Wake in Fright (1971)
90%RT Audience Score: 83%
Awards & Nominations: 1 nomination
A disquieting classic of Australian cinema, Wake in Fright surveys a landscape both sun-drenched and ruthlessly dark.
Wake in Fright is like a wild ride through the Australian outback, with stunning cinematography and a story that will leave you feeling both disturbed and exhilarated. It’s a searing commentary on toxic masculinity and the dangers of alcohol abuse, but also a thrilling and suspenseful film that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Just be warned, there are some scenes of real-life animal abuse that may be hard to watch. Overall, Wake in Fright is a must-see for fans of intense and thought-provoking cinema.
Production Company(ies)
Charles Chaplin Productions,
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Streaming, Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
MPAA / Certificate
R
Year of Release
1971
-
Color:Color
-
Sound mix:Mono
-
Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
-
Runtime:NA
-
Language(s):English
-
Country of origin:United States
-
Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Sep 22, 1971 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 15, 2013
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay, Jack Thompson, Peter Whittle, directed by Ted Kotcheff, written by Evan Jones, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Tom Milne, Derek Malcolm, Margaret Hinxman, Mark Kermode, Geoffrey Macnab, Tim Robey, Trace Thurman, Joe Lipsett, Travis Johnson, Dilys Powell, Nicholas Bell, R rating, Australian cinema, Outback, mining town, gambling, alcohol, kangaroo hunt, suicide, teacher, girlfriend, Sydney, hard-drinking locals, toxic masculinity, animal abuse, hot weather, Christmas, social horror, battles of human soul, realistic, intense, powerful, well-made
Worldwide gross: $218,229
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $1,790,720
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,443
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 195,280
US/Canada gross: $50,394
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $413,518
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,373
US/Canada opening weekend: $6,761
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $55,479
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,170
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): A$800,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Donald Pleasence – Doc Tydon
Chips Rafferty – Jock Crawford
Sylvia Kay – Janette Hynes
Jack Thompson – Dick
Peter Whittle – Joe
Director(s)
Ted Kotcheff
Writer(s)
Evan Jones
Producer(s)
George Willoughby
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
1 nomination
Academy Awards
All Critics (59) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (57) | Rotten (2)
[Has some] fine photography of the Australian wilds, but also veers into melodrama.
March 19, 2020
Tom Milne
Financial Times
TOP CRITIC
[It] will will not please the Australian Tourist Board. It may not even please Australians. But it ranks, along with Nicholas Roeg’s Walkabout, as the most impressive piece of special pleading about the country I’ve seen.
March 19, 2020
Derek Malcolm
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
It’s a remarkable film and I’m not at all happy with it.
March 19, 2020
Margaret Hinxman
Daily Telegraph (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Blends staged re-enactments with documentary footage of senseless slaughter to extremely distressing effect.
March 9, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
Mark Kermode
Observer (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Brilliantly directed by Kotcheff, the film has the disorienting and menacing quality of Joseph Losey films such as Accident and The Servant.
March 7, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
Geoffrey Macnab
Independent (UK)
TOP CRITIC
It presents a world in which refusing a pint has violent consequences, high spirits quickly curdle, and an unspoken homoerotic undertow gets ever more disturbing.
March 7, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Reaches a level of anxiety-inducing terror that few other films have achieved.
May 24, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/5
Trace Thurman
Horror Queers Podcast
Wake in Fright is searing condemnation on masculinity, urban vs rural divides and alcohol abuse that traps its audience in toxic cycles as much as its lead character. The real life animal abuse is unforgivable, though
May 18, 2022 | Rating: 4/5
Joe Lipsett
Horror Queers Podcast
If anything, the film has become more potent, more poignant, even more capable of shocking and disturbing.
June 29, 2021
Travis Johnson
Blunt Magazine
Perhaps it will be argued that [its intention] is to excite disgust with crudeness, to invite us… to recognise a general tough goodwill which teaches the visitor to know his own weaknesses Maybe. Myself I find that the film excites disgust, period.
March 19, 2020
Dilys Powell
Sunday Times (UK)
Captures a dusty, sweaty Australia, equal parts friendly and terrifying.
August 5, 2019
Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
John Grant is absolutely note-perfect as the stiff-upper-lipped Englishman stranded in an environment that he couldn’t be any further removed from.
April 12, 2018 | Rating: 9/10
Andrew Pollard
Starburst…
Plot
John Grant, a teacher working in the remote Australian town of Tiboonda, is under a financial bond with his Government job. At the end of term before Christmas holidays, he plans to visit his girlfriend in Sydney. In order to catch a flight to Sydney, he takes a train to the nearby mining town called Bundanyabba (or “The Yabba”), and plans to stay there overnight before moving on further to the airport. But things go grossly out of script as he is engulfed by the Yabba and its disconcerting residents.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The film features Donald Pleasence in a supporting role as Doc Tydon.
Ted-Kotcheff.jpg
