Wake in Fright

What started out as what could of been a great 2 part storyline quickly turned into what can only come across as they ran out of budget or forgot what they was doing!

There was no real ending, no meaning to any of it!

Your left debating if the actions were his or the towns! The storyline of his girlfriend in the end played no relevance! nor did any of the storyline in the end!

With that it keeps you thinking and your eyes open just wondering what will happen next, but it just somehow feels unfinished!

I just love this movie. It is a totally under rated and moving story. Really cool layered drama that is played beautifully by all of the actors and the end carries with it a certain guilt over your own judgment and delivers a sad empathy to the characters you previously dismissed as complete losers.

Well, it's not exactly the same story, but a straight remake was unnecessary; it was done perfectly the first time.

Giving it a little re-imagining was the right way to go. The story is updated to now, and the motivation of nearly all the characters has changed; Jack Thompson's character becomes a scary female kick boxer and the booze is supplemented by amphetamines. The denizens of the 'Yabba' are a bit more sinister this time around and you can't be sure how it will end.

I don't think the story is necessarily all that Australian any more. Except for superficial reference points and the accents, the whole thing could be happening in a dusty town off a highway in Texas or even somewhere in "Straw Dogs" country.

With that said, Sean Keenan makes a good John Grant, you can almost feel his hangover.

He is an Aussie as he was in Kenneth Cook's book. In Canadian Ted Kotcheff's 1971 film, Englishman Gary Bond played Grant. He brought a sense of the outsider view to proceedings, starting with an air of superiority that ends up as near insanity. Sean Keenan picked up on that quality and it works for him too.

David Wenham had a tough act following Chips Rafferty's police sergeant, but he gives an edge to the copper who is hard to read.

The evolution of Donald Pleasance's 'Doc' Tydon to Alex Dimitriades' 'Doc' Tydonas is the biggest change. However, in an era where the "Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras" is a major event, the scene in the 1971 film where 'Doc' jumps on John Grant's semi-conscious bones wasn't worth dwelling on in this outing. It's no longer the crunch point that tips John Grant over the edge; other things do that here; lots of other things; the revelations just keep coming.

This version misses the vibe of Bundanyabba. Kotcheff's film was shot at Broken Hill, outraging the citizens who felt it had defamed them. However it projected the feeling of an isolated city that was big enough and insular enough to be the source of the inordinate pride that so bemused John Grant.

Admittedly, this 'Yabba' is portrayed as past its best.

The 1971 movie turned out to be a piercing outsider view of aspects of Australian culture, even more so than Kenneth Cook's book. However, comparisons aside, this reworking delivers an unusual and taut little drama in its own right.

I'm not entirely convinced that the original Wake In Fright is quite the timeless classic some movie historians deem it to be. Nevertheless, it was atmospheric and haunting, and, if nothing else, remains interesting as a scathing critique of a certain type of toxic Aussie masculinity. So the first thing one has to wonder about this TV re-make is why in up-dating the story they felt the need to convert so many of the key characters from male to female. I've nothing against positive discrimination where it works for the story, or where it makes absolutely no difference. But since masculinity is central to Wake In Fright, it seems rather a strange decision. It dilutes the theme almost to the point where it no longer really asserts itself. And it undermines the drama in other ways too. The original is set in the kind of remote outback town where men massively outnumber women, and that explains some of what happens along the way. In this version it's a considerably bigger regional town, with enough women and suburban amenities to significantly change things. It also doesn't help that they've chosen to make John Grant even more gormless. This is partly Sean Keenan coming across more like a clueless teen than just a city bloke out of his element. But Grant is also infuriatingly spineless, especially in how he submits to alcohol and gambling, even though the pressure to do so is neither dramatised, nor a given. The reckless boozing makes much more sense in the 70s film, shot at a time when macho competitive drinking was still a thing. But is an educated twentysomething not being able to say "no" to another beer really as believable today? They could quite possibly have made it believable, but they didn't. It's just one of the ways in which this production sidesteps the problems that come with up- dating the story. (Like referring to the pokies being pulled out of the RSL - as if that's ever happened!) At best, Wake in Fright is pretty to look at - as is Sean Keenan. But the muddle-headed re-imagining of the story undermines believability and suspense at every turn.

As usual, casting and directing by Aussie filmmakers is excellent.

But watching one episode of this was about as fun as being stabbed repeatedly in the throat .

I found it so incredibly depressing on every single level that I couldn't recommend it in any way for any reason, you know?

It was just so dark and so horrible.

Don't put this stuff in your head if you can help it.

Also :: strongly recommend people in alcoholism or recovery don't watch !!! Massive trigger warnings !!