Schoolteacher John Grant drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and then gets in a fist fight with a kangaroo.

Donald Pleasence is one crazy motherfucker. I'm never gambling or drinking again.

Probably what living a real nightmare would feel like. The last shot really sums up that analogy.

Also found out the director did both Fist Blood and Weekend at Bernie's.

Mind = blown.

In a word, harrowing. Probably one of the scariest films you've ever seen that doesn't really qualify as horror, this Australian-shot classic is an oppressive tale of a traveling teacher who gets stuck in a dingy and depressing mining town when he drunkenly gambles away his paycheck. Gary Bond's luckless teacher is drawn into a intensely vulgar culture of binge drinking and brutal masculinity that culminates in a (purposely) unsettling kangaroo hunt, his life turned into an unending nightmare from which he cannot--and sometimes does not want to--escape. Donald Pleasance has never been better as the alcoholic doctor that either befriends Bond or won't leave him alone until he's insane. So dark and gritty you'll be picking outback sand out of your teeth for days.

This is a seriously hip flick. Basically it is like the beginning of The Deer Hunter played out for an entire movie, but instead of a bunch of friends hanging out, it is a bunch of loners hanging out together. They drink, they gamble, they fight, and they hunt. The journey of the school teacher in this world is fascinating, and the experience of watching it puts you right in his shoes. All the performances are amazing, but especially Donald Pleasance, who brings some true insanity to the film. Seek Wake in Fright out, I'm positive that on subsequent rewatches my rating will go up to the whole hog.

"See you in six weeks."

"Not if I rob a bank"

John Grant is a bonded teacher, a 'slave to the Australian Department of Education', who must serve out a year in the roasting outback hell of Tiboonda, location: the absolute middle of the middle of nowhere, population: countable on two hands. He can barely wait to start his Christmas break, to get away to his girlfriend; to the sea; to civilisation but must first spend a single night in a nearby mining town and await a flight to Sydney. Said town is known as The Yabba, whose residents think it the greatest place on Earth: once there no one would, or should ever have reason to leave. At this John cracks a pitying wry smile, but the audience knows there are alarm bells ringing somewhere.

Full review here:
bit.ly/13jetWh

slightly bad pacing in some spaces but good god. good god

Reviewed for the Hartford Advocate: www.ct.com/entertainment/movies/nm-ht04film3wakeinfright-20130124,0,6775645.story

I've enjoyed a bunch of Ozsploitation films over the past couple of years, especially Road Games and Dead End Drive In, but this is the only one I might call a masterpiece.

Schoolteacher John Grant drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and then gets in a fist fight with a kangaroo.

Wake in Fright is an odd gem as an Aussie flick that, while released during the hey day of Ozploitation, it really doesn't fall into that genre. In many ways Kotcheff's film plays out as if it were an extended episode of the Twilight Zone or had David Lynch directed The Lost Weekend/Under the Volcano/pick your drunken odyssey picture. It's a bit of a slow burn but it makes up for it by keeping you guessing as to what horrible things could happen next.

Movie #1 of Berkens 30 days, 30 countries challenge

Wake in Fright- Australia

A man is lost in the desert, faced with the rawest of men, off whom he can only bounce off right into the next one. As he simultaneously tries to stick to his moralities and fit in with the hypermasculine clique that picks him up from the street, his sanity wavers, and the copious amount of drinking only adds to the nightmarish downward spiral.

The film is sometimes pretty, often ugly, but always captivating, as the sweat and the heat almost pour out of the screen to make this film feel like an endless hangover.