Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Sleeping Dogs Blu-ray Movie Review

The Commuter.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 16, 2018

Sam Neill’s role in The Commuter was so perfunctory and underwritten that I realized after I had posted our The Commuter Blu-ray review and The Commuter 4K Blu-ray review that I had completely neglected to even mention him. Let me make up for that oversight now by stating that Sam Neill is not only front and center throughout Sleeping Dogs, he offers a viscerally compelling performance in what was his first feature film starring performance. In what might be cheekily described as kind of a blending of certain elements from Thoreau’s Walden and Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, Neill portrays a man known only as Smith, a kind of New Zealand Everyman who leaves his young family in the wake of his wife’s infidelity and who attempts to forge a new life for himself on an isolated island owned by some members of the Maori tribe. Smith’s idyllic refuge ends up colliding rather viciously with a simmering quasi-Fascistic sociopolitical climate that the film posits has taken hold of the island nation.

This odd combination of plot points is offered from the get go, as Smith watches television reports of huge strikes bringing New Zealand to a halt, strikes which the Prime Minister promises to fight tooth and nail (and gun, as it turns out). But the real import of the scene is the subtext of Smith’s wife Gloria (Nevan Rowe) crying in the kitchen as their two little daughters craft goodbye letters to their Dad (even this subtext turns out to be at least a bit of misdirection as further information is divulged as the film progresses). When Gloria’s lover Bullen (Ian Mune, who also co-wrote) shows up before Smith has had a chance to back out of the driveway, mayhem temporarily ensues, though this brief fit of pique is soon replaced by a more serene, atatvistic ambience when Smith spies a gorgeous island in a bay, inquires about who owns it, and ends up moving there. (There’s a bit of elision here, since certain elements like the fact that the island is already equipped with a house are never really discussed until they just show up on screen.)

Director Roger Donaldson, who is credited with pretty much kickstarting New Zealand’s then moribund cinema scene with this film, does some interesting things in this initial expository section of the film. First, he both misdirects and outright withholds certain salient pieces of information which show up later and cast a new light on things. But he also toys with the audience in a way, offering a point of view perspective from Smith’s island paradise which is suddenly interrupted rather violently by scenes of the growing unrest in the urban centers of New Zealand. An early fracas documents clearly that the government is intentionally provoking protestors, and then inciting violence itself in order to further its aims to complete a near dictatorial takeover.

These two worlds intersect when Smith is suddenly arrested in what looks for a while to be detour into Kafka-esque The Trial territory. Here again, co-writers Mune and Arthur Baysting, along with Donaldson, kind of play with audience expectations, only to upend everything yet again when Smith becomes The Fugitive (so to speak). Things get even stranger when Smith is able to forge a new life with a new woman, only to have that idyllic refuge interrupted by the arrival of both an imperious American named Colonel Willoughby (Warren Oates) and Bullen, who it turns out may have more on his mind that simply seducing Gloria.

A number of shadowy conspiracies intrude in the arguably over convoluted story, but what turns out to be the interesting evolution of Smith’s character is how a man who was seeking escape (of one form or another) ends up being wrongly accused of being a so-called “revolutionary”, only to have the revolution reach out and touch him (grab him, really) in a way he can’t control. Neill navigates this potentially perilous character transformation rather nimbly, leading the film to what is almost an unavoidably tragic denouement.

Sleeping Dogs Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sleeping Dogs is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet doesn't contain a whale of a lot of information on the transfer, offering only a fairly generic:

Sleeping Dogs was digitally restored by the New Zealand Film Commission from original film elements. The film is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, with original mono sound.

From a damage standpoint, this is a very nice looking transfer, with very few noticeable signs of age related wear and tear. And a lot of the outdoor sequences especially radiate a really warm palette, with typically very good detail levels. But there are a number of fluctuations both in terms of general color temperature as well as isolated moments of pulsing and/or brightness variances that can be spotted. Some scenes look considerably cooler in terms of flesh tones and the surrounding scenery, even when they, too, take place outside. While there are obvious differences in lighting and environments, compare screenshots 1 and 2 with screenshots 3 and 5 to get an idea of some of the differences that can be spotted. Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation, but has a tendency to assume a slightly yellowish quality in some opticals like the opening credits sequence or some of the dissolves.

Sleeping Dogs Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sleeping Dog's original theatrical exhibition is recreated with an LPCM 2.0 mono track, while the Blu-ray disc also contains a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that does open up the film's score and source cues, as well as some of the ambient environmental effects on the island and sounds of clashes between protesters and police (which can include gunfire). That said, the surround mix doesn't offer consistent immersion, and purists may want to stick with the LPCM track in any case. Fidelity is fine throughout, without any signs of distortion or other damage.

Sleeping Dogs Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Roger Donaldson, Sam Neill and Ian Mune is often self deprecatingly funny, but gets into a host of information, including how this film fits into the history of New Zealand cinema.


• The Making of Sleeping Dogs (1977) (1080p; 28:41) is an interesting archival piece which Arrow warns has audio issues.


• The Making of Sleeping Dogs (2004) (1080p; 1:07:38) is an even more in depth piece that offers a bit of perspective courtesy of elapsed time, along with some fun segues of the cast and crew from younger days and then on to 2004.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:21)

As usual, Arrow has also provided a nicely appointed insert booklet, which in this case contains not just writing by Neil Mitchell but a reproduction of the film's original press book.

Sleeping Dogs Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Neill's character of Smith is in fact kind of a commuter himself in Sleeping Dogs, in more ways than one. He travels physically from his home to an island to a prison to a trailer to the forest, but he also moves philosophically and emotionally to a whole new region as sociopolitical events in New Zealand shape him in a way he doesn't foresee and ultimately can't control. Donaldson's typically inerrant penchant for scenic visuals makes this a rather interesting travelogue for New Zealand (even if it's punctuated by disturbing scenes of political unrest in urban centers), and Neill offers a really convincing portrait of a man who can't outrun his fate. Technical merits are generally strong, and Arrow has also provided some nice supplements. Recommended.