Mise En Scene - The Sapphires

When teaching film there are a range of things that are considered essential in terms of metalanguage and key skills and understandings. The base understandings seem to be:

• Camera Angles
• Shot Sizes

And that's where it ends in terms of consistency. Each teacher, faculty, school tends to deviate from this point with their own idea of how and what should be taught in relation to film. You get things like the following, but it's by no means a prescriptive or universal list:

• Costuming
• Set design
• Editing
• Camera Movement
• Lighting
• Sound Design

Anyway, I'm not seeking to codify Film Studies for NSW schools in this blog post, I just think it's interesting that the approach can vary so much. Another major element in addition to the above list is, of course, mise en scene, and this is something that many teachers do indeed touch upon when teaching film. 

Here's a breakdown of how we could approach mise en scene in the classroom:

Mise en Scene

This is a word used to describe what a director decides to put into a shot. It includes everything - where characters are placed in a scene, what objects feature, how much of the environment can be seen, etc.

Mise en scene can determine power relationships between characters. By placing a character in the centre of the foreground it suggests that they are confident and in power, that they are in charge of the scene, or are important. In contrast, by placing a character in the margins of a scene, or in the background, it suggests that they are not important or without power over their own situation.

Most directors place great importance on mise en scene as it is an essential part of a film's visual language.

(The above summary can be found here as a worksheet with a rudimentary graphic to demonstrate the components - Mise en Scene notes.)

Examples

After students are familiarised or refreshed with the above, you can then look at some examples from The Sapphires (I think this would be a useful film to use with Year 10 for a range of reasons). First, I would look at a modelled response to a screenshot, and then I would ask students to write their own analysis of other shots. Ideally, this would then be linked to some of the themes the class would have looked at in an overall unit on Aboriginal-focused texts (things like cultural identity, experiences of racism, kinship, new experiences, etc.) and used to construct analytical paragraphs. 

Here's the first screenshot I would look at:

Here's the modelled analysis, in which the goal is to get students thinking about the steps towards analysis as much as the analysis itself, as this is something that higher order thinkers can sometimes fail to articulate (IE. Show your working!):

Observations:

1. Gail is placed in background against curtain, a little to the left.
2. She is partially obscured by out of focus figures in the audience, and Cynthia is blocked out completely.
3. The camera has been placed in a way so that the white pub audience is between the viewer and the protagonist.

Analysis: This suggests that Gail is not in a position of power. The out of focus audience makes the shot feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic, and symbolises the restrictions put on Indigenous people trying to perform in this era. Gail is also placed towards the back and to the left, suggesting that she is not of important to this environment (a pub filled with white people).

Here's the screenshots students would then analyse independently:

Here's some notes I made for the above screenshots that could be used to support teachers and students after they'd finished with the analysis section:

Observations:

1. Julie, Kay and Gail are all placed to the right side of the shot, sharing equal space with the environment.
2. All three figures are placed in the back of the shot with the camera at a slight low angle.
3. Julie's shadow is cast to her left as a fourth figure.

Analysis: The slight low angle places the three characters into a position of power (albeit a small one), and the fact that they are standing up against the door represents that they are in the process of being kicked out of the pub. They have been deliberately placed into the boundary of the shot to symbolise their exclusion from the establishment. The shadow could represent the dark, ugly nature of the situation, or even foreshadows the fourth member of the group still yet to appear.

Observations:

1. Kay and Gail enter into a room, the backs of their heads are placed in the foreground of the shot in close-up.
2. The rest of the room is filled with bodies moving about - some in the background, and one on either side of the frame (both are only partially visible).
3. Not all of the environment can be clearly seen.

Analysis: The lack of a close-up on the girls' faces means that the viewer's attention is focused elsewhere, and the number of people all engaged in various activities means that the viewer's focus is split numerous ways - representing the excitement of the party. The partially obscured figures on either side of the frame create a cramped feeling, giving the impression that the party is full of people. 

Observations:

1. The band is placed in the background of the shot but are brightly lit and spread across the entire frame.
2. The backs of heads are seen in the bottom foreground of the shot, in silhouette/shadow.
3. There are no walls on either side of the frame.

Analysis: The crowd is placed low enough in the frame for the viewer to still focus on the band in the background, and the lighting helps direct the viewer's attention in this way as well. The lack of walls/barriers on either side of the frame makes the environment seem more open / pleasant. The heads in the foreground give the impression of a large, engaged audience (compare/contrast to the audience in the modelled shot at the start of this exercise).

Observations:

1. The car is placed in the centre and foreground of the shot.
2. The camera is at a slight high angle and far enough away from the car for the car to only take up the lower half of the frame, meaning the environment is easily seen.
3. The building can be seen on all sides of the car, people have been placed on either side, and the vegetation is almost symmetrical.

Analysis: The viewer is encouraged to put themselves in the place of the car. It's placement in the shot suggests for the viewer to take on the perspective of the girls as they enter the hotel for the first time. The arrangement of the building and vegetation on all sides (and above) the car makes the character seem small in comparison to the environment, suggesting feels of awe and luxury that may connect to the hotel's immense size.

Observations:

1. Gail and Dave are placed in the centre and foreground, so close to the camera that they are slightly out of focus.
2. The camera is at a slight low angle, looking upwards at Gail's parents from between Gail and Dave.
3. Gail's parents are placed almost in the centre of the background looking down towards Gail and Dave, and are in focus. Gail's dad leans up against the post on his verandah. 

Analysis: The audience is put in Gail and Dave's shoes as they face Gail's parents as a couple for the first time. Gail's parents are placed in a position of power, standing higher up in the frame and looking down on Gail and Dave, symbolising the discomfort of the situation and the upper hand they hold in deciding whether they'll accept Dave into their family or not. The verandah takes up the entire background, suggesting its importance in this scene, and Gail's dad leans against the post - which represents that he is connected to this environment, that this is his land and his place. The camera is also focused on Gail's parents because it is their reaction that the viewer is waiting for. 

Here's the above as a worksheet that could be used: Mise en Scene Analysis.

Disclaimer: All the above resources have been created specifically for this blog in my own spare time.

Extension English: Elective 5 - Intersecting Worlds

Of the five electives on offer for English Extension 1, Intersecting Worlds is the one I've seen teachers talk about the least, which is a shame because it's got some fantastic Prescribed Texts in it. In this elective, students examine the way in which our relationship with nature is represented in texts. This means considering what it is we value about nature and how this comes across in literature, the way in which representations of natural worlds can re-orientate the reader in relation to previously marginalised perspectives, and the sense of anagnorisis felt by the individual as a result of their experience with nature.

There are four novels to pick from - three works of fiction and one non-fiction. This complemented by a poetry option and a film. Of these texts, three are Australian, two are English, and one is American. Looking at the gender breakdown, four are composed by men and two by women. There are no non-Western or Aboriginal perspectives on offer, which is a bit disappointing considering the content of the elective.

Prose Fiction Options

Clay by Melissa Harrison

What is it: TC is a young boy who lives an underprivileged life with his struggling mother in the city. He spends his days truanting from school and exploring the corners of the urban landscape that still yield some connection to nature. His adventuring sees him crossing paths with two other isolated individuals, the elderly Sophia who regularly writes letters to her granddaughter Daisy, and Jozef, a hardworking Polish migrant who yearns for his long-gone rural past.

Scope for Study: Harrison's background as a nature photographer can be felt in her incredibly rich and detailed descriptions of the environment. This is a novel that poses challenging questions about the place of the natural world alongside our increasingly alienated and industrialised modern existence, and students will be able to examine these themes through the lens of each of the novel's major characters.  Clay works well as a text that offers a unique view of the way life endures within the urban cityscapes that have divorced humanity from the wider, non-developed world.

NESA Annotations: Annotations can be found in the 2015-2020 NESA document, where the text was included as an option for the now defunct Advanced English module 'Representation and Text'. These annotations are mostly focused on the novel's style as evoked through characterisation and setting, and mention is made of students having the opportunity to appreciate "the capacity of nature to bring together individuals who ordinarily have difficulties relating to others".

Verdict: The shortest of the three novels offered within this elective but don't let that lull you into a false sense of security. Clay's beautiful language can sometimes feel dense if the reader isn't in a conducive frame of mind, and some contextualisation will be needed in order to assist students in getting on board with what is essentially a very British take on 'the wonder of nature'. Look, it's a nice book but it just doesn't grab me in the same way as The Shipping News did. Also, it's interesting to note that Clay was initially introduced in the aborted 2015-2020 Prescriptions as an Advanced English text. Owing to the unfairness of ditching a brand new text from the list altogether, NESA have instead relegated it to the bookroom backwater of Extension English... let's just say, I feel sorry for any schools who bought whole class set of Clay back in 2016!

Journey to the Stone Country by Alex Miller
What is it: Annabelle Beck, forty-something and married to an academic, retreats to her childhood home in far north Queensland after her husband has an affair with a university student. In the remote, stony wilderness to the west of Townsville, Annabelle takes a journey into her own past as she takes up work surveying the historical significance of sites for mining companies. In the course of this work she makes a connection with Bo Rennie, one of the local Aboriginal people, whose own past is complexly intertwined with her own.

Scope for Study: Students won't have any trouble understanding this novel on a surface level with its sharp, modernist imagery and finely-observed characters. In connecting the text to the elective, the teacher will need to open up the spaces within the narrative through discussion and close analysis. One of the central conceits of Journey to the Stone Country is the issue of communication and the space that needs to be navigated between the European and Aboriginal perspective of the world. Yes, Annabelle and Bo's histories are closely connected, but in a lot of ways they are also incompatible. In considering the 'Intersecting Worlds' Elective, students will need to consider the way in which setting works as a representation of themes and ideas. In this novel in particular, as rife as it is with symbolism, there is also a strong subtext regarding the debates around how land resources in Australia are to be best used. Chief among these is perhaps the way in which Aboriginal communities both suffer and benefit from commercialised development, and the contested histories that threaten to unhinge the present.

NESA Annotations: Annotations for this one can also be found in the 2015-2020 NESA document, where it was included as part of the now-retired Extension 1 Module B Elective 'Texts and Ways of Thinking', where the focus was on context and communication. The annotations make mention of the text's validity as a winner of the prestigious Miles Franklin Award and its origin as a fictionalised account of people that the author knew in his own youth as a cattle station worker in Queensland. It is suggested that students will be engaged by the 'interracial love story' and the contrasting cultural values and attitudes featured throughout the novel. Journey to the Stone Country is also highlighted as a text that deals with the theme of reconciliation, which was (and is) an ongoing contextual concern for both the author and his Australian audience. 

Verdict: It's an enjoyable enough book and no one could deny that it's intellectually stimulating or well-written. Alex Miller has taken the right approach in positioning his narrative from the point of view of the character who is, like himself, of a white and European background. That said, I think the time has passed for having our students examine Aboriginal issues from non-Aboriginal viewpoints. I don't dispute that this book has something worthwhile to say, I just believe that we could do better in selecting books that are better representative of marginalised voices rather than continuing to have already dominant voices dictate the nature and dimensions of these conversations.

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
What is it: Quoyle is a shambling, aimless doorstop of a man who experiences a series of personal tragedies and finds himself looking after two daughters on his own. Upon meeting his long-lost aunt, Quoyle decides to head to his ancestral home - the icy Canadian island of Newfoundland. In this strange maritime world of pies made from seal meat and men lost to the boundless unforgiving seas, Quoyle finds himself forging a new identity as a writer for the local newspaper, reporting on the comings-and-goings of the various ships that call in to harbour.

Scope for Study: Episodic in nature, The Shipping News reads like a collection of short stories held together in a shared universe by various thematic threads and motifs. Proulx's use of Newfoundlander lore and language creates this whole other epistemology that Extension students should find great enjoyment in learning - a cultural geography of fog and sailor speak and evocative made-up words. The setting itself is a character in The Shipping News; an environment that has a pivotal role in healing Quoyle's misery and gently giving him the gift of self-confidence. Students will do well to pay particular attention to Proulx's use of vocabulary to build both setting and character. 

NESA Annotations: Frustratingly, there are no annotations for this text in any of the last three NESA Annotations documents.

Verdict: I absolutely loved this. At the time of writing I'm about 70% through the entire Prescriptions for Standard/Advanced/Extension and I think this might just be my favourite text in the whole list. Proulx weaves this wonderful tapestry of local histories that tap into the very essence of folklore. It's very easy to see why she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with this novel and I think it also stands as an extremely useful example for students in appreciating the role of characterisation, setting, and language in a narrative that eschews a more typical plot structure. Even if you decide not to use this text for this elective, I'd still recommend reading it. You know, for fun.

Nonfiction Options

Island Home by Tim Winton
What is it: In a series of interconnected discursive pieces, Winton recounts his formative years through the lens of Australia's geography - growing up on the Western Australian coast, in industrial towns surrounded by unloved scrubby heath, and in an adolescence characterised by isolation and discovery and awakening environmentalism. Winton contrasts the development of his relationship with the land with a growing awareness of 'Green' ideology, thereby giving the reader a window into the forging of an environmentalist identity.

Scope for Study: Winton's memoir is constructed around the role of geography in shaping identity, allowing students to explore creative non-fiction (or discursive) texts and the use of a thesis to drive one's writing. Students will also be able to explore Winton's use of intertextuality to add depth to his explorations of ideology, the concept of "Australia the place" vs. "Australia the national identity", the role of nostalgia in shaping memory, and the changing face of Australian society.

NESA Annotations: Notes can be found for Island Home in the 2019-2023 Annotations document. Elements singled out as being of interest include: Winton's evocative descriptions of landscapes, the use of vignettes and essays to explore how these landscapes have shaped the author's identity, and the comparisons made between non-Indigenous and Indigenous notions of Country. Students are also positioned to examine the form and style of Winton's essays, rhetoric, and the extended metaphor of family that runs throughout Island Home.

Verdict: I don't hate it. Winton, as always, writes effortlessly and intellectually about our ongoing relationship with the Australian environment, and it's interesting to see the secret, hidden, forgotten, and marginalised histories of conservation and love for country. That said, I don't know if I'd like to teach it though... I think Winton's writing can go over the heads of students more often than not. There are some parts of Island Home that are sharp and incisive, but there are also other parts that are quite dry and obscure.

Poetry Options

The Major Works by William Wordsworth

• Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey
• Three years she grew in sun and shower
• My heart leaps up when I behold
• Resolution and independence
• The world is too much with us
• Ode ('There was a time')
• The Solitary Reaper
• The Prelude (1805) - Book Ones, lines 1-67, 271-441
  

What is it: Wordsworth's poetry explores the human condition via the wonders of nature, echoing sentiments of pathetic fallacy in a range of poetic forms and genres. 'Tintern Abbey' is a long piece in the loco-descriptive mode of the era, 'Three years...' depicts a nature both wondrous and indifferent when it comes to the rise and fall of an individual's life, and the autobiographical 'Prelude' is included in two fragments relevant to the elective. The length of poetry also drastically varies, from the short and simplistic 'My Heart Leaps Up' to the twenty stanza 'Resolution and Independence'.

Scope for Study: There is a lot to cover in this suite of selected poetry and taking a structuralist perspective grounded in context will be helpful in getting students to understand Wordsworth's use of generic conventions. Among the poetic forms sampled here are rhyme royal, the pindaric ode, the aforementioned loco-descriptive genre, and 18th century lyrical poetry, all of which will no doubt need some explaining for your students. Context will be important too, for example, 'Ode' is a poem written in two parts at two different times, so there should be consideration of how it reflects the author's life. 'Tintern Abbey' is also another interesting one as it oddly leaves out any mention of the titular abbey, focusing instead on the natural geography of the area - a geography internalised by the poet and alluding to a world that was slowly slipping (or about to slip) under the encroachment of industrialisation.

NESA Annotations: Some annotations for Wordsworth can be found in the 2015-2020 NESA document in relation to the now defunct Extension 1 Module B Elective on 'Romanticism'. The suite featured there is not exactly the same as the currently Prescribed one but there is some crossover in that five of the current eight poems are the same. The annotations primarily focus on Wordsworth's position as one of the Romantic poets and how his work fits into a larger framework in relation to this genre.

Verdict: This is big, weighty, and ambitious to study. I'm not sure I'd tackle it because it doesn't quite sing to my senses in the way that a lot of the other Prescribed Texts do. But, then again, there's a lot written about Wordsworth's poetry so teaching it would be ably assisted by paratextual reading (or dare I say even some simple Google searching!) As a solid Western canon text it's also got a long history of school study attached to it, so that will help too.

Film Options

The Hunter, directed by Daniel Nettheim
What is it: A foreign biotech company has learned that the extinct Tasmanian Tiger may in fact still exist in the depths of the Tasmanian wilderness. In order to exploit this opportunity to its fullest, the company sends in specialist Martin David (played by Willem Dafoe) to collect genetic material from the creature and to also kill off any remaining Tasmanian Tigers to ensure that the harvested DNA remains unique. While adopting the guise of a university researcher during his journey to the heart of the Apple Isle, David inadvertently finds himself in the middle of an ideological battle between environmentalists and loggers, and is confronted by a landscape both mysterious and haunting in its natural beauty.

Scope for Study: Students will be able to examine the film in terms of its visual design, specifically the way it contrasts a fairly grim premise with the fearsome beauty of a wilderness under threat. Of note is the panoramic helicopter-mounted camera work and the use of wide or extreme shots to capture this environment. Tasmania's nature is depicted as an almost god-like amphitheatre into which Willem Dafoe's gaunt and haunted frame must tread if he is to fulfill the near-Satanic deal he has struck with his employer. Students should also build up a strong contextual knowledge to assist with better understanding the The Hunter's environmental and conservationist themes.

NESA Annotations: Notes can be found in the 2019-2023 Annotations document, which outlines the need to examine the contemporary political context of the film as well as the Tasmanian Tiger as a symbol for the impact of European colonisation. The 'Opportunities for Challenging Teaching and Learning' are highly useful here too as they provide a clear schema that can be used to deconstruct and examine the text in relation to the elective.

Verdict: It's always nice to see Australian films in these lists but The Hunter doesn't really live up to its promise. The Tasmanian Tiger becomes a clumsy sort of metaphor for David in that they're both survivors in a ruthless world, however, aside from Willem Dafoe's great range as an actor, the character just isn't given enough depth by director/writer Daniel Nettheim. Owing to the density of the other texts though I think it would be difficult to undertake the Intersecting Worlds Elective without including The Hunter, and it's a serviceable enough film to use when exploring the representation of nature and the human condition in relation to it, especially with the use of the NESA annotations as a guideline.

A Brief History of Wake in Fright

It's been interesting watching the promotional material for the new mini-series adaptation of Wake in Fright on Channel 10, which has made some rather bold claims that the TV series is based on a 'classic' Australian novel. What's interesting about this is that whilst the 1961 novel was well-received at the time of its publication (and has remained in print), it's the 1971 film that had the bigger reputation on the international stage.

The film was known as Outback overseas - no doubt a clever marketing ploy to get Americans and Europeans to see the film as an exotic vision of the Australian desert. It was nominated for a major award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1971 and was applauded by critics the world over. But, you may have noticed, it isn't really the sort of film that pops up on Australian TV, nor is it as spoken about as much as other popular Australian films like Crocodile Dundee, The Castle, or at least Picnic at Hanging Rock.

There's a reason for this.

The 1971 film Wake in Fright went missing. For over 30 years the film was out of circulation due to the negative disappearing. An Australian producer searched for it for over a decade before finding a copy in a container in Pittsburgh; a container that was marked 'for destruction'. Close call! The film was subsequently restored and released in the 21st century for many eager cinephiles (such as myself) to finally enjoy.

It's quite possibly the greatest film ever made about Australia, and a film that might not sit well with the average Aussie viewer. In fact, despite it's popularity overseas, Wake in Fright was shunned by sectors of the Australian film-consuming community upon its release - perhaps due to the fact that it cuts a little close to the bone in terms of analyising the stereotypical Australian character. It would be a great text for the English Studies mandatory unit 'We Are Australian', in terms of what it says about the Australian character and what our reaction to it says about the Australian character. In fact, any English unit focusing on Australian iconography or identity would work well with this text.

Wake in Fright was more or less the first film to put modern Australia on the silver screen as it truly was; prior to this the Australian film industry was basically non-existent. Up until the 1940s it had acted as a satellite film industry to England, depicting Australians who were for all intents and purposes displaced British citizens. There were a sprinkling of Hollywood productions made on Australian soil in the late '50s (two notable examples are the apocalyptic On the Beach and the colourful epic The Sundowners) but it wasn't until the British-financed Wake in Fright that it suddenly seemed possible for Australia to have a self-sufficient industry of its own. Wake in Fright's importance and impact was so big that it spawned two parallel lines of cinema in the 1970s and beyond: the artistically-inclined Australian New Wave (spearheaded by the directors Peter Weir, Fred Schepisi, and Bruce Beresford) and the crowd-pleasingly low brow films that have come to be known as the Ozploitation genre (see Mad Max, Razorback, Stone). Wake in Fright has elements of both these waves of filmmaking, and is just a great film to boot.

John (Gary Bond) is an upper-middle class schoolteacher serving his time in the isolated outback town of Tiboonda. He resents being stationed so far from what he deems to be civilisation, and when the school holidays come around he aims to return to Sydney for a reprieve. In the course of this journey he comes to the mining town of Bundanyabba (AKA "the Yabba"), an outback town where he stops to rest and have a quiet drink. Some locals at the Yabba introduce him to an underground two-up ring, where he gets a taste for gambling. John sees a chance to make enough money to free him from his outback teaching post, but he ends up losing everything instead. As a result he's stranded in the Yabba, without a dollar to his name, and unable to even get to the next town. He falls in with some 'friendly' locals, and they initiate him into their way of life - a kind of hell from which there seems to be no escape.

Wake in Fright's biggest weapon is its subtle use of irony to examine the widening gap between intellectualism and the working class in Australia, perhaps most immediately evident in the contrast between the gentle music that plays throughout the opening credits and the first line of dialogue; an abrupt "Shut up!" that foreshadows the barely restrained tension that bubbles under the affable manner of the average Australian country character. As John travels out of Tiboonda he finds himself invited to drink with a group of drunken locals on the train, which he politely declines in favour of sitting by himself. It's this aloofness that is only real defence, and dropping it will be his undoing - a reflection of the anxieties of the suburban psyche. An interesting side note of this early train-set scene full of of 'friendly' Aussies is that there's also an Aboriginal man sitting by himself - a keen visual reminded of the separatist reality of Australian culture. This simple truth gets blown up to magnificent proportions throughout the course of the film, almost to a point where it's literally too hard to look at.

In a film full of contrasts - such as the juxtaposition of the jovial nature of the Australian character with the desolate, sand-blasted environment - it's perhaps the contrast between the intellectual teacher and the working class rural Australians that is most affecting. The Yabba townsfolk don't take too kindly to John's resentment of their habitat and culture. His arrogance leads him to unashamedly label two-up as a "simple-minded game". Nearly everything he says and does makes it obvious that he looks down on the Yabba, he even casts the 'fair go' temperament of the locals as the "arrogance of stupid people". The flipside of this is what comes to be termed as the "aggressive hospitality" of the rural Australian, a subtle and cunning strategy the Yabba folk employ to entrap their prey. It's never made explicit or said outright, all this stuff happens just under the surface through the narrowing of eyes and some ironically 'friendly' phrases. John may be an unsympathetic protagonist when the film begins, but by the end the balance of power is tipped well out of his favour and the audience can't help but feel sorry for him despite his flaws. The Yabba men toy with him and, for all his big city cleverness, they're always in control of his life. They take his money, destroy his concept of time, and degrade him completely. To them he's uneducated because he has no understanding of their lifestyle. When they take him shooting he wants to claim his kill, but they tell him there's no point because all the foxes are mangy in the outback, and it's at this point that he realises the pointlessness of his assimilation. However, it's also too late for any epiphany, a kind of Stockholm Syndrome has taken hold of him - leading to a disturbingly barbaric roo-shooting sequence. At the end of his transformation John even throws his beloved books away, all the civilisation is washed out of him and escape becomes nothing more than a dim fantasy.

Of all the actors it's probably Australian film legend Chips Rafferty and British actor Donald Pleasance who stand out the most. Rafferty, in his last film, has an important supporting role as the local representative of the law, and Pleasance (with a perfect Australian accent) plays an alcoholic doctor. The 'good' doctor admits that his disease (alcoholism) prevents him from practising in Sydney but that in the Yabba this affliction is barely noticeable. It's a sadly acute observation that all but labels Australia's propensity for drinking as an outright blight on our national character. Along with a talent for beerswilling, the Australian character is further represented in Wake in Fright through several other tropes - a reverence for the ANZACs, two-up, mateship, and poker-machines as a 'healthy' tradition. Add to this the friendliness that only really exists as long as you fit the unspoken rules of the friendly atmosphere, and the aforementioned 'aggressive hospitality', and you have an image of the Australian that fits a little too uncomfortably. There's also the suggestion that an Australian man must be masculine in order to be a 'true Australian'; an idea that feeds into the theme of a divide between intellectualism and the working class. John finds that he actually has more in common with the reserved daughter of one of his 'friends' than he does with any of the males he meets, further highlighting the way his intellect makes him un-Australian in comparison to the Yabba blokes.

In short, the film Wake in Fright could be viewed as a serious piece of anthropology hidden underneath a whole lot of mindless drinking, punching, and humiliation. It's like the dark flipside to films like Dimboola and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie - 1970s comedies that lampooned Australian's yobbo drinking culture with a much lighter touch. I'll admit that I haven't seen the TV remake of the novel/film at this point in time, however, you would do very well to check out this early '70s classic. It's a great piece of cinema.