"When I started working on Wake in Fright, I was often asked how I could make a film about a people, a country, a culture I knew nothing about and was experiencing for the first time. Rightly or wrongly, I would say, "Well, that’s easy, I'm Canadian and Canada has the same British colonial background as Australia." There is the same lack of self-confidence, which, in Canada's case, it's to the extent of a rampant inferiority complex. Australia has a different kind of energy but, more important, is that the countries are geographically the same. They have the same vast empty spaces, which don't liberate, they imprison. And I also understood the men of the outback – their camaraderie, their support of each other and their generosity – because I had met the same type of men in the north of Canada. I've actually described Canada to some people as Australia on the rocks!"

"People walked out of it saying, "That is not us!" [with an English accent] We all thought we spoke like that, really. We didn't actually have an Australian accent. And there was none of that sort of brutality; there was none of that sort of harshness and madness that, of course, is very much a part of our lives."

"The 40th anniversary of a lost classic from the Outback"

"Wake in Fright is a film made in Australia in 1971 and almost lost forever. It's not dated. It is powerful, genuinely shocking and rather amazing. It comes billed as a "horror film" and contains a great deal of horror, but all of the horror is human and brutally realistic. [...] Kotcheff's film is raw and uncompromised, well-acted, brilliantly photographed and edited. Animals were certainly "harmed." Footage of an actual kangaroo hunt was seamlessly edited in by Buckley, and a "producer's note" says this documentary footage was included with "the participation" of animal rights' organizations, whatever that means. It's rare to find a film that goes for broke and says to hell with the consequences."

"Gary Bond as John Grant"

"Sweat, dust and beer... there's nothing else out here mate!"

"Have a drink, mate? Have a fight, mate? Have a taste of dust and sweat, mate? There's nothing else out here."

"Have a drink mate? Have a Sheila mate? Have a gamble mate? Have a fight mate?"

"In competition at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival"

"This is John Grant, a handsome, intelligent, ambitious young schoolteacher. / This is John Grant, an ugly, sweaty, desperate animal. What happened to John Grant? The Outback happened to John Grant. He went on holiday... and never came back."

"The Outback. A strange place, with strange names like "Tiboonda"... "Bundanyabba"... strange people..."

"Janette Hynes: She's a slag, this little mutt; she'd try anything!"

"Dick: [to Tim Hynes, referring to John] What's the matter with him? He'd rather talk to a woman than drink?"

"Jock Crawford: [speaking to John after he tries to shoot himself] I, uh, hate to trouble you, John, but rather than tire you, I thought I'd write down what had happened and you could sign it, okay? "The gunshot wound to my head was the result of an accident. I was visiting my friend, Clarence F. Tydon, after a hunting trip. I dropped my .22 rifle at the floor of his kitchen butt first, believing it to be unloaded. It exploded, and that's all I remember." That'll be about it, wouldn't it?"

"It's possible to live forever in The Yabba without money. As you probably noticed, some of the natives are very... hospitable. Take Janette, for instance. Now, there's a very interesting biological case. If she were a man, she'd be in jail for rape."

"I cannot accept your premise, Socrates. Affectability... progress... are vanities spawned by fear. A vanity spawned by fear. The aim of what you call civilisation is a man in a smokin' jacket, whiskey and soda, pressing a bottom... button, to destroy a planet a billion miles away, kill a billion people he's never seen."

"You'd think a bloke who'd won a silver medal at target shooting could hit himself in the head at a range of three inches."

"Shall I satisfy your curiosity? I'm a doctor of medicine, and a tramp by temperament. I'm also an alcoholic. My disease prevented me from practicing in Sydney. But out here it's scarcely noticeable. Certainly doesn't stop people from coming to see me. I charge no fees because I'm not interested in money. Anyway, I'm unreliable. But I'm accepted socially because I'm an educated man... or character. I get my food from my friends... my requirements in beer. Which, with some measure of self-control, is the only alcohol I allow myself."

"Jock, you damn near saved my life just now, how 'bout... completing the job by giving me a cigarette, huh?"

"One thousand dollars. Just... just one more spin... and you're out of it. Out of teaching... out of Tiboonda."

"Charlie: You've, uh... got snakes in yer pocket, have you?"

"In northern Australia, there are five thousand square miles of sand, scrub and searing heat... a desolate, primitive place that can take a man and destroy him. They call it the "Outback"."

"Oh, I'm a bonded slave of the Education Department... I'm a schoolteacher."

"From nowhere he came - through hell he went..."

"A Young Man, Alone, without money. Trapped in this territory of Incredible Heat!"

"There's a nice, simple-minded game."

"Andreas Katsulas - Johnny Isabella"

"Michael J. Pollard - Harold"

"Ted Levine - Willy Simpson"

"Del Close - Frank"

"Vincent Guastaferro - Paulie"