Out of the Blue (2006)

Director:

Robert Sarkies

Writers:

Bill O'Brien (book)
Robert Sarkies (writer)

Release Date:

12 October 2006 (New Zealand)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

From the last place on earth comes a true story of courage and survival.

Plot:

Based on the Aramoana Massacre that occurred on 13 November and 14 November 1990. Resident David Gray, an unemployed gun collector, went on a rampage in which 13 people were shot dead, before Gray himself was shot by police.

Awards:

6 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Karl Urban	...	Nick Harvey
Matthew Sunderland	...	David Gray
Lois Lawn	...	Helen Dickson
Simon Ferry	...	Garry Holden
Tandi Wright	...	Julie-Anne Bryson
Paul Glover	...	Paul Knox
William Kircher	...	Stu Guthrie
Georgia Fabish	...	Chiquita Holden
Fayth Rasmussen	...	Stacey Percy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Timothy Bartlett	...	Jimmy Dickson
Tony Bishop	...	Ross Percy
Baxter Cannell	...	Dion Percy
Murray Davidson	...	Bank Manager
Dave Dudfield	...	AOS / ATS Officer
Nick Duval-Smith	...	Brian Wilson
Natalie Ellis	...	Dorothy Crimp
Fatu Ioane	...	Aleki Tali
Brenda Kendall	...	Garry Holden's Mother
Richard Knowles	...	Rene Aarsen
Thomas Lee-Batley	...	Leo Wilson
Finn Liddell	...	Jordan Harvey
Stuart Mathieson	...	Vic Crimp
Dra McKay	...	Heather Dickson
Steven Moore	...	Ron Braithwaite
Ryan O'Kane	...	Darren Buist
Patrick Paynter	...	Tim Jamieson
Bruce Phillips	...	Chris Cole
Vaughan Slinn	...	Russell Anderson
Phoebe Smith	...	Jenny Austin
Vanessa Stacey	...	Vanessa Percy
Claire Waldron	...	Fiona Harvey
Kerrie Waterworth	...	Bank Teller
Jacinta Wawatai	...	Rewa Bryson
Richard West	...	Warren Wilson
Michael Whalley	...	Darren Gibbs
Danaka Wheeler	...	Jasmine Holden
Ashley Wilson	...	Gunshop Owner

Also Known As:

Aramoana (New Zealand: English title) (working title)

Runtime:

103 min | Canada:100 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

New Zealand

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

New Zealand:R15 | Germany:16 | Australia:MA | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Otago, New Zealand

Company:

Condor Films

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the town scene, a Chrysler PT Cruiser is clearly visible. This vehicle was manufactured from 2001.

Astonishingly powerful

Released completely under the radar in the UK and only grossing a truly pitiful $728 in its one US engagement, Robert Sarkies' Out of the Blue is one of the most cruelly overlooked films of recent years. The material doesn't sound too promising – a true story about a eccentric loaner in the ramshackle New Zealand coastal town of Aramoana who went on a 22-hour shooting rampage and killed 13 people, including four children, in 1990. The crime was all the more shocking in a country with such a low crime rate: this was the sort of thing that happened in other countries. (Their previous worst mass murderer had been Stan Graham, who murdered seven people in 1942, the subject of 1991's excellent and similarly underseen Bad Blood).

The potential for exploitation or cheap TV movie of the week dramatics was certainly there, yet the film is made with such understated sincerity, putting the focus firmly on the victims and the community – not just Karl Urban's smalltown cop completely out of his depth as he's unable to help people he knows and loves but also unlikely real-life heroine in 72-year old Helen Dickson, who dragged herself back and forth through a ditch to bring help and comfort to one of the victims. It's the sheer ordinariness of how they cope that is so devastating. The performances are all naturalistic and utterly convincing, only adding to the power in a quietly heartbreaking scene in the back of a police car where Karl Urban's cop whispers a bedtime story to a wounded child as his partner blankly holds a dead child in his arms.

As a sidenote, it's interesting how much of the film works as a (presumably unintentional) critique of Paul Greengrass' cheapjack technique. There's an interesting use of sound design that occasionally briefly removes elements from the soundtrack to create a sense that something isn't quite right and an intelligent use of hand-held camera from Greig Fraser that doesn't equate slipping in and out of focus and constantly missing the action with veracity Paul Greengrass style but uses it much more subtly. While the townspeople and cops are shot with a hand-held camera as if it were mounted on a tripod or a dolly to give an understated slight vitality rather than advertise itself, the killer is mostly shot from a tripod in relatively static takes subtly setting him apart from the community he ultimately turns on. It's not about drawing attention to the technique (and by proxy the director) but putting you into the film, the style all but invisible and in the service of the story and the characters. Nor does Sarkies feel the need to demonise any of the victims (as Greengrass did in United 93 to a German passenger whose family chose not to co-operate with his film) to add some cheap fictional drama and conflict to make the film 'play' better: this isn't about producing a quick sugar rush at any cost, it's about ordinary, mundane human beings suddenly finding themselves thrown into a overwhelming situation they have no control over and its very real power comes from it's determination not to oversensationalize.