Wake in Fright (Aka Outback) Our Australian Season 1971, Australia, Colour Drama, Running Time: 106 Mins
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First film in Wake In Fright (aka Outback) our Australian Season 1971, Australia, Colour Drama, Running time: 106 mins. Directed by Ted Kotcheff. Screenplay by Evan Jones, based on the novel by Kenneth Cook. Cast : th Tuesday 30 Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Donald Pleasence, and Jack May at 8.15 pm Thompson Film essay by In the remote towns of the west there are few of the Law rence amenities of civilization; there is no sewerage, there are Sutcliffe , no hospitals, rarely a doctor; the food is deary and Highland flavourless from long carrying, the water is bad; Council 's Film electricity is for the few who can afford their own plant, Officer. roads are mostly non-existent; there are no theatres, no picture shows and few dance halls; and the people are saved from stark insanity by the one strong principle of progress that is ingrained for a thousand miles, east, north, south and west of the Dead Heart - the beer is always cold. Wake In Fright by Kenneth Cook and commercially. Their second film would A pivotal moment in Australian be Wake In Fright, and a very different cinema Wake In Fright looks kettle of fish. John Grant is a recently backward, through the casting of Chips qualified teacher committed to a two year Rafferty, to what might be termed a teaching post in tiny Tiboonda in the colonial era of national cinema and at remote west of New South Wales. He plans the same time forward, through its to spend Christmas back in Sydney but genre, to the dominant twin themes of during an overnight stop in Bundanyabba 1970s Australian New Wave; art-house he loses all his money gambling, and so driven films like Picnic at Hanging Rock begins a decent into an outback heart of (1975), and the Ozploitation movies darkness. such as Mad Max (1979). The rights to Kenneth Cook's seminal 1961 novel, partially based on his own experiences in Broken Hill, New South Wales, were originally bought by Dirk Bogarde with a view to it becoming another collaboration with director Joseph Losey. Evan Jones wrote a draft screenplay, but ultimately this intriguing possibility came to nothing Ted Kotcheff was chosen to direct, a native and Bogarde sold the rights in 1966 to Canadian Kotcheff felt that his own Australian writer Morris West, who experience of growing up in a former British would retain the services of Jones, colony, one also dominated by its vast open before selling the rights once more to spaces, would enable him to tackle a NTL Productions for $49,000 (about distinctly Australian story. However there £250,000 today). was some hesitancy at this from the antipodean film community. The choice of a non-Australian director was hardly an unusual event, but despite the quality of directors who had previous made films down-under, such as Harry Watt, The Overlanders (1946), Fred Zinnermann, The Sundowners (1960), and Michael Powell, They’re A Weird Mob (1966), it was felt that Australian NLT had recently signed an a distinctly Australian voice was missing; ambitious deal with division of these films were very much on the outside American multinational Westinghouse looking in. to make ten films in five years. The British actors Gary Bond and Donald first film, Squeeze A Flower (1970), a Pleasence were cast principal characters lightweight comedy it flopped critically John Grant and “Doc” Tilden respectively; and commercially. Their second their outsider origins adding noteworthy their outsider origins adding and for throwing handfuls into the air noteworthy elements to their just before a shot to ensure a performances. But, the most verisimilitude between the location interesting is the choice of Chips and the studio scenes; flies were also Rafferty in the role of policeman Jock released on the set. Crawford. Rafferty, for some thirty years the quintessential cinematic The finished film cost around $800,000 Australian (he appears in all the films (£4,000,000 adjusted), a massive mentioned in the previous paragraph). figure for an indigenous production. The lanky laconic Rafferty was seen as Wake in Fright premiered at the embodying the essence of the no Cannes Film Festival and Kotcheff was nonsense practical Aussie. Rafferty nominated for the Palme d’Or (he lost also engaged in film as a producer to The Go-Between directed by Joseph making a number of films throughout Losey). Commercial releases followed the 1950s, although this would in France (July), the UK and Australia ultimately end in bankruptcy (a role in (October), and United States (February the marathon filming of Mutiny On 1972). It found critical favour and box- The Bounty (1962) would ultimately office success in Europe, but despite restore his finances). Wake In Fright this it suffered a poor domestic box- was Rafferty’s final film, he died office return. It has been suggested shortly after he had finished filming, that this brutal unvarnished vision of and it is considered one of his best the outback and its inhabitants was performances. However, the weight of too at odds with audience cinematic history that he brings simply perceptions. “During an early through his presence in what is to be Australian screening, one man stood honest the unflattering representation up, pointed at the screen and of a major aspect of his homeland protested "That's not us!", to which adds to the film’s gravitas. Jack Thompson [Dick in the film] yelled back "Sit down, mate. It is us." Location filming took place in the town that had initially inspired Kenneth Following its commercial run prints of Cook’s novel, Broken Hill (coincidently the film drifted in obscurity and for the birth place of Chips Rafferty). decades it became a film talked about Kotcheff and cinematographer Brian but seldom seen. Eventually there West worked hard to capture the vast were no prints deemed of viewing emptiness of the landscape and the quality left and Wake In Fright became claustrophobic heat and dust that to all intents a lost film, this prompted pervades all aspects of the film. Anthony Buckley, the film’s editor, Kotcheff even brought barrels of began a ten year quest to find the Broken Hill’s red earth back to the original negatives which he was studios in Sydney to decorate the set, convinced must still exist. Ultimately and for throwing handfuls into the he rediscovered all of the original air just before a shot to ensure a film cans in a garage in Pittsburgh he rediscovered all of the original film cans in a garage in Pittsburgh only days away from being junked. Buckley details the search in his memoirs Behind a Velvet Light Trap: From Cinesound to Cannes. With the original camera negatives recovered a painstaking restoration began, and the tail. It is still played, traditionally on restored film made its premiere, again Anzac Day, throughout Australia. An at Cannes, in 2009 to overwhelming interesting footnote is that Chips critical appreciation and with its place Rafferty is introduced playing two-up firmly established at the forefron t of in his first major role in Forty the Australian New Wave. Thousand Horsemen (1940); there is a A word should also be said about the poignant serendipity that game should game of two-up that proves so effectively bookend his acting career. disastrous for John Grant. It is a traditional Australian gambling game, involving a designated "spinner" throwing two coins or pennies into the air. Players bet on whether the coins will fall with both heads up, both tails up, or with one coin a head and one a tail. It is still played, traditionally Our on Anzac next Day,screening.……… throughout The Last Wave Australia. An interesting footnote is The second film in our…….. Australian Season that Chips Rafferty is introduced playing two-up in his firstA white major solicitor in. Sydney has his normal life is role in Forty Thousand Horsemen disrupted after he takes on a www.facebook.com/infifa (1940); there is a poignantmurder case and discovers serendipity that game shouldthat he shares a strange, Eden Court mystical connection with Inverness Film Fans (InFiFa) effectivelyCinema bookend his acting the small group of local meet fortnightly at Eden Court career Cinema for screenings and post 13th June 2017 Australian Aborigines film discussions. To join us for at 7.15 pm accused of the crime. free and for more info go to: www.invernessfilmfans.org .