…The lost classic Australian film Wake In Fright is set to reach the screen again after a painstaking restoration of material found in more than 260 cans marked “for destruction” in a Pittsburgh vault.
…Considered one of the greatest films to be made in Australia, the 1971 psychological drama has been notoriously difficult to see for decades.
…Starring in a film that upset Australian audiences but won high praise from critics were Chips Rafferty, Donald Pleasence, John Meillon and a young Jack Thompson.
…The film’s editor, the veteran producer Tony Buckley considers Wake In Fright to be “the best film that has been made in Australia.”
…Based on a novel by Kenneth Cook, the film was written by a Jamaican living in London, Evan Jones, and directed by a Canadian, Ted Kotcheff.
…”A lot of people back in 1970 didn’t want to recognise the fact that parts of us are really like that. Its portrait of Australia in 1970 was spot on,” said Buckley.
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