(re)Search my Trash

<body> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" cellpadding="0" height="100%"> <tr> <td width="100" rowspan="2" background="../stylepix/square.gif" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="592" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="592"> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> </table>   <table border="0" cellspacing="0" align="left"> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><img border="0" src="../stills/phantom5x5.gif" width="5" height="5"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> </table> <p>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 ...<p> <p>A truly disturbing movie ... but disturbing in a good way, as beneath all its superficial sensationalism, <b>Wake in Fright</b> 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 <b>Groundhog Day</b>'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.<p>Totally worth a watch!<p>  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="100" rowspan="2" background="../stylepix/squareright.gif" valign="top">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top">  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> currentyear = "2015"; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="../scripts/endcredits.js"></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> dosworsdonn(); </SCRIPT> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body>