Wake in Fright understood the horrors of Australian booze culture. 50 years on, nothing’s changed

Gary Bond as outsider John Grant in Wake in Fright: ‘At each turn, he is humiliated.’ Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

Wake in Fright, the 1971 film-cum-anthropological study by Ted Kotcheff understands Australian men, it understands Australia’s drinking culture, and it understands the way those two things intersect – which is to say it understands games.

Dick-measuring contests, arm-wrestling bouts, two-up, binge-drinking: Australian masculinity is a series of ongoing games with the promise that if you complete all of these contests you will be the winner – the mannest man. Of course, it’s an illusion: Australian men never really escape the playground rules of the handball court, which turn a swathe of casual interactions into high-stakes opportunities to prove ourselves.