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Early on Smith gains a pal in a friendly mutt gifted by a deal-making Maori. Since we seldom break away from Smith’s immediate story, we share both his paranoia and his worries about what may be happening to his wife and kids, left somewhere far away. Long lenses limit what we see, making the action scenes more impressionistic. Careful camerawork does the trick, keeping us off-balance during chaotic street riots and shoot-outs by restricting us to Smith’s experiences. The surprise is that he succeeds brilliantly, creating the impression of a larger conflict with carefully chosen action scenes while focusing on the personal experience of one hapless citizen caught up in the insanity.

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Aid’ forces.įor his first full feature Roger Donaldson goes the action route, trying to depict an entire civil war on a small budget. Smith doesn’t realize it, but he’s now being used by the resistance as well, to help with an armed ambush against the ‘U.S. Hiding out at a rural motel, Smith can do nothing when the rooms are commandeered by a platoon of security troops led by an American training advisor, the Vietnam veteran Colonel Willoughby (Warren Oates). Knowing the offer is worthless, Smith escapes and discovers that both Gloria and Bullen are part of the organized resistance.

Framed as a terrorist, he’s kept in solitary confinement until Jesperson offers to let him live if he’ll publicly confess to a number of terror crimes. But another government conspiracy soon catches up with him. He tries being a hermit for a while and even grows a beard.

Fed up with his life, Smith rents an island from some local Maoris. Everyman Smith (Sam Neill) separates from his wife Gloria (Nevan Rowe) and his daughters when Gloria decides to live with Bullen (Ian Mune). An organized armed resistance has already been formed when the Prime Minister (Bernard Kearns) has his secret police director Jesperson (Clyde Scott) kill several policeman to get public support for his referendum. The story imagines a New Zealand transformed by a reactionary government that creates terrorist incidents to justify a totalitarian police state. Sleeping Dogs is a highly effective, excellently directed action-suspense show, with a politically sophisticated screenplay. Just shy of thirty years old, Neill looks more like twenty and is as thin as a rail. If your only contact with Sam Neill is through the Jurassic Park pictures, this show will be a surprise. 1977’s Sleeping Dogs is on record as the first NZ- produced feature to garner a major release overseas. His real claim to fame should be his starring role in his country’s initial foray into international-league filmmaking, a politically touchy action thriller produced and directed by Roger Donaldson.

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Genuine New Zealand movie star Sam Neill unfortunately made his first mainstream splash playing the spawn of the Devil in 1981’s The Final Conflict. Written by Ian Mune, Arthur Baysting from the novel by Karl Stead

Original Music: Mathew Brown, David Calder, Murray Grindlay Starring: Sam Neill, Nevan Rowe, Ian Mune, Warren Oates, Ian Watkin, Clyde Scott, Donna Akersten, Bill Johnson, Don Selwyn, Davina Whitehouse. Sold as an action thriller, the show is really a primer on how a democracy can be turned into a police state, with the public’s full approval.ġ977 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 107 min. The film’s young star didn’t do too badly either - the ‘ordinary guy’ who becomes rebel terrorist is played by none other than Sam Neill. Director Roger Donaldson has enjoyed a rewarding Hollywood career, but he began in New Zealand where this fantasy mini-epic about resistance to a political takeover became the first Kiwi picture to win an international release and launch a national film industry.