Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Smash Palace Blu-ray Movie Review

Wrecked.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 25, 2018

Arrow Academy is on at least a bit of a run with Roger Donaldson films, having recently brought out Sleeping Dogs, and now following up with Smash Palace, an entry which offers a few passing similarities to the earlier film. If Sleeping Dogs helped to resurrect what was New Zealand’s flatlining film industry, that still evidently didn’t grease the wheels enough for New Zealand’s Film Commission to instantly greenlight this project, as is discussed in the interesting long form Making Of supplement included on this release. That is one salient difference between Smash Palace and Sleeping Dogs, though in the “write what you know” department, Donaldson himself talks about some discord between him and his wife which inspired at least parts of Smash Palace, and those who have seen Sleeping Dogs will know that dysfunction between a husband and wife is part of the underlying plot dynamic of that film as well. But Sleeping Dogs went off on one kind of odd tangent that included a proto-fascistic government taking over New Zealand, while Smash Palace goes off on another kind of odd tangent that sees a distraught estranged father kidnap his own child in order to forge a little “together” time (or something like that). There’s a kind of turgid, almost soap operatic, element underlying Smash Palace, which is one reason why its brisk and even at times darkly comedic ambience may be so surprising, since the film is remarkably unsentimental, given some of its story aspects.

If the marital discord is clearly on display virtually from the get go in Sleeping Dogs, it takes a while for it to be revealed in Smash Palace. Instead, the film opens with a horrifying (one car) crash featuring a rollover (there’s some interesting information about the filming of this sequence in the supplementary material) which provides an easy segue to the film’s title locale, a huge (and real life, at least at the time) junkyard filling acres of open fields in New Zealand’s otherwise picturesque environs. The facility is run by husband and wife Al (Bruno Lawrence) and Jacqui Shaw (Anna Jemison). The couple also has an adorable little daughter named Georgie (Greer Robson), who seems to wants to follow in her father’s (largely abandoned) footsteps of being a racecar driver.

Almost discursively, it ultimately becomes apparent that the more worldly Jacqui has given up some of her cosmopolitan proclivities in order to settle down with Art in the wilds of New Zealand (albeit wilds littered with untold carcasses of wrecked automobiles), and she is perhaps understandably dissatisfied with things. Art’s brusqueness does seem to be offset by a geniune love for both Jacqui and (maybe especially) Georgie, but one way or the other, Jacqui ultimately takes up with local cop Ray Foley (Keith Aberdein). What might be seen as a passing dalliance tips into somewhat more provocative territory when Al comes close to raping Jacqui in the film’s most overtly disturbing sequence. That finally pushes Jacqui to her tipping point, and she informs Al right there on the bed that she’s leaving him and taking Georgie with her.

There’s a lot of talk these days about so-called “toxic masculinity”, and in fact even Arrow’s verbiage on the back cover of this release mentions that this film is “a vivid, messy portrait of masculinity in crisis”, and there’s certainly no denying that Lawrence’s commanding if troubling performance anchors the film in a gritty reality that provides a surprisingly visceral emotional response. But what makes the film ultimately so unsettling is Al’s relationship with Georgie, especially once Al kidnaps the little girl, putting her perhaps unavoidably in harm’s way as Ray and other police threaten to reunite her with her mother even if that means Al’s continued existence isn’t of anyone’s primary concern. The scenes between Lawrence and the really remarkable Robson give this film an intensity that helps it to remain grounded even despite some hyperbolic tendencies.

Donaldson has had a rather interesting career, with a number of relatively high profile films stateside (No Way Out, Cadillac Man, Thirteen Days, Dante's Peak) that still might be thought of as generic programmers in a way. Donaldson’s almost inerrant visual sense certainly helped to elevate The Bounty, a rather thoughtful revisionist version of Mutiny on the Bounty that he more or less “inherited” from the redoubtable David Lean, but for what might be thought of as “unfiltered” Donaldson, a Donaldson not kowtowing to the economic needs of “big time Hollywood”, there are probably no two better examples than his first two, quasi-indie New Zealand films. There’s an intimacy and intensity in both Sleeping Dogs and Smash Palace that some of his later work doesn’t quite match, and both films utilize their New Zealand settings to memorable effect. It's arguable that Smash Palace doesn't quite arrive at the catharsis it's obviously aiming for, with an ending that is at least somewhat ambiguous in some ways, but that still doesn't materially detract from a fascinatingly unique portrayal of a marriage disintegrating almost inexorably, with a husband and father left to manage his rage and feeling of impotence in a frightening way.

Smash Palace Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Smash Palace is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following fairly generic verbiage about the transfer:

Smash Palace 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.

That's pretty much the same verbiage that accompanied the Blu-ray release of Sleeping Dogs, but to my eyes this is a more pleasing and consistent looking transfer. Whatever restoration efforts were undertaken have delivered a transfer free of any major issues of age related wear and tear. Aside from just a bit of (understandable) fuzziness during the optically printed credits sequence, the bulk of this transfer exhibits excellent clarity and routinely nice detail levels. But it's the palette that continually impressed me, one that seems intentionally designed to offer rich blues and golden tones, both in terms of the lush New Zealand location work but also some of the production design choices. That said, there's kind of a dusty brown ambience to a lot of the outdoor footage, and occasionally even flesh tones can look a bit brown as well. Grain looks natural throughout the presentation and I noticed no compression artifacts.

Smash Palace Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Smash Palace features an LPCM 2.0 mono track (incorrectly listed as both a Mono 1.0 track and a Stereo 2.0 track in different places) as well as a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The surround track tends to offer immersion in fits and spurts, and then not always completely organic sounding, with the best elements being some of the kind of country rock inflected songs by Sharon O'Neil or even some of the racecar footage, where some additional low frequency energy is noticeable. Otherwise, the original theatrical mono track suffices perfectly well, delivering the film's dialogue, score and effects with excellent fidelity and no problems whatsoever.

Smash Palace Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Roger Donaldson and Steve Millen


• The Making of Smash Palace (1080p; 53:05) is a very well done retrospective featuring interviews with Roger Donaldson, Keith Aberdein, and Geoff Murphy among others. If you watch this before viewing the feature film (as I did), don't be too concerned over the quality of the film clips used in the documentary, since they don't seem to be in as good a shape as the actual presentation of the feature itself.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:25)

As usual, Arrow has also provided a nicely appointed insert booklet.

Smash Palace Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a moment in Smash Palace when Al dons an ammunition vest and picks up a rifle and some viewers may be fearing the worst. Donaldson mentions in some of the supplements how a news article about a little five year old boy getting caught in a gun battle due to having been kidnapped by his father in a custody dispute sparked his idea for the film, and while there is an unavoidable showdown in the film, it's kind of interesting how Donaldson kind of leaves certain elements of the outcome (certain elements, mind you) up in the air. Smash Palace offers some really effective performances and a manifestly unusual "view" of New Zealand. Technical merits are first rate, the supplements are enjoyable, and Smash Palace comes Highly recommended.