Review of Wake in Fright (1971) by The Critic ( — 27 Jul 2012

Not having read anything about Kotcheff's movie beforehand, I fully expected Gary Bond's fish-out-of-water teacher to be sacrificed Wicker Man-style by the outback's testosterone-driven wild men.

However, the nightmare experienced by our hapless hero is of his own making and not at the hands of the hunting, drinking, brawling miners whose hospitality he finds himself relying upon. What the movie is trying to say is elusive but, as a rip-roaring trial of manhood, it certainly gets the blood racing, Worth a watch, primarily for Pleasence's ripe portrayal of the marooned doctor whose bawdy philosophy overwhelms the younger man.