|
Hot Picks
| |
|
|
Wake in Fright
Australia 1971
produced by
George Willoughby, Howard G. Barnes (executive), Bill Harmon (executive) for Group W, NLT Productions
directed by Ted Kotcheff
starring Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay, Jack Thompson, Peter Whittle, Al Thomas, John Meillon, John Armstrong, Slim DeGrey, Maggie Dence, Norm Erskine, Owen Moase, John Dalleen, Buster Fiddess, Tex Foote, Colin Hughes, Jacko Jackson, Nancy Knudsen, Dawn Lake, Harry Lawrence, Robert McDarra, Carlo Manchini, Liam Reynolds
screenplay by Evan Jones, based on the novel by Kenneth Cook, music by John Scott
review by
Mike Haberfelner
|
 |
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
|
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
John Grant (Gary Bond) is an unremarkable but good-natured school
teacher somewhere in the Australian outback who wants to go back to the
city for the holidays ... but then he loses all his money gambling in
another town that's not much more than a train station with a few houses
attached to it. But even if he's penniless, the local cop (Chips Rafferty)
encourages him to have beer after beer, and then the local doctor Tydon
(Donald Pleasence) takes him under his wing ... which is where the
downfall starts, as the doctor is not only a hopeless alcoholic, his
circle of friends are also really into violence against animals (first and
foremost kangaroos) and rape (first and foremost Sylvia Kay), and they
keep John in a drunken enough state throughout to not only participate in
what they're doing but gradually even accept it. Sure, every time the
alcohol wears off, John is shocked at what he did - but another beer is
always to be found before long ... A truly disturbing movie ...
but disturbing in a good way, as beneath all its superficial
sensationalism, Wake in Fright truly makes one thing about the
state of humankind as such, and also how far one would go if rules were
suspended even for a day - and one was drunk of course. Thing is, the film
brings all this across really well: Sure it uses wild and sensationalist
imagery, but everything is carried by really good, at times
self-consciously absurdist storytelling (that by the way in a perverse way
anticipates many of crowdpleaser Groundhog Day's motives), likeable
characters (not only is Gary Bond's lead easy to identify with, Donald
Pleasance also has something "nice" about him despite his
despicable nature), and a direction that finds the balance between just
grossing out the audience and bringing the film's point across. Totally
worth a watch!
|
|
|
|
review © by Mike Haberfelner
|
Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned) |
The links below
will take you
just there!!!
|
|
|
Thanks for watching !!!
|
|
|
Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
is all of that.
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner
Out now from
Amazon!!! |
|
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com