It is the second filmed adaptation of Cook's novel, following Ted Kotcheff's 1971 film version. As with earlier versions of the story, the series depicts the psychological journey of John Grant, a schoolteacher who has been marooned in an isolated outback town. Although it occasionally makes closer references to the novel than the film, the overall story was largely reworked for the series to fit a contemporary setting.[1]
Plot
Part One
John Grant is a young schoolteacher stationed in Tiboonda, an isolated "dry-town" in the outback. After finishing the school year in time for the Christmas holidays, he begins driving to Sydney to take up a new teaching position at Neutral Bay, as well as seemingly marry his girlfriend Robyn. John's car is damaged when he collides with a kangaroo, forcing him to take a stopover in the mining town of Bundayabba – referred to by the locals as "The Yabba" – to await repairs. At a pub, he meets the enigmatic Sergeant Jock Crawford, who introduces him to the illegal but sanctioned game of two-up. After a winning streak, John loses all of his money, as well as some borrowed from former MMA fighter Mick Jaffries and her brother Joe, who subsequently demand that he pay them back.
John befriends real estate agent Tim Hynes, who invites him to have dinner with his family, including his wife Ursula and daughter Janette, the town nurse. The encounter is shaken by the arrival of Evan "Doc" Tydon, the disgraced town doctor; Doc and Janette begin to interrogate secrets in John's character, which culminates in Janette attempting to seduce him. Afterwards, Tim tries to sell a house to John, hoping to generate cash in the wake of the decline in the mining business on which The Yabba was built; when John instead asks for a loan to pay off his debts, Tim throws him out.
John awakens in Doc's ramshackle caravan. In his recollections of the previous night, he believes that Doc initiated a drunken homosexual encounter between them. Doc seemingly betrays John to Mick and Joe, who take them to their car-wrecking yard and prepare to embark on a feral pig hunt, giving John a chance to pay off his debts. Before departing, the Jaffries discover that John has found their secret drug laboratory, leading John to believe that they intend to kill him during the hunt.
Part Two
The pig hunt turns into a riotous expedition fuelled by drugs and alcohol. Eventually, John falls unconscious and awakens to discover that Doc has been shot dead. Recalling earlier tensions between Doc and Mick, he assumes that the siblings killed Doc to set him up. After fleeing the scene, John encounters Crawford and tells him what has happened, but they discover that the corpse has vanished. Crawford takes him to a hotel for questioning, but when Mick and Joe arrive, he escapes and takes refuge with Janette. After discovering that Doc and Janette were lovers and had a daughter, John explains that Doc has been killed; enraged, Janette blames him for the murder and ejects him. Believing the police and the Jaffries to be in league with each other, he evades Crawford and hitches a ride to a nearby truck stop.
John persuades a driver, who he assumes is heading for Sydney, to take him to the city, offering his only possession – an engagement ring intended for Robyn – as payment. Due to a misunderstanding, he returns to The Yabba and is immediately confronted by Crawford, who shows him footage taken by the Jaffries indicating that he shot Doc while hallucinating. In flashbacks, it is revealed that Robyn had turned down a premature marriage proposal, resulting in a dejected John getting drunk and being unable to save her from drowning; this prompted John to isolate himself from alcohol by teaching in Tiboonda. Overwhelmed by the two deaths on his conscience, John steals a rifle and shoots himself in the head, the impact of which scars but fails to kill him.
Awakening in hospital, Crawford has John sign a statement indicating that his suicide attempt was an accident. He also reveals that the Jaffries have been ordered to leave The Yabba due to their drug operations, and that Doc's fate has been ruled as death by misadventure. Janette explains that their daughter drowned when Doc was supposed to be looking after her, leaving him wracked with guilt. Flashbacks reveal that Doc did not take advantage of John, but instead ensured his safety during his stupor, composed a suicide note, and willingly stepped in the path of his rifle. Following Janette's advice, John is renewed by his experiences and returns to Tiboonda to start the new school year.
In 2012, Triptych Pictures producer Kristian Moliere and Helen Bowden of Matchbox Pictures approached the family of writer Kenneth Cook on the possibility of a televised adaptation of his 1961 novel Wake in Fright. Although the response was enthusiastic, the pair was informed that they would only be allowed to begin production once they had found the option for the original 1971 film version - if the deal stated that the adaptation rights were owned by a single entity in perpetuity, Moliere and Bowden would not be allowed to proceed with a series. The search for the option took three years, and eventually resulted in a copy being uncovered at the Estate of Dirk Bogarde (who had originally planned to produce an adaptation in 1963) in Paris, which indicated that the option only referred to a film version, allowing Moliere and Bowden - who had left Matchbox and co-founded Lingo Pictures with Jason Stephens of FremantleMedia Australia - to enter active development by the end of 2015. By this time, Lingo Pictures had also entered a co-production deal for two series with Mark and Carl Fennessy of Endemol Shine Australia, and Wake in Fright was decided as the first of those two productions. Both would also receive international distribution through Endemol Shine International.[6] The series was officially announced on 6 September 2016, with Kriv Stenders being revealed as director.[7][8]
Commenting on the relatively short period from development to principal photography (roughly fourteen months), Bowden explained that screenwriter Stephen M. Irwin - who was hired in January 2016 - and Network Ten's head of drama Rick Maier were "very fast and very good with feedback". Although noting that Wake in Fright was primarily targeted at a contemporary Australian audience, she expressed confidence in the series finding success abroad, saying "It's got a franchise, so it's known through the novel, which has never been out of print in 50 years and it's known through the film, which is very famous and not long ago the restored version was distributed through the US and a number of European countries. And [Endemol Shine CEO Cathy Payne] thinks the Outback setting and the story and the structure are ideal for international sales which is great. That's what Lingo is about".[6] During production, Moliere explained that the series primarily draws inspiration from the novel instead of the film, which he described as "giving [the production team] a new way of looking at the casting". Speaking on the role of retelling the story, Stenders said:[9]
Every generation, I think, needs to be reminded of [...] the fantastic, rich culture that they have to draw from. So, to me, these -
whatever you want to call them - "remakes" or "reimaginings" are, I think, a fantastic sign that we have [...] this property that is worth something, and I think that's incredibly exciting and incredibly positive.
Aside from transposing the story to the present day, a number of changes to the material were made in Irwin's script, notably the adaptation of the kangaroo hunt from the novel and film (which controversially featured footage of real kangaroos being shot) to a hunt for feral pigs. Although this was partially due to practical and ethical reasons regarding animal cruelty, Stenders felt that such a change "just seemed to make perfect sense. The feral pig problem in Australia has become a devastating one that is seriously affecting rural communities, and the pig shoot provided us with the perfect setting and context for our version of the sequence".[10] Ironically, Evan Jones' script for the original film had also adapted the kangaroo hunt as a pig hunt, but this was changed back to the former during filming.[11]
Ted Kotcheff, the director of the 1971 film, initially expressed surprise that another adaptation of Cook's novel was being made, questioning "What are they going to do, use the book and make a serial? Is there something missing from the film?" Following this comment, Kotcheff asked to give Stenders his "congratulations and best wishes".[12]
On 4 March 2017, the lead cast of Wake in Fright - Sean Keenan, David Wenham, Alex Dimitriades, Gary Sweet, Caren Pistorius, Robyn Malcolm, Lee Jones, Anna Samson, Hannah Frederiksen and Jada Alberts - was announced.[3] Many of the smaller supporting roles and extras were portrayed by locals with no professional acting experience.[13]
Keenan revealed that he was offered the part of John Grant while shooting another project; after being introduced to the film by a prop master who had found it on DVD in a charity shop, he studied both the novel and film, particularly the former, to get an understanding of his character.[14] Wenham admitted that he expressed scepticism when he was offered the role of Jock Crawford, calling the reimagining "a stupid idea". He changed his mind and accepted the role after expressing satisfaction with the script, adding that "Very few people after my generation will ever see that film. That's what made me turn 180 degrees. I thought, 'Why not give people the opportunity to access this story? Why am I being so snooty about it?'"[15]
Network Ten released the first trailer for Wake in Fright on 25 July 2017, followed by a second on 17 September.[17] The second trailer was recalled by Ten following a complaint made by the law firm Lea-Shannon Legal on behalf of the Wake in Fright Trust, which owns the rights to the 1971 film, due to its misleading use of a quote by Martin Scorsese regarding his reaction to the original 1971 film's screening at the Cannes Film Festival ("It left me speechless") to describe the 2017 series. Later airings of the trailer replaced Scorsese's comment with a quote from The Age, which described the series as "A stunning Australian drama".[18]
Viewership
Upon the broadcast of the first episode, The Daily Telegraph reported that the series had "bombed on debut" despite heavy promotion by Network Ten. The writer felt that its 408,000 viewership ratings put in doubt "the future of Aussie drama on commercial networks after disappointing figures from similar biopics and remakes (including Blue Murder: Killer Cop, House of Bond and Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story) throughout the year".[19]
Since its broadcast, critical responses to the 2017 miniseries Wake in Fright have varied, with reviewers typically lauding members of the cast (particularly Keenan, Dimitriades and Wenham) for their performances, while the story adaptation and technical elements of the production were either praised for creating a strong sense of fear and intensity, or criticised for being overwrought, unnecessary or inferior to the novel and 1971 film.
Writing for The Australian, Graeme Blundell's assessment of the series was highly positive, asserting that Irwin and Stenders' adaptation successfully retained Cook's vision of the outback and mateship. He believed that this was in large part due to the "polish[ed] and control[led]" direction of the cast and "the mise-en-scene [which] has you longing for a beer after only minutes". Blundell also felt that the series stayed true to the producers' intentions of "imagin[ing] a new story from a contemporary perspective" while not "[treading] on the footprint of the 1971 film".[24] A similarly enthusiastic response came from Denise Erikson of The New Daily, who expressed that she was tempted to "call this the best new Australian drama this year", describing Wake in Fright as "beautifully cast, well scripted, imaginatively shot and very well directed. A terrific music score drives the tension [...] a sparse script allow[s] the story to star and grip the audience". Erikson felt that audiences unfamiliar with previous versions would not be hindered by the experience of watching the newer adaptation, "because you won't waste time wondering which one is best. This first episode at least is simply excellent television drama in its own right".[25]
Karl Quinn of The Sydney Morning Herald was also favourable. The writer believed that the series was a "rather terrific production" that captured the spirit of the novel and the "snowballing chaos all this drunkenness begets" well, singling out Wenham, Sweet and Dimitriades for praise; while admitting that he was uncertain about the new treatment of Doc Tydon's character, he said that he could "understand why it was done".[26] Reviewing for Now To Love, Thomas Mitchell lauded Keenan's performance, and noted that "While the two-part series will inevitably be compared to the film, they’re different beasts. But one thing they do share is that both will have you glued to the edge of your seat".[27]
More mixed responses came from Ben Neutze of Daily Review and David Knox of TV Tonight, both of whom reviewed the first episode only. While praising Stenders' direction and the cast, particularly Keenan and Samson, Neutze felt that the chosen medium of commercial television and the need for advertising breaks throughout severely hampered the story's pacing, resulting in the series "struggl[ing] to find a way to maintain the tension and mounting helplessness of John's situation". While describing the series as "very enjoyable and unusual", he also felt that it failed to justify its existence, expressing that "there's really very little that's gained by updating the story to present day".[28] Awarding the first episode three out of five stars, Knox criticised, among other aspects of the production, what he saw as a "heavy-handed approach to the locals as menacing, manipulative and two-sided" in comparison to the benevolently friendly nature of the characters in the film, and felt that Wenham's portrayal of Crawford was inferior to Chips Rafferty's. However, he praised Stender's commitment to retaining most of the original story and the performances of Keenan and Dimitriades, concluding that Wake in Fright is a "good entry point to Kenneth Cook's story".[16]
Luke Buckmaster of The Guardian was critical; in a two-star (out of five) review, he questioned the need for a contemporisation of a novel and film whose themes and visual iconography are "more or less timeless". Noting that the series "fails to even propose an interesting answer" as to why The Yabba's populace would be proud of their town, he criticised the Jaffries' role as "cartoonish drug dealers and lowlifes" for "shifting the focus from cold beer as a sign of progress to a general thirst for mind-altering drugs", as well as John's newly-devised "traumatic backstory" and the reimagining of Doc Tydon as a "Dr. Gonzo Down Under [which] belongs to an uninspiring digression from the original story". Buckmaster believed that John's interactions with these characters results in "standard issue crime story plotting" that "reduces the impact of Grant's downward spiralling trajectory, placing more emphasis on external forces", and decried Geoffrey Hall's cinematography for looking "bright rather than burnt, and lack[ing] visual flavour".[29] Jason Di Rosso of ABC Radio National expressed similar sentiments:[30]
It begins promisingly, with a sense of menace that Stenders builds well, but it sells itself short in the second half as almost every character is given a backstory to explain their actions or account for their demise. So much for bush existentialism. It reeks of lowest common denominator free to air television plotting, and the promise of a weirder, more unhinged story in the mould of so much great American TV drama is squandered in the mistaken belief that free to air audiences can't handle ambiguity.
Roadshow Entertainment released both episodes on streaming services in Australia on 17 October 2017,[31] and on DVD on 29 November. The DVD includes a 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette containing brief interviews with key cast and crew members.[32]
References
^Knox, David (25 September 2017). "Airdate: Wake in Fright". tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
