Wake in Fright (1971)
Directed by Ted Kotcheff
A young schoolteacher descends into personal moral degradation after finding himself stranded in a brutal, menacing town in outback Australia.
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What critics compared Wake in Fright to
Podcaster, professor and colleague Elric Kane has compared The Lighthouse to 1971’s Wake in Fright, and damned if he isn’t spot-on in that assessment — though I would add a little bit of 1994’s Cabin Boy to the mix as well.
Boiled down to its simplest elements, THE LIGHTHOUSE is a mash-up of the cold existentialism of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, the drunken savagery of Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 film WAKE IN FRIGHT, and a large scoop of Jungian archetypal imagery pertaining to recurring myths.
It's clear Grant is out of his element and wishes to remain so, but his condescendence is not only noted, but slyly, and nonverbally, remarked upon by hotelier Charlie (John Meillon, "Crocodile Dundee"), anticipating what will happen down the tracks.
As a child I definitely preferred the New York material, since it moved faster and was instantly relatable (if only to other media representations of NYC), but in retrospect these are minor virtues compared to the melancholy beauty of the Australia portion, which as a bonus has obvious roots in the national cinema--with references to Walkabout, Wake in Fright, and other seminal works of Ozploitation--that offer something extra for the student of film. 2 That said, the rousing climax, a variation on the old airport confession of love, sends the picture--and us--out on a high note with an affirmation of the essential New York character (brotherly, romantic), as a crowded subway station pulls together to help Sue 3 confess her love for Mick.
The film feels very much a pastiche, with visual and tonal debts owed to John Carpenter, Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright, and in turn Alejandro Jodorowsky’s personal brand of psychadelic western.
Doomed attempts to outrun the outback pervade Turkey Shoot, Wake In Fright and Razorback.
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The film could also be seen as the long-delayed feminist answer to Wake In Fright.