- Collection Spotlights
- Australia's Prime Ministers
- Restoration of The Story of the Kelly Gang
- Mike and Stefani
- Film Connection
- 1967 Referendum
- Australians in WWI
- For The Term of His Natural Life
- Jedda
- The Sentimental Bloke
- Kingsford-Smith
- Wake in Fright
- Waltzing Matilda
- Theatre of the Mind
- Women In Early Radio
- Theatres & Cinemas
- Paget Plate Discovery
- Soldiers of the Cross
- Cecil Holmes
- Ray Barrett
- Shirley Ann Richards
- Graham Kennedy
- A tribute to Charles Chauvel
- A tribute to Joan Long
- Lottie Lyell - Photo Play Artiste
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – TED KOTCHEFF
MAKING WAKE IN FRIGHT:
THE NOVEL
THE FILM
FILMING IN AUSTRALIA
SHOOTING IN BROKEN HILL
POST-PRODUCTION AND RELEASE
RECOVERY AND RESTORATION
WAKE IN FRIGHT ON AUSTRALIANSCREEN
WAKE IN FRIGHT ON DVD AND BLU-RAY
SHOOTING IN BROKEN HILL
After several weeks shooting the Wake in Fright unit left Sydney and travelled by road to Broken Hill in the second week of February 1970. The filmmakers shot in Broken Hill, including the main street, the old railway station in its residential areas; and on locations within several hours of the town, including Silverton, Yanco Glen and Kinalung.
Since this was high summer, conditions were intensely hot with temperatures approaching 50 degrees celsius and the air was full of dust (the area receives less than five inches of rain a year). Rubie says that many locals were recruited to play bit parts including professional kangaroo hunter Jacko Jackson who, after giving Grant a lift, wants to buy the young man a drink. They get into an argument and Jacko dismisses Grant with the memorable line: “Ya mad, ya bastard.”
For Kotcheff the most challenging aspect of the outback shoot was were the scenes of shooting and fighting kangaroos. “The hunt was always a tremendous puzzle for me,” he says. “I certainly didn’t want to kill any animal for the film. Finally it was arranged for me to go out with pro hunters in this big refrigerated truck and they would hunt
and pack off the dead meat.”
Kotcheff learnt about the ‘science’ of roo shooting: “We shot the roo hunters shooting kangaroos. One of the hunters said, ‘where do you want me to shoot them?’ And I asked him what he meant. He said ‘I can shoot them in the heart or the kidney or the brain.’ And I said: ‘what’s the difference?’ ‘If it’s the kidneys they drop dead immediately,’ he explained, ‘shoot them in the heart they leap around for four or five jumps and in the brain they spin for a couple of seconds and then they die.’
Tony Buckley seamlessly intercut the actuality footage of a real kangaroo hunt with the staged action featuring the actors. For the scenes where Peter Whittle’s character ‘fights’ a kangaroo, Kotcheff says expert wranglers were hired to supervise the action.
Shooting wrapped in the first week of March, with the scenes of Grant wandering the desert attempting to hitch a ride on a lonely road.
Photos:
(1) John Grant (Gary Bond) in the desert in Wake in Fright
(2) Joe (Jack Thompson) revels in the thrill of the chase in Wake in Fright
