‘Wake in Fright’: 2012, the Film Odyssey

By Claire McCurdy

What is Wake in Fright? A newly restored, outrageous Australian film classic to be screened at Film Forum this Wednesday. The two key people involved in the making and publicizing of the film are executive director and producer Ted Kotcheff, and his close personal friend director and producer Antonio Saillant. Wake in Fright is variously described as one of the three great Aussie film classics ever made (along with Mad Max, and Walkabout), an expression of the Australian soul, a great favorite of Martin Scorsese, and of director and Executive Producer of TV’s “Law & Order,” Ted Kotcheff. It is also described as a deeply dark, raunchy, terrifying, madly intense film experience. It is a celebration of guns, booze, wanton destruction of outback-wild life, and descent into madness. Those who see it are inevitably blown away.

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