[DVD Review (R2)] OUT OF THE BLUE

On the 13th, leading into the 14th, of November 1990 a sense of violence and madness came to a small New Zealand seaside village called Aramoana. It came in the form of a lone gunman who left his home in the village and set about executing, without rhyme or reason, his terrified and confused neighbours; who, in turn, became trapped in their homes for 24 hours while a handful of under-resourced and underarmed local policeman risked their lives trying to find him and save the survivors.

By dawn 13 people lay dead.

This is the story of the worst massacre in New Zealand’s history!

Out of the Blue is a lean and thoroughly gripping piece of documentary-style filmmaking, playing as a reconstruction of a fated twenty-four hour period, making no bones about setting the deaths of thirteen people in motion at the hands of a crazy 33-year-old loner simply because he was charged $2 at his bank for cashing a cheque.

The film is consistently chilling, but often extremely moving as it makes the somewhat brave decision to focus not on the murderer, David Gray (nope, not the “pop star”) but on the terrified yet courageous ‘civilians’ caught up amongst the senseless violence. It goes out of its way to strenuously avoid anything that could be found within a conventional “Hollywood” thriller and it refuses to allow its sense of pace be dictated to by attention starved, blockbuster-loving teen audience members either.

Out of The Blue excels because it is almost resolute in fucking around with your expectations as an audience member. Enough time has passed since the real life incident for events to be particularly murky to many a person outside of New Zeland. Director Robert Sarkies and his co-writer Bill O’Brien know that many an audience member needs to know the what’s, why’s, when’s and how’s of every movement within their cinematic experience. They also know that the presence of Karl Urban (a Kiwi now living it up on Hollywood soil in big action extravaganzas like Doom, Pathfinder, Bourne Supremacy, Chronicles of Riddick and Lord of the Rings) in the cast, is going to make people expectant on heroic set pieces that will bring about the end of this mad man’s rampage.

Sarkies and O’Brien know all of that but they still smile politely and mouth the words “Fuck You” as they set about making no effort to explain or analyse David Gray’s actions nor in portraying Urban’s character, Nick Harvey, as anything but what he was in real life; a brave man who did his best but wonders whether it was enough to the point of breaking himself up over it. Instead, the focus remains wholeheartedly on the confusion, panic and horror of everyday people.

The film is sublime in mixing professional actors with amateur and undeveloped types. This is none more the case then when you witness the work of seventy-two year old amateur thespian Lois Lawn, who will undoubtedly break your heart like she did mine in her portrayal of the real-life Helen Dickson, an old infirm neighbor who crawled repeatedly along a ditch to check and comfort a wounded man AND continually try for an ambulance, despite having just had hip surgery.

Out of the Blue is shot with great restraint but also with an eye for the unconventionally beautiful held within the New Zealand landscape. It is every bit the masterpiece that Paul Greengrass’ Bloody Sunday was years earlier. It’s a film very, very, very much worthy of your attention and it was criminally withheld from mainstream and localised cinemas when it was released earlier this year.

I urge you all to check it out (you can pick a copy on Amazon for as little as £8.41) because this is a genuine masterpiece in true life inspired filmmaking!

Posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 2:00 pm under DVD Reviews (R2) by Gazz.
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