Today I finally got a DVD of "Sleeping Dogs" and got to watch it in a wide-screen version for the first time. As a big fan of Warren Oates, I was first interested in this film because of his character. His film "Dillinger" is frequently mentioned, and I also recall his excellent work in "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia", "Black Thunder" and "Badlands".In "Sleeping Dogs", it's impossible to ignore Sam Neill as he struggles to survive forces outside his control.I don't know if it's his first film or not, however it's the first one I recall ever seeing him.Coincidentally, I'm also watching the new DVD release of "Max Headroom", and it's hard to keep the two films from intermixing.Repressive governments, random violence, all the things that make films like both of these fun to watch again and again.In this genre, I would also add "Brazil"."1984" goes without saying.

In one of the most acclaimed films coming from New Zealand, Sam Neill plays Smith, a simple man turned into a dangerous one after being confused as a rebel from a resistance group that fights against the new government. Now he has the run from the police and the army to save his life and the only ones who can help him are the same members of the resistance that caused him trouble, including Bullen (Ian Mune), who had an affair with Smith's wife. There's a few gaps in the narrative, some things are half explained and others don't get any explanation at all, also a lack of idealism or reasons to explain why there's a conflict between the rebels and the government, and all that made the film less appealing, and very confusing. Both sides of the political tensions are presented equally distant from us, so we can't decide which one is right and which one is wrong; our empathy must stay at all time with Neill's character, who is an enigma to us, we don't know what was his occupation before his life gets shattered, and he got framed as terrorist because someone planted guns in his boat. But the story tells us this guy's very smart, he knows combative techniques, some tricks under the sleeve (his escape from the police car by forcing a vomit was incredible). In his first film director Roger Donaldson makes a very good thriller, effectively tense, and with good moments and great performances (includes a special appearance from Warren Oates as an American military who is following the rebels). A higher focus on the political aspects and placing the characters motivations more on the surface would make this film perfect. 9/10

I remember trying to see this film when I was 12 or 13 but the friend who bought the tickets ending up buying tickets for The Magic Roundabout and the Blue Cat. What a disappointment at the time.Seeing it for the first time subsequently, the optimum word is prescient. Donaldson showed scenes that were fresh and on a scale never scene in NZ cinema before. Skyhawks dropping bombs on the terrorists (Mune and Neill). "Spooky" is the word most used by those who have commented in this forum.Having met Carl Stead last year in London, I was impressed by his philosophy regarding the films success in NZ at the time. Comprimises were made to the author's chagrin but in the end the story fulfilled its cinematic requirements. Donaldson along with Geoff Murphy were pioneers of a new revolution in film-making for New Zealand. The first NZ film I had seen that opened up the dark under belly of an immature and isolated nation in troubled times. The movie is dated now but the impact in context of the time it was made is undeniable.

As far as I'm aware, Sam Neill's first film - and what a start!Starring a Kiwi, directed by a Kiwi and packed to the gunwales with Kiwi talent, this is definitely no Hollywood hyperbole extravaganza.Its sole concession to the 'star power' syndrome is the presence of Warren Oates ("Dillinger") as an armed subversive type (I didn't dare to use the dreaded 'T' word!).The film is under the very capable guidance of the now-also-well-known Roger Donaldson, who was also responsible for another powerful home-grown effort, "Smash Palace". Impressionable youngsters like Peter Jackson may have seen this and decided their futures.Like Jackson's LOTR trilogy, "Sleeping Dogs" is filmed on location in New Zealand. As such, the sets and scenery give a fair idea of life in provincial and metropolitan NZ in the mid-70's (but there's no stunning vistas of the majestic Southern Alps here, I'm afraid)."Sleeping Dogs" is an adaptation of a story by New Zealand author C.K.Stead and pits an increasingly autocratic government of the near-future against a group of resistance fighters. Smith (Neill), very recently separated from a cheating wife, pretty much accidentally and quite reluctantly, gets involved with this group.One scene in the movie was (and still is) something of a talking point here in NZ because it seemed, in hindsight, so chillingly prescient - life imitating art.In the scene, a large group of protesters have clashed violently with unyielding, merciless, baton-wielding riot police; blood is flowing, injures are rife.Some five years after the film had been released, in 1981, the then-internationally-banned Springbok rugby team from South Africa were allowed to tour here, despite clamorous local and global opposition. New Zealand experienced the horrors and scarring of civil division. Wherever the Springboks played and also in the capital, Wellington, violence erupted. And it seemed to many of us at the time that the scenes that Donaldson had shot many years ago were now being replayed almost nightly on the news. Spooky.