Wake In Fright

1971 • 109 minutes

About this movie

Alongside Mad Max and Walkabout, Wake In Fright is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films in the development of modern Australian cinema. Directed by Ted Kotcheff (First Blood) and starring Donald Pleasence (Halloween, The Great Escape), Wake In Fright tells the nightmarish story of a schoolteacher's (Gary Bond) descent into personal demoralization at the hands of drunken, deranged derelicts while stranded in a small town in outback Australia.

Ratings and reviews

Do not watch if you are an animal lover, or a compassionate person. The killing of the kangaroos is real. In 1971 there were, apparently, no laws governing the cruel treatment of animals. And unfortunately, having said that, all the sorry people out there that love to torture animals will probably watch this movie. Now to be honest the movie was so bad I quit watching it before we got to the Kangaroos. I looked it up on Wikipedia to get a more thorough explanation of what the movie was about because it was going nowhere and that's where I found out that they did actually kill the animals for the movie. It has been said that this is a great movie showing the actuality of the Australian outback. I'm quite sure the Australian outback has very beautiful scenery and some very kind people, even in 1971. that's the movie I want to see

This is one of the most intense, upsetting films I've ever seen, and yes, the killing of kangaroos in the hunting sequence is real, though not shot for the film itself; it is documentary footage to which the filmmakers matched the dramatic work. Do not watch this movie if you want a pleasant story about nice people being good to each other in a pretty landscape. DO watch if you are a fan of challenging, brilliantly made films - Wake in Fright is a forgotten masterpiece.