By Well-regarded in its native Australia but virtually unseen in the United States, Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright is getting a special stateside rerelease to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary. The film has been likened to Deliverance and Straw Dogs, and has earned some rave reviews from Martin Scorsese, Roger Ebert, and Nick Cave. I’m definitely excited to check this out. Here’s a synopsis:
Wake in Fright is the story of John Grant (Gary Bond), a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough Australian outback mining town of Bundanyabba, planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney. But, as his one night stretches to five, he plunges headlong toward his own destruction. When the alcohol-induced mist lifts, the educated John Grant is no more. Instead there is a self-loathing man in a desolate wasteland, dirty, red-eyed, sitting against a tree and looking at a rifle with one bullet left.
In the gallery is the poster for the rerelease. Wake in Fright will screen at Fantastic Fest on September 26th. The film opens in New York City on October 5th at Film Forum, and expands nationwide on October 12th. For a list of theaters playing Wake in Fright, click here.
