, where a curt and prim young man learns the stark lesson that he’s no better than any other bloke. He’s the same violent, idiotic, rutting monkey as everyone else, just in a nicer pair of trousers.
It’s a grim bloody journey at times, particularly in the final third, where the quirky humour drains away and a lengthy, harrowing kangaroo shooting sequence takes place that has lost none of its dark power despite being over half a century old. In fact, that’s a pretty good note overall.
To break the illusion of authorial objectivity just a little, your humble word janitor still remembers his parents talking about watching Wake in Fright in the cinema back in 1971. They spoke of it less as a film and more of a troubling incident, describing how they walked out as the credits rolled, shaking at the intensity of what they’d witnessed. A similar event occurred watching the film in 2025, with friends who had never seen it before. Sure, it’s a funny and slightly surreal journey for most of the runtime, but the final act managed to silence everyone save for the occasional “Jesus Christ” or muttered swear word.
That’s the power of Wake in Fright, offering all viewers cinematic generational trauma in less than two hours and providing an unflinching gaze into the hidden parts of our national identity. Influential, much-imitated, rarely if ever equalled, Wake in Fright is a true Australian classic of unique menace and trenchant cultural observation.
The Extras
Plenty to like in the generous extras included here. There’s the classic audio commentary with Director Ted Kotcheff and Editor Anthony Buckley and a new audio commentary from Peter Galvin, author of The Making of Wake in Fright.
There’s a host of new short pieces, the best of which is Return to the ‘Yabba: a 50-minute feature revisiting the film’s Broken Hill locations and talking with locals who actually remember the film being shot and/or have a personal connection to it. There are interviews with Ted Kotcheff, Jack Thompson and pieces by Kim Newman (on Donald Pleasance) and Philippe Mora and Paul Harris discussing the film. Hell, there’s even an entire other feature film Sunstruck (1972), from the same producers!
The only thing missing is a proper, full-length documentary about the film, the definitive final word on the timeless classic, which sadly is unlikely to get made due to many of the cast and crew no longer being with us. Still and all, this is exhaustive stuff clearly put together by people who love Wake in Fright as much as it deserves.
It should also be noted that the exxy but excellent Collector’s Edition contains lobby cards, the original script by Evan Jones and the original novel by Kenneth Cook! Although, make sure to bring your reading glasses because the font is small!
The Verdict
Frankly, if this 4K edition of Wake in Fright had only included the movie remastered in 4K HDR Dolby Vision from the original camera negative it would be worth it. You’ve never seen the film look this good, letting Kotcheff’s grim vision shine through in every sweaty pore, persistent blowfly, dead roo or sudsy beer glass glinting in the sun. However, when combined with the generous raft of extras and special features, it makes this a must have for even casual fans of this unique, iconic descent into boozy, blokey madness. Put simply, if you’re even vaguely interested in Wake in Fright, and the Ozploitation genre in general, and you miss this sumptuous package? Yer mad, ya bastard!
