Wake in Fright

[ShirlGirl]

Someone mentioned Wake in Fright just recently, but I can't find the post.



Anyway, there was an article about it in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, by Garry Maddox. He was interviewing Ted Kotcheff at the Sydney Film Festival.



Here 'tis:



Garry Maddox

June 11, 2009



THE Canadian director Ted Kotcheff is surprised a film he made almost 40 years ago, the tense outback drama Wake In Fright, is now considered an Australian classic.



"I thought that people might be affronted by this non-Australian making a film about Australians," he said yesterday during his first visit to Sydney since 1970. "But I always say to people, 'This is my first Canadian film.' There's the same kind of vast spaces that don't liberate people but trap people.



"There's the same kind of masculine ethos. And it's very similar up in the north of Canada to the outback."



Without a surviving print in good condition, Wake In Fright has been notoriously difficult to see. But after the discovery of 260 cans of film marked "for destruction" in a Pittsburgh vault, it has been restored.



The psychological drama, about a teacher confronted by the harshness of outback life, stars the English actor Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty and a young Jack Thompson.



It screened at the Cannes Film Festival, was acclaimed by critics, but flopped in Australian cinemas.



Kotcheff thinks the film attracted hostility because of its ugly portrayal of Australian men, including the notorious six o'clock swill and the violence of a kangaroo shoot. But the target was not just the rugged Australian male. "It was Canadian men who slaughter seals," Kotcheff said. "It was American men who slaughtered all the buffalo. It was men doing bad things."



Shooting the film in Broken Hill, he came to understand why violence was such a part of life in a town where men outnumbered women by three to one.



Kotcheff, now 78, did not know that Wake In Fright was almost lost. "I'm glad I didn't know the film could have disappeared forever. That would have been a knife to my heart."



As a judge at the Sydney Film Festival's competition, Kotcheff will be at the State Theatre when the restored Wake In Fright screens on Saturday.

Ted Kotcheff … back in Sydney.

Photo: Peter Rae

[ShirlGirl]

Yup, that was it, thanks Bats.

[didi-5]

Just resurrecting his thread to plug some Wake in Fright related items on my website dedicated to the memory of its leading actor, Gary Bond (click the links below):

Image gallery (screencaps)

Basic information page

Essay on Wake in Fright

Enjoy - hopefully at some point this film will get shown at a festival in England (I know it has been or will be shown at the Glasgow Film Festival) if not released to DVD here. Especially as it has a director, albeit a Canadian one, who worked in British television, Ted Kotcheff, and three British leading cast members.

[TimR]

That's Outback. I didn't know it's original title. That has quite a following here. It is a powerful and disturbing film.

The whole film is on youtube - not exactly the best viewing experience, but it's difficult to find anywhere else.

It does present an extremely negative portrayal of aspects of Australian life. It is ironic that the director (a bit defensive) tries to project his message on to bad men in general - specifically including Canadians and Americans, seals and buffaloes, etc.

[theuofc]

Someone mentioned Wake in Fright just recently, but I can't find the post.
..................

Hi, ShirlGirl:

We were talking about Wake in Fright in the Bogarde thread recently when Didi said she'd read that Bogarde had wanted to star in the film, but she couldn't find any reference to that.

http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/ac...ogarde-16.html

Yes, Bogarde wanted to play the lead 'John Grant' in the film, with partner Joe Losey directing. Bogarde put out an option for the film and paid to have Evan Jones write the screenplay ... which wound up being the one used line for line years later.

Bogarde and Losey couldn't get funding, so eventually Dirk sold the screenplay to Morris West, and Ted Kotcheff produced it.

Best,

Barbara

Bogarde's memoirs are really fascinating; he was such a good writer.

Now, I find in my reading around various things that Bogarde wanted to star in the film version of Kenneth Cook's novel 'Wake in Fright' when it was originally planned (in the 1960s?), with Doc Tydon played by Robert Helpmann. (No, I can't see this, either ...). Does anyone know whether the Bogarde project progressed beyond being 'an idea' which was then abandoned? As far as I know he doesn't refer to this in his books unless I'm being really dumb and missing the reference to it. It's rather a strange choice for him anyway, IMO.

Hi, didi,

Yes, Bogarde and Joe Losey were intent on doing Wake in Fright. In 1963, Dirk took out an option on it and paid Evan Jones to write the screenplay with Losey. Jones had written the scripts for Losey's Eva, The Damned, (and later Modesty Blaise). But however they tried, Dirk and Losey couldn't get the funding for it. This was nothing new. Almost every script they collaborated on, including The Servant, was a fight to get funding and even then, money would run out before the film was completed.

In an interview with Michel Ciment, Losey elaborated on the Wake in Fright project: "Morris West, whom I never met, eventually bought the screen-play from Dirk, and Ted Kotcheff produced it in Australia--without changing a word--under the title "Outback."

Wake in Fright (Outback) made it to the screen in 1971.The role of John Grant, the English schoolteacher, whom Dirk wanted to play was done by Gary Bond and Doc Tydon by Donald Pleasence, who had starred with Dirk in A Tale of Two Cities and The Wind Cannot Read(1958). Last year it was restored by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, re-released, and in November came out on dvd and BluRay with some tempting extras.

It would have been interesting to see Dirk in this challenging, gritty role with Losey directing. It's a raw, barbaric slice of life in Australia's Outback, particularly the extended horrific scene of the bloody kangaroo hunt by drunken cretins. But for Dirk having cut ties with Rank two years earlier in search of roles to stretch himself, well....this might have been one for posterity. Or not. We'll never know, alas.

Best,

Barbara

[theuofc]

Just resurrecting his thread to plug some Wake in Fright related items on my website dedicated to the memory of its leading actor, Gary Bond (click the links below):

Basic information page

Essay on Wake in Fright

Hi, didi,

Great pics of Gary Bond. The essay by Penn and other commentaries on Wake in Fright are good, but where they go wrong is in leaving out a crucial point: Bogarde wasn't just earmarked to star in the film with Losey directing. Most important, Bogarde himself optioned the film to star in with Joe Losey directing. Bogarde put out the money for Evan Jones to write the screenplay which was the script that Ted Kotcheff later used line for line.

Maybe this could be noted on the tribute to Bond, which is beautifully done, since Bogarde's involvement, a point Joe Losey himself noted, gave Bond a good script to work with. Many thanks!

All best,

Barbara

[didi-5]

Hi Barbara

I'll update the site to include that information relating to Bogarde's involvement - thanks for that.

The YouTube version is the censored one, as you say, TimR, called Outback. It doesn't do it justice - it is just nice to see in comparison to the restoration (which Madman DVD released in Australia complete with a really nice booklet). Watch the YouTube fuzzy faded print if you must in the absence of anything else here in the UK but if you like the film I would recommend the DVD.

I'm still trying to imagine Dirk Bogarde in it and am failing! (and not because he was reportedly a gay actor because so was Gary and he managed just fine). I think star power would have diluted the film if you had a recognizable name in the lead.

What saddens me is that it didn't lead to more big-screen opportunities for Gary; he did an interview a couple of years later when he was in the Joseph musical where he states a desire to do more films, for whatever reason it didn't happen. Wake in Fright should have been his big break but it wasn't to be. Fate said otherwise and we can only speculate watching it what other big screen roles he could have won.

[theuofc]

Hi Barbara

I'll update the site to include that information relating to Bogarde's involvement - thanks for that.
.................
I'm still trying to imagine Dirk Bogarde in it and am failing! (and not because he was reportedly a gay actor because so was Gary and he managed just fine). I think star power would have diluted the film if you had a recognizable name in the lead.
...........

Many thanks for that, Didi. Fans don't see enough of Bogarde's active work behind the scenes in developing films with more challenging roles or his uncredited rewriting of scripts to improve them. Dirk's production company took options on films like Wake in Fright to break from his matinee idol roles once he bought up his contract at Rank. There were other films that he earlier urged Rank to get for him to allow him to stretch his acting muscles, but as mentioned, Rank resisted changing anything that might disturb their cushy ticket sales.

Given Dirk's acting range, he could have played Grant in Wake in Fright, but truth be, I'm glad he didn't. It's an excellent film, but its raw look at the Outback and the horrific and extended kangaroo massacre would have made it tough for me to sit through it, Dirk or not.

But things work out. Gary Bond received terrific reviews which was wonderful for him. It's a shame that it wasn't a stepping stone for greater things. I'm glad you have the Tribute site, and the thread in here, to keep his memory alive.

All best,

Barbara

[Arthur Linden-Jones]

The whole film is on youtube - not exactly the best viewing experience, but it's difficult to find anywhere else.

I picked up my copy from the shop during a visit to the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.

Unfortunately I can't find any reference to an online shop on the web site.

[theuofc]

I picked up my copy from the shop during a visit to the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.

Unfortunately I can't find any reference to an online shop on the web site.

Hello, Arthur Linden-Jones:

If you ever have time, I would greatly enjoy hearing about your visit to the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. I follow their activities on Facebook, which is as close as I am getting for now at least. But someday I hope to visit it and the all of Australia.

Apparently their online shop is "under redesign" but they give an email address, phone number and a downloadable mail order form for items and DVDs. Wake in Fright is listed as one which can be ordered.

Shop // National Film and Sound Archive

Best,

Barbara

[didi-5]

Re: the restored DVD. The BFI shop on the South Bank had a copy a few weeks ago. I got mine via amazon US. It is fairly easy to pick up either on DVD or Blu Ray, although I wish it had a wider distribution and had not been Region 4 locked as that does put people off buying ...

[didi-5]

This gets its first showing on the big screen in England at the Barbican on May 10th as part of the Australian Film Festival. :)