Wake in Fright 4K 1971 Ultra HD 2160p

An Australian-American psychological thriller (based on the novel of the same name by Australian writer Kenneth Cook, published in 1961), telling the story of a young teacher from rural Australia who descends into alcoholism and violence in an unfamiliar city.

User Review

Director Ted Kotcheff, known to many primarily as the director of films such as Rambo: First Blood (1982) and Weekend at Bernie's (1989), made his most atypical film at the dawn of his career, which is essentially the progenitor of Ozploitation. This film is little known, but in essence it is Peckinpah's Straw Dogs.

We are shown the story of John Grant, a teacher working in the Australian outback who goes on Christmas vacation to Sydney but gets stuck in the very hospitable town of Bundeyabba with its crazy inhabitants. John was supposed to spend only one night in this town, but ended up staying for a long time.

Here, John is gradually drawn into a whirlpool of madness and drunken revelry, robbery, and wild hunting. John Grant is a well-mannered, polite man who wants with all his might to escape from the Australian outback and leave with his girlfriend for London. He travels to Sydney to meet her. But on the way, he encounters a very charming and friendly town. In this town, things that are quite natural for the inhabitants are very scary for a model citizen. Everyone here is crazy for John Grant, offering him drinks and taking offense if you refuse to have a glass or two with them. But they don't hold a grudge against you if, for example, you want to take someone's woman away. Everything inside John, a conscientious teacher, resists this, but he is powerless to resist the natural customs and traditions of the inhabitants. He becomes just like them, without even noticing it himself. The director's social subtext is obvious: the changes in a person who encounters a society that is different from his own. The climax of all this animalistic madness is, of course, the kangaroo hunt. After that, our hero is finally a man of Yabba. But John will still understand and realize the changes that have happened to him, but will he find a way out? The end of the film will tell us about this with impartiality.

The film turned out to be realistic and truly accurate in its portrayal of everything that was intended. But if you look more closely, the unusual nature of the film becomes obvious when compared to other representatives of the genre. First of all, our hero is not in any real danger from the local residents; they do not want to harm him. They are harsh, prim, and drink a lot, but they are hospitable and friendly in their own way. The danger lies elsewhere. I wrote about this above.

The acting is superb. Donald Pleasence is lively and authentic in the role of the alcoholic doctor. This is another brilliant role for him as a mad and fallen man. Gary Bond, in the role of the teacher, probably played his greatest role. An excellent role, a vivid and memorable image of a man struggling with himself but slowly sliding into the abyss, with all the emotions and tragedy of the situation written on his face.

Wake in Fright is essentially the progenitor of a whole genre in cinema, a very vivid but at the same time little-known representative. It is a key film of this genre, a snapshot in time. All fans of exploitation cinema should familiarize themselves with this work.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (94.4 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Info Audio

#English: FLAC 2.0
#English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary with Peter Galvin, author of The Making of Wake in Fright)
#English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary with director Ted Kotcheff and editor Anthony Buckley)

Info Subtitles