Cinecity: Wake In Fright

“Be quiet, stop worrying and drink your beer”, the protagonist of Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 cult ‘Ozploitation’ classic Wake In Fright is instructed by one of the borderline alcoholic locals in the defining moment of this bruising study of Antipodean masculinity. Set in a remote outback town, Gary Bond’s young British teacher drawn into a world of pointless violence, aggressive hospitality and endless booze perfectly evokes a sense of condescension followed by debasement. Kotcheff piles on the unrelenting psychological trauma bluntly yet intelligently, making for what is a fascinating depiction of the bizarre contradictions that characterised life in the rural Australia of the seventies.

Duke of York’s Picturehouse, 22 November 2013
Rating:
Nick Aldwinckle