Wake in Fright (Blu-ray, Limited Edition)

2026-03-27T10:18:09-04:00

Vendor: MVD
Type: New Blu-Ray
Price: 27.99

After a bad gambling bet, a teacher is marooned in a town full of drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.

HAVE A DRINK, MATE? HAVE A FIGHT, MATE? HAVE A TASTE OF DUST AND SWEAT, MATE? THERE'S NOTHING ELSE OUT HERE.

Raw and brutal in its depiction of Outback country drinking culture in the 1970s, Wake in Fright is an uncompromising landmark of Australian cinema from director Ted Kotcheff (First Blood).

John Grant (Gary Bond, Zulu), a bored schoolteacher working in the remote outback, stops overnight in the frontier mining town of Bundanyabba on his way back to Sydney for the Christmas holidays. After he loses all his savings in a bad gambling bet, Grant finds himself marooned and swept up in the vortex of a succession of hard-drinking, hard-living and crude men led by Doc (Donald Pleasence, Halloween) who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent as they are.

Ignored upon release, Wake in Fright has now been acclaimed as one of Australia's most legendary, unique and horrifying contributions to cinema history by the likes of Martin Scorsese and Nick Cave, and is presented here in a definitive 4K restoration.

Bonus Materials

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation

Original lossless mono audio

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

Audio commentary by director Ted Kotcheff and editor Anthony Buckley

Audio commentary by Peter Galvin, author of The Making of Wake in Fright

Return to the ‘Yabba, a featurette tracking down the film’s Broken Hill locations

Take in Fright, an interview with director of photography Brian West

Sounds of the Outback, a previously unreleased interview with sound editors Keith Palmer and Eddy Joseph

The Cinema’s Great Squeaky Bald Git, an appreciation of actor Donald Pleasence by film historian Kim Newman

The Filmmaker and the Film Buff, a discussion between Philippe Mora and Paul Harris

Yer Mad, Ya Bastard!, an archive interview with director Ted Kotcheff

Not Quite Hollywood, an archive interview with actor Jack Thompson

Q&A with Ted Kotcheff from the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

Audio interview with Ted Kotcheff, conducted by Paul Harris

Audio interview with composer John Scott, conducted by music historian Daniel Schweiger

Alternate scenes from Outback

2009 TV report on the rediscovery and restoration of Wake in Fright

Who Needs Art?, a 1971 TV segment with behind-the-scenes footage

Chips Rafferty obituary by Ken G. Hall

US theatrical trailer and TV spot

Foreign Visions of Local Stories, a trailer reel of Australian films helmed by overseas filmmakers

Image gallery

Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jay Slater, Paul Lê and David Michael Brown plus archive materials

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jeff Marshall