I've read the book. I found it to be not bad, if a little slight.

The only bit of the film I've seen is on those compilation of Australian movies. So I've seen the dude get abused for not having a drink, and the car overturning when they're out hunting roos a HUNDRED TIMES.

yeah i saw the film at uni but i'd really like to see it again. it's on youtube but it's awfully slow and choppy

Surely it's only a matter of time before it gets released on DVD.

It is indeed one of the great Australian novels of all time. The movie's pretty cool, too (it's often known as ''Outback'', its UK/US title). Bill Collins used to play the movie all the time in the '80s, believe it or not, and it's one of his fave Aussie flicks, even though every time he played it, he said he'd get more irate phone calls than he would for any other film he played, as viewers HATED the way it portrayed outback Australia. I've got a DVD copy here burnt from a videocassette which Mark Harwood made for me before he skipped to the UK. I believe that a master copy of the film was located somewhere overseas earlier in the year and that it's currently in the process of being remastered for a deluxe DVD reissue. More people need to see the movie and (especially) read the book!

Yeah, the book is definitely a must. I read somewhere that the relocated master copy had a 'to be destroyed' sticker on it just before it was salvaged! Close call.

The entire movie's on youtube [part 1 here]

I've always managed to miss screenings, so that's the only place I've ever watched it.

The film is terrifying

where is HEB? I'm sure he has something to add. Book and film definitely both brilliant!

I haven't seen the movie in years, but remember it as absolutely brilliant. It might seem masochistic, but I'm going to watch it on youtube this evening. Cheers, mswahili!

Love the book..saw the flick about ten years back at the cinema...a great film...from the dude who made first blood....I reckon it's got aussie outback culture down pat....classic stuff.

Fuck. It's still one of the best Australian films ever made, even in blur-o-vision on youtube. The roo hunting scenes are probably not for sensitive types, but as an examination of macho outback culture, alcoholism, boredom and alienation it can't really be beaten. Why doesn't Australia produce movies like this any more? Self-congratulatory, watered-down crap like Baz Luhrman's 'Australia' is an insult to viewers' intelligence in comparison.

I remember reading the book and seeing the film a long time ago. The imagery is so powerful that I have never forgotten it.

Fuck. It's still one of the best Australian films ever made, even in blur-o-vision on youtube.

Haha, yeah I watched it again this afternoon on youtube as well. Incredible stuff.

Why doesn't Australia produce movies like this any more?

Closest modern equivalent i can think of is The Boys. same sense of menace, unforgettable images. think suburbia instead of the outback though.

It's almost like it took an outsider (candian) to see us, or a part of us, in a truthful light, he captured that super macho world perfectly. reminded me of being a kid on trips to outback W.A in 70's 80's.

Oh, yeah, flim vic used to have a copy, you ust have to be a member to get a copy.

I wake in fright.

I only slept three hours!

I think I have the flu!

I go back to sleep for a bit.

National Library in Canberra has a 16mm copy (I used to go in there when I was a student and watch movies on their old steenbeck).

that's a great way to watch a film...you sort of feel it..

Sure is. I saw lots of hard to find films that way; Lindsay Anderson's if lots of Roman Polanski's short films, and of course Wake in Fright. The only drawback was I had to get up and get a librarian to assist me every time a reel ended.

i read this today, on shaun's recommendation, in one sitting.

fucking awesome.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/the-lonely-hearts-20090712-dgw1.html?page=-1

fucking super

I just scored the DVD from the RMIT Film archive.

Gotta get me a DVD burner quicksmart....

Oh ffs!

What kind of clueless cockhead goes to a distant country town and asks where she can get a good latte?

I cringe now when I recall the first things I asked the (uniformly excellent) secretarial staff: where were the good lattes, and why wasn't there a bookstore? It took six months to recover from the impression that I was judging their town and found it lacking.

Um... you were. What a dickhead.

Great great film.

also best anti-drinking film I've ever seen. yuck.

showing in-flight on Qantas this month, and appears uncut including the kangaroo fight scenes. I'm a bit disturbed that people enroute to Australia aboard the flying kangaroo may watch Wake in Fright.....

in a perverse way I miss Bill Collins

Collins' intros were great. His passion for the films he loved (even when they were godawful) was always inspiring stuff.

and I love the background music too

that is really quite strange, that they would show that movie on Australia bound flights. i'd be turning around...

I'm glad someone else thinks it's strange

dvd is now out.

restored rip looks sweet.

did you know this director also went on to do the first Rambo film ''First Blood'' and 'weekend at bernies'??

no i did not know that.

i knew that.

Just watched this. I could really go for some roo meat and beers

you don't like the yabba?

Just watched the film after reading the book many years ago. What a fucken film. Donald Pleasance is really creepy and the kangaroo scene is very distrurbing.

lead essay in july's issue of the monthly, but also available online here

''Australians are intensely uncomfortable with being served themselves straight up, neat, on the rocks''. So writes Kate Jennings in her essay ''Home Truths'', on Ted Kotcheff's newly restored film Wake in Fright. The New York-based Australian writer shows that expats are often our shrewdest cultural commentators.

Yes this essay (relinked) was the best thing The Monthly ever published.