Bad Blood (1982)

During World War 2, a farmer in New Zealand murders seven people, and the police, along with local Maori trackers, hunt him in the bush country.

Director:

Mike Newell

Writers:

Andrew Brown, Howard Willis (novel)

Stars:

Jack Thompson, Carol Burns, Denis Lill

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jack Thompson	...	Stan Graham
Carol Burns	...	Dorothy Graham
Denis Lill	...	Ted Best
Donna Akersten	...	Doreen Bond
Martyn Sanderson	...	Les North
Marshall Napier	...	Trev Bond
Ken Blackburn	...	Tommo Robson
John Bach	...	Bert Cropp
John Banas	...	Macko Hager
John Black	...	Greg Hutchison
Karl Bradley	...	Maxi Coulson
Greg Naughton	...	Anker Madsen
Alan Jervis Wilks	...	Ralph Frederic (as Alan Jervis)
Grant Edgar	...	Colin Howatt
Pat Evison	...	Dulcie Lindsay

Storyline

During World War 2, a farmer in New Zealand murders seven people, and the police, along with local Maori trackers, hunt him in the bush country.

---

Plot Keywords:

new zealand | independent film | based on true story

---

Taglines:

They could try to take his guns ... from his cold dead hands!

---

Genres:

Drama | Thriller

---

Details

Country:

New Zealand UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 April 1983 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Böses Blut

Filming Locations:

New Zealand

Company Credits

Production Co:

Southern Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was shot in the Kokatahi-Kowhitirangi Valley, where Stanley Graham and his family did actually live and where all the events occurred (shootings, manhunt). There is a memorial to the victims of Stan Graham at the location of his house. The house has been demolished.

---

Connections

Featured in Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill (1995)

User Reviews

One of the great performances of the 1980s

Before Lord of the Rings came along, most New Zealand films acted as keep out notices to tourists: Utu, Shaker Run, Goodbye Pork Pie, Tongan Ninja all paint it as either constantly raining or just about to. Bad Blood is no exception – it's all too easy to see why the place drives Jack Thompson's grouchy and paranoid farmer mad enough to kill several policemen when they come to take his gun for the war effort in this true story about New Zealand's biggest manhunt back in 1942.

Almost completely forgotten and barely seen even on its first release in 1981, it's a powerful and convincing drama that's more concerned with character than action. There's always a tendency to romanticise in this kind of film, but this makes no excuses and presents its pair of well-matched outsiders as pathetic but human - these are the kind of unglamourous, none too bright people most Bonnie and Clydes are rather than the movie image, probably the reason the film was so little seen. Thompson's Stan Graham isn't demonised or caricatured: while he's unable to cope with outsiders, he's genuinely happy when left alone with his family (there's a beautiful scene where he and his wife dance to the faintly heard music of a dance across the road). It's a remarkable performance from Thompson, resisting any temptation to go over the top or add bluster to the role, instead opting for restraint and confusion and misdirected anger, and he's well matched by Carol Burns as his equally unstable wife.

Well worth making the effort to track down, this only appears to be available on an Australian DVD that comes with a brief interview with Thompson at the moment.