Don't Know Why I'm Wasting My Beer On You

I had been intending to get around to watching Sleeping Dogs properly for a considerable time. Having seen it in a media studies class two years ago and being fascinated by the subject matter, I thought that it would be interesting to view it, not only now that I am a film student at university but also because it could be considered somewhat topical given the current swathe of politics that we have been engulfed in as a result of the election. After much searching -- to no avail -- in the bargain bins of shops and on the shelves of video stores, I eventually had the massive brainwave that it would be in the university's AV library, and so off me and Mat went to see it.

Sleeping Dogs was directed by Roger Donaldson in 1977 and was the first New Zealand feature film to see release overseas, in the United States among some other less significant markets. Set in New Zealand, the story finds the character Smith, played by a very young Sam Neill in his first film role, leaving his family for the sake of a more simple life out on an island off the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. Simultaneously, furious anti-government "waterfront strikes" are taking place at the Viaduct Basin for not-precisely-specified reasons (most of the signs read things such as "Freedom from Racism" however). Soldiers are deployed in an apparent attempt to non-violently pacify the protestors. The unnamed but decidedly right-wing Prime Minister announces on One News -- brilliantly depicted with the actual theme music, logo and presenter of the time -- that if any measure of violence is inflicted upon the troops, then equal violence will be wrought on the protestors.


Shortly after this announcement, Special forces assemble in a nearby building and, dressed so as to make themselves appear to be part of the anti-government action, fire upon the soldiers in the back of an army truck who were at the time being shouted at by protestors and having placards shoved in their faces. This staged shooting serves to make it appear that the protestors have murdered a number of soldiers, and concurrent with the Prime Minister's promise gives the government an excuse to declare a state of virtual martial law in New Zealand, for the alleged purpose of dealing with "communists, subversives and other radicals," as well as to beat and murder anyone who is deemed to be a threat to the government. Great emphasis is placed by the Prime Minister on the importance that New Zealand finds economic progress, suggesting that he wishes individuals to be subjugated in favour of this. Deliciously seventies-looking billboards around the towns tout the slogan "Together. A Common Goal." Military dictatorship is put in place following a national referendum in which the people, apparently convinced that it was in the country's best interests, voted to give the government "total control." Subsequently, various anti-government guerilla groups are formed and a virtual revolution is taking place in New Zealand.

All the while, Smith in his state of hermitage is completely unaware of the events taking place back on the mainland. On his island he has constructed a life for himself, keeping possums off his vegetable patch with a shotgun "gifted" to him by the Maori tribesman from whom he was renting the land on the island. A large number of Special forces arrive on the island, and when Smith goes down to the shore to meet them he is immediately brutally arrested and thrown into the boat to be taken back to the mainland, where he will be kept in custody, despite the fact that he is completely innocent and as such totally unaware of why he is being arrested. The Specials come to discover a significant number of weapons and ammunition on Smith's island, which Smith himself knew nothing about. This results in him being put in the position where he may choose to either be executed or to confess all of the details of the revolutionary organisation, of which the government believes he is a part, in return for being sent into a state of exile and escaping the brutality that is taking place.

At the point where Smith escapes government custody through notably amusing means, the story really begins as Smith ends up being swept up in the anti-government movement, "running" a secret guerilla safehouse in a holiday park in Rotorua. The holiday park is visited by United States Army forces who are unsurprisingly in support of the New Zealand government, and Smith is charged with the task of perpetuating a charade that would indicate those based at the holiday park are not in fact revolutionaries. The real strong point of the film, however -- its political depth goes about as far as what I have explained -- is its period and Kiwi charm. A fitting first international release for New Zealand, it depicts the landscape wonderfully, with of course a considerable amount of the story line taking place in the Coromandel. It also captures the pure, seventies smalltown New Zealand culture that has all but withered away completely now in 2005, giving inclusion to the accents, attitudes, the cars, lifestyles, and even the slang of the time. This alone makes Sleeping Dogs worth seeing, and the political basis of the story provides an extra strong incentive.