Ted
Kotcheff directs as we follow nice guy teacher Gary Bond who arrives in
a rough outback mining town planning to stay overnight before catching
the plane to Sydney. But his one night stretches to five as he plunges
headlong toward his own destruction.
When the alcohol-induced mist
lifts, the educated teacher is no more. Instead there is a self-loathing
man in a desolate wasteland, dirty, red-eyed, sitting against a tree
and looking at a rifle with one bullet left. Gruesome events include
kangaroo hunts – it is easier shooting them at night as they get blinded
by car headlights.
Excessive drinking in those all male bars, and
gambling take their toll too. There seems to be nothing else to do in
this godforsaken place. Then there is Donald Pleasance – has he ever
been more malevolent? – well yes, as one of the bodysnatchers in THE
FLESH AND THE FIENDS in 1960, here his rough and tumble seems to lead into a sexual assault on our drunken out-of-it teacher. Regular Australians like Chips Rafferty,
Jack Thompson, John Meillon also feature, and Sylvia Kay shines as the
lone girl in this wilderness.
When the alcohol-induced mist
lifts, the educated teacher is no more. Instead there is a self-loathing
man in a desolate wasteland, dirty, red-eyed, sitting against a tree
and looking at a rifle with one bullet left. Gruesome events include
kangaroo hunts – it is easier shooting them at night as they get blinded
by car headlights. 
It’s a movie that’s impossible to
catergorise, but its view of the bleak outback can hardly be equalled.
Good to see it back on dvd with lots of extras. 
A testament too to Gary
Bond, an interesting actor whose best role this is (he died aged 55 in
1995, he was in ZULU, ANNE OF A THOUSAND DAYS etc). One can feel the sticky heat as he wakes up naked and drunk in
that sweltering room …. Maybe the prolific Kotcheff’s best film, not
for the squeamish though.
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