Watch Sleeping Dogs For Free

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

With Sleeping Dogs, director Roger Donaldson near enough single-handedly cemented New Zealand's place on the cinematic map. It was, at the time, the biggest box-office hit the country had seen, and also boasted what is only the second big-screen appearance by Sam Neill. With Ozplotation in full swing just across the water, Sleeping Dogs kicked off a New Wave in New Zealand, with the likes of Donaldson's Smash Palace and Vincent Ward's Vigil following in the subsequent years. The film is odd and off-kilter, but never less than fascinating. Donaldson clearly looked at Adolf Hitler's own rise to power in post-World War I Germany for inspiration, as he depicts a New Zealand of the near future falling foul of a rising dictatorship who are eager to hunt down anybody they believe could belong to a growing band of freedom fighters. It all starts with television reports of fuel strikes across the country, and quickly spirals out of control from there.The report is being watched by Smith (Neill) as his children write him goodbye letters and his wife sobs in the kitchen. He is the victim of infidelity, so decides to pack up and live off the grid for a while, but not before his wife's new lover Bullen (Ian Mune) arrives before he has even left the house. He spots an island on the Coromandel peninsula, arranging with the Maori owners to live out there untroubled, even exchanging his expensive car for their rusty old boat. He fishes, listens to the radio, and befriends the locals nearby, but his idyllic existence is soon interrupted when the government goes into full crackdown mode, arresting anybody on suspicion of assisting the revolution. He is taken in by the police to be interrogated and tortured, and likely sentenced to death. Seeing no other alternative, Smith takes his chance and escapes his captors, fleeing to a quiet camping ground where he meets a nice local girl. Smith is no guerilla revolutionary and is quite happy to live in ignorant bliss, but when US Army Colonel Willoughby (Warren Oates) arrives with more on his mind than policing the country, it becomes clear that Smith's destiny lies with the uprising, whether he likes it or not.Donaldson deliberately holds back certain pieces of information to keep the goings-on away from Smith a mystery, making Sleeping Dogs a rather frustrating experience. But frustrating isn't always bad, and here the loose, drifting storyline gives the film a unique style and atmosphere. You're never quite sure where the story will go next, and when Warren Oates arrives with a smile and willingness to party, there's a disorientating sense of unease as the beads of sweat drip off his quivering moustache. Cinematographer Michael Seresin, who would go on to work on the likes of Midnight Express, Angel Heart and the third Harry Potter, captures the country beautifully, imbuing the scenery with a sense of beauty and peace one minute, and a sense of terror the next. It all sounds a bit George Orwell, but it really isn't. It's actually much stranger than that, and has a rich vein of humour throughout, usually stemming from Smith's frustration as he unwillingly grows into a revolutionary leader. In many ways, it mirrors Gary Bond's experience trapped in the small, violent town of Ted Kotcheff's masterpiece Wake in Fright, only with less booze, more humour, and some bizarre turns along the way.

I've gone back and read reviews of this film to find out what others loved about it, to discover why it was considered such a milestone. Upon reading those reviews I gathered it was a milestone because it was unlike anything to come out of New Zealand at the time. That being said I still didn't find myself thinking it was a movie I'd choose to revisit.Sam Neill stars as Smith, a young man who as the film opens is leaving behind his wife and two daughters. It seems his wife has had an affair with a man named Bullen (Ian Mune) who is now moving in. Smith leaves behind his world and moves on to another area where he enquires about living on an island owned by a Maori tribe. Given permission as well as a dog they don't want, he does so and sets about making a new life for himself there. Among the things he finds in the house still standing is an old military radio.While this is going on there is unrest in the country. A fuel crisis has led to revolutionaries popping up to lead a rebellion and a police state brought about by their actions. It turns out that Bullen was a leader in the revolutionaries and this has put him and Smith's ex in jeopardy.Smith returns home one day to find a hole dug on his property. As he's trying to figure out what was in the hole a group of soldiers arrives and take him prisoner while ransacking his house. They find remnants of explosives, what was in the hole, and arrest Smith, taking him to a facility where he is left in a large basement. And ex-schoolmate now an officer gives Smith two options: a formal trial where he will be found guilty and executed or he can plead guilty and leave the country forever. Smith is then being transported when he escapes and thinks he's found safe haven working at a motel under a new name. Then Bullen shows and tells him the motel is run by revolutionaries and gives him no choice but to follow instructions. A group of soldiers is coming to stay at the motel and Smith is to give a signal at a specified time. I'll stop here with the description since that's most of the movie.I truly had a hard time with this movie for so many reasons. I could set aside the look of the film, a grainy bland look in all things seen from cityscapes to country sides. But it was more than that I found difficult. The acting felt stilted and put on. The story itself felt disjointed at best and confusing at worst. Why does Smith's wife take up with this revolutionary? What about the kids? Why does Smith seem complacent about leaving? Is he being set up from day one or a victim of circumstance? Most of the movie provides questions rather than answers including the ending. I'm sure there is a market for the film and in looking at several sites have read reviews that were favorable for the movie. I can't bring myself to do so, even though I'm a fan of the star as well as director Roger Donaldson. I know this was Donaldson's first feature but still I couldn't get into it and found it difficult to watch. Completists will want to add this to their collection though.Arrow, true to their desire to offer the best presentation possible, is releasing this in a cleaned up blu-ray format. Extras include a commentary track with Donaldson, Neill and Mune, THE MAKING OF SLEEPING DOGS a 65 minute making of featurette, the theatrical trailer, a reversible sleeve with new artwork by Sean Phillips and for the first pressing only in illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Neil Mitchell, a contemporary review by Pauline Keal and the original press book.In the long run I'd say this is for fans and completists only.

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.

Based on the novel Smith's Dream by academic C. K. Stead, Sleeping Dogs is set in a totalitarian New Zealand. Smith moves to the country to escape trouble but is framed by the state as a terrorist.The rest of the film involves his attempts to avoid arrest and his eventual fate.Released in 1977, the film possessed a poignancy for New Zealanders, who at the time viewed the then Muldoon National Government with some suspicion. A scene involving riot police in an Auckland street was a chilling portent of events during the 1981 Springbok rugby tour to New Zealand, and indeed on its release in the USA, some Americans confused the film's images with media reports of the tour protests.Notable for Sam Neill's role as Smith, the movie started a late 1970s revival in the New Zealand film industry, including movies such as The Scarecrow, Skin Deep, and Smash Palace.