Wake in Fright (aka Outback) is widely acknowledged as one of the most important films in the development of modern Australian cinema. Although the film was prominently featured in the documentary Not Quite Hollywood, opportunities to actually see it have been scarce. A new eidtion of Wake in Fright on Region 4 DVD and all-region Blu-Ray from Australian distributor Madman fills in the gap left by a decades-long absence of a quality video release.
A brief background discussion is useful in understanding the importance of this new release. Evan Jones wrote the screenplay based on Kenneth Cook's 1961 novel of the same. Ted Kotcheff, who is Canadian, sat in the director's chair. The film was completed in 1970, but the its brutal depiction of life in the Australian outback received a chilly public reception upon its 1971 theatrical release. Critics, however, embraced the Wake in Fright with Garry Maddox of the Sydney Morning Herald going so far as to call it one of the greatest Australian films ever made. The split between the critics and the public was further exemplified by the National Film Board of Australia's refusal to endorse Wake in Fright as an entry at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. The film was chosen for competition at Cannes despite the lack of official support. Wake in Fright's reputation has grown over time but the film has been difficult to see beyond the festival circuit. In North America, a theatrical run was eventually followed by a low-res VHS release under the international title Outback. Editor Anthony Buckley undertook a multi-year search for the original materials, and in a story that seems all to common, the negatives were eventually rescued from a garbage bin. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia supervised the digital restoration. This is the source from which the print that played at 2009 festivals such as Sydney, Cannes, and Toronto in 2009. It is also the source for Madman's new DVD and Blu-Ray releases.
In Wake in Fright, a haughty Englishman named John Grant (Gary Bond) teaches school in an outback town called Tiboonda. While on his way to Sydney for his holiday break, he makes a stop in the fictional mining town of Bundanyabba (referred to by the locals as "the Yabba"). He meets a big, ruddy-looking cop named Jock Crawford (Chips Rafferty) who shows him the local hospitality by getting him drunk and introducing him to a coin flipping game called "two-up" at a local bar. Crawford also introduces Grant to an alcoholic doctor named Tydon (Donald Pleasence) who lives on beer, table scraps, and kangaroo meat. Grant wins some money by flipping pennies, and quickly realizes that he may be able to win enough cash to buy out his teaching contract. Things don't turn out as planned, and John's brief stop in the Yabba devolves into a long weekend of blackouts, brawling, pre-empted sex, and kangaroo killing with brutal rednecks.
The progressively hellish journey from Tiboonda to Bundanyabba recalls familiar theme of a person who, either by choice or accident, is thrust into an harsh unfamiliar environment and forced to discover the dark side of himself and others. Instead of Joseph Conrad's jungle or James Dickey's backwoods, Wake in Fright takes place in the Australian outback, which for most people (perhaps even for some Australians), might as well be another planet. The supporting players guide the lead character through a series of increasingly depraved situations. The worst of all the scenarios is a brutal kangaroo hunt that combines expertly staged footage with real footage taken by following licensed hunters. This truly distressing scene is probably one of the reasons for the film's negative public reception.
Ted Kotcheff's direction is stylized but always tuned into how to best tell the story. The film is book-ended by crane shots that reflect up the cyclical nature of the narrative. Rapid, dizzying montages capture the drunken bacchanalia. The editing is fast and there is always movement in the frame. The 1.85:1 aspect ratio is used effectively. For example, a combination of wide angle lens, and shot selection (i.e., lots of close-ups) pushes giant fly-covered faces and bloody, sweaty bodies to the front of the frame. The look of the film varies between extremes. Daytime exteriors run hot with bright clothes set against bright sunlight and dry landscapes that extend forever in the background. In the night, the actors and animals poke through pure blackness, illuminated only by harsh light of bar lights, lamps and car headlights.
The feature is one hour and forty-eight minutes long and the video file, which is encoded at a fairly high average bit rate, consumes most of the single layer Blu-Ray disc. The before-and-after samples provided show a tremendous improvement in the image from the frame-by-frame restoration of the negative. It is also also obvious that the image was subjected to digital noise reduction and degrained (except for the titles). Grainophiliacs will cringe but the smooth image looks quite good. In some scenes, the look definitely veers more towards high-definition video than film: daytime shots towards the end of the final act have a saturated, high-contrast look that pushes the color palette into pastel territory. The Blu-Ray is packaged with a booklet of essays about the restoration process, including numerous photos, and the film's critical reception. Disc extras, all of which are in standard definition, include an audio commentary by Ted Kotcheff and Anthony Buckley, an interview with Ted Kotcheff, and various short odds and ends (e.g. the same extended clip from Magnolia's Not Quite Hollywood is included).
A brief background discussion is useful in understanding the importance of this new release. Evan Jones wrote the screenplay based on Kenneth Cook's 1961 novel of the same. Ted Kotcheff, who is Canadian, sat in the director's chair. The film was completed in 1970, but the its brutal depiction of life in the Australian outback received a chilly public reception upon its 1971 theatrical release. Critics, however, embraced the Wake in Fright with Garry Maddox of the Sydney Morning Herald going so far as to call it one of the greatest Australian films ever made. The split between the critics and the public was further exemplified by the National Film Board of Australia's refusal to endorse Wake in Fright as an entry at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. The film was chosen for competition at Cannes despite the lack of official support. Wake in Fright's reputation has grown over time but the film has been difficult to see beyond the festival circuit. In North America, a theatrical run was eventually followed by a low-res VHS release under the international title Outback. Editor Anthony Buckley undertook a multi-year search for the original materials, and in a story that seems all to common, the negatives were eventually rescued from a garbage bin. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia supervised the digital restoration. This is the source from which the print that played at 2009 festivals such as Sydney, Cannes, and Toronto in 2009. It is also the source for Madman's new DVD and Blu-Ray releases.
In Wake in Fright, a haughty Englishman named John Grant (Gary Bond) teaches school in an outback town called Tiboonda. While on his way to Sydney for his holiday break, he makes a stop in the fictional mining town of Bundanyabba (referred to by the locals as "the Yabba"). He meets a big, ruddy-looking cop named Jock Crawford (Chips Rafferty) who shows him the local hospitality by getting him drunk and introducing him to a coin flipping game called "two-up" at a local bar. Crawford also introduces Grant to an alcoholic doctor named Tydon (Donald Pleasence) who lives on beer, table scraps, and kangaroo meat. Grant wins some money by flipping pennies, and quickly realizes that he may be able to win enough cash to buy out his teaching contract. Things don't turn out as planned, and John's brief stop in the Yabba devolves into a long weekend of blackouts, brawling, pre-empted sex, and kangaroo killing with brutal rednecks.
The progressively hellish journey from Tiboonda to Bundanyabba recalls familiar theme of a person who, either by choice or accident, is thrust into an harsh unfamiliar environment and forced to discover the dark side of himself and others. Instead of Joseph Conrad's jungle or James Dickey's backwoods, Wake in Fright takes place in the Australian outback, which for most people (perhaps even for some Australians), might as well be another planet. The supporting players guide the lead character through a series of increasingly depraved situations. The worst of all the scenarios is a brutal kangaroo hunt that combines expertly staged footage with real footage taken by following licensed hunters. This truly distressing scene is probably one of the reasons for the film's negative public reception.
Ted Kotcheff's direction is stylized but always tuned into how to best tell the story. The film is book-ended by crane shots that reflect up the cyclical nature of the narrative. Rapid, dizzying montages capture the drunken bacchanalia. The editing is fast and there is always movement in the frame. The 1.85:1 aspect ratio is used effectively. For example, a combination of wide angle lens, and shot selection (i.e., lots of close-ups) pushes giant fly-covered faces and bloody, sweaty bodies to the front of the frame. The look of the film varies between extremes. Daytime exteriors run hot with bright clothes set against bright sunlight and dry landscapes that extend forever in the background. In the night, the actors and animals poke through pure blackness, illuminated only by harsh light of bar lights, lamps and car headlights.
The feature is one hour and forty-eight minutes long and the video file, which is encoded at a fairly high average bit rate, consumes most of the single layer Blu-Ray disc. The before-and-after samples provided show a tremendous improvement in the image from the frame-by-frame restoration of the negative. It is also also obvious that the image was subjected to digital noise reduction and degrained (except for the titles). Grainophiliacs will cringe but the smooth image looks quite good. In some scenes, the look definitely veers more towards high-definition video than film: daytime shots towards the end of the final act have a saturated, high-contrast look that pushes the color palette into pastel territory. The Blu-Ray is packaged with a booklet of essays about the restoration process, including numerous photos, and the film's critical reception. Disc extras, all of which are in standard definition, include an audio commentary by Ted Kotcheff and Anthony Buckley, an interview with Ted Kotcheff, and various short odds and ends (e.g. the same extended clip from Magnolia's Not Quite Hollywood is included).