Review of Wake in Fright (1971) by Chris M — 01 Mar 2017
Yikes. I'd heard Mark Kermode talk about this so when it came up on Film4 I was interested. Blimey Charlie this is dark...
An educated teacher on his way home from the desolate hamlet he serves in the depths of the Outback stops overnight in a town that, like Hotel California, he almost never leaves. Alcoholism, gambling, misogyny and animal cruelty follow during a beer-soaked weekend of relentlessly bleak inevitability.
Gary Bond is great as the teacher, and Donald Pleasance fantastic as the barely-sane doctor who may have undergone a similar experience years before...
Compelling in a terrible way, it's also pretty tough, especially with its extended sequence of a real kangaroo hunt, not for the faint-hearted. I'd rate it higher but that (even though it is integral to the story) was grim.
This review of Wake in Fright (1971) was written by Chris M on 01 Mar 2017.
Wake in Fright has generally received very positive reviews.
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