Wake in Fright
| Wake in Fright | |
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Original Australian theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Ted Kotcheff |
| Produced by | George Willoughby |
| Screenplay by | Evan Jones |
| Based on |
Wake in Fright by Kenneth Cook |
| Starring |
Gary Bond Donald Pleasence Chips Rafferty |
| Music by | John Scott |
| Cinematography | Brian West |
| Edited by | Anthony Buckley |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
United Artists (1971) Drafthouse Films (2012) |
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Release date
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Running time
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114 minutes |
| Country | Australia United States |
| Language | English |
Wake in Fright (also known as Outback) is a 1971 Australian thriller film directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence and Chips Rafferty. The screenplay, written by Evan Jones, is based on Kenneth Cook's 1961 novel of the same name. An Australian and American venture produced by Group W and NLT Productions, Wake in Fright tells the story of a young schoolteacher from Sydney who descends into personal moral degradation after finding himself stranded in a brutal, menacing town in outback Australia.
For many years, Wake in Fright enjoyed a reputation as Australia's great "lost film" because of its unavailability on VHS or DVD, as well as its absence from television broadcasts. In mid-2009, however, a thoroughly restored digital re-release was shown in Australian theatres to considerable acclaim. Later that year it was issued commercially on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Wake in Fright is now considered a seminal film of the Australian New Wave and has been ranked by critics as one of the greatest Australian films.
A television miniseries of the same name is due to be released in 2017.
John Grant is a middle-class teacher from the big city. He feels disgruntled because of the onerous terms of a financial bond which he signed with the government in return for receiving a tertiary education. The bond has forced him to accept a post to the tiny school at Tiboonda, a remote township in the arid Australian Outback. It is the start of the Christmas school holidays and Grant plans on going to Sydney to visit his girlfriend, but first he must travel by train to the nearby mining town of Bundanyabba (known as "the Yabba”) in order to catch a Sydney-bound flight.
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Wikipedia