Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the Aramoana tragedy, 11 Oct 2009
The first thing to say is that this is more of a docudrama than a film. The second thing is that it is based on real life events that happened in the small town of Aramoana, New Zealand, in November of 1990.
On 13 November 1990 David Gray (Matthew Sunderland) picked up his weapons and, walking around the small costal community shot everyone he could see - men, women and children. For 22 hours he terrorised the local area. Why he did this no one will ever know as he was eventually shot dead by the police. The reason suggested by the film maker is a form of paranoid schizophrenia, with the final breakdown starting with problems at the bank and culminating with him chasing a child of "his land". He first picked up his rifle when the child's father approached the house to find out what the problem was - he was the first to die.
By the end of his rampage he had murdered 13 people (from the age of 5 to 70) and wounded many others. Nine police officers received awards and commendations. Sergeant Stewart Guthrie (William Kircher) received a posthumous George Cross. Mrs Helen Dickson (Lois Lawn), aged 73, received the George Medal for "great bravery". Mrs Dickson (who had undergone hip replacement surgery and walked with sticks) repeatedly crawled back and forth to a wounded neighbour and to the phone to call for help.
Nick Harvey (Karl Urban) was one of the local policemen and most of what happens after the rampage is seen from his point of view, though several incidents which occurred to a number of different officers have been amalgamated into this one persons view for ease of movie making. Nevertheless, it is amazing and horrifying to think that anyone could have lived though a single one of these events. Urban (to his credit) plays Officer Harvey as the ordinary family man who is forced into a situation which he doesn't want be in (just as he was in real life). Thankfully, the actor and film makers were resistant to the usual Hollywood influence to make him larger than life.
The cast and crew interviews are telling: Karl Urban is obviously affected by what had happened and the enactment.
Other extras include audio commentary, two featurettes ("Tragedy" and "Honouring Aramoana"), cast and crew interviews, and original news footage.
I watched the film first and then the commentary which includes Aramoana police officer Billl O'Brien (the writer of the book the film is based on), who had interviews with the survivors) from Aramoana who was involved in the hunt for Gray and the rescue of the injured - and it is this that has more impact than the film itself. It is something I would like to be able to play for my students.
This film was made with a great deal of respect for the people and events it portrays, no big budget flashy scenes, no wise-cracks, no romanticising - just a straight telling of the survivors stories - which may be why this amazing film never received the acknowledgement it should have.
There are no subtitles on the copy that I have.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Harrowing Recreation of the Aramoana Massacre, 14 April 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
On the 13th November 1990, David Gray, a resident of the small New Zealand town of Aramoana, went on the rampage with an assault rifle and murdered 13 people. It is the worst such atrocity in the history of the country, and Out of the Blue is the cinematic take on events.
This is a very well made film, spending the first half showing town life and the various people involved. You see the daily routines of these people and a good effort is made to give them some backstory. Throughout, there is an impending sense of dread.
David Gray himself is a loner and a man who appears to generally keep to himself. The movie does not attempt to explain his actions, it merely presents the events and leaves the viewer to come to their own conclusions, although the excellent special features (actual news reports, interviews, making of, etc.) fill in some gaps.
Eventually, something inside him snaps over the tiniest little incident and he shoots dead his next door neighbour and then sets fire to his house. From that point on, Gray kills without remorse in a matter-of-fact, practical manner a million miles from the deranged psycho of the typical Hollywood murder thriller. Gray is never outright demonised, he just does what he does due to some built-in rage that makes events all the more chilling.
For the next few hours the local police struggle heroically to bring the situation under control until armed response units can reach the scene. These men, as well as some of the townsfolk, are portrayed as incredibly brave as they deal with such an unexpected situation. The killings are random as Gray moves through the town: men, women, children all fall in his path. It is harrowing and at times hard to watch. But then there are acts of heroism, particularly on the part of some of the police and one old lady pensioner, that are astonishing in their own right.
Out of the Blue is beautifully shot and the performances are generally excellent. It is a (very) slow moving film and almost overplays the obvious dread leading up to the massacre as it is stretched very taut, but gets away with it. My one criticism of the film would be the volume of dialogue, mumbling is often the order of the day and it's a bit of a strain. Although in fairness, probably realistic.
The film is at once a tragic but also deeply moving recreation of actual events which whilst causing discomfort at the brutality of it all also shows the strength of human sprit. It doesn't try to answer the many questions it poses, and is all the better for it. A remarkable achievement.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Realistic, violent drama. Beautiful filming; subdued impact, 29 Mar 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Out Of The Blue is one of those puzzling films which fulfils just about every aspect of its brief, but leaves the viewer thinking 'yes? and?' at the end of it.
The acting performances are superb and the direction is deft and clever. The naturalistic soundtrack enhances the stripped-down realism of the ghastly events. The location is stunningly beautiful and is filmed sympathetically, to make the tranquility and normality of the surroundings contrast all the more violently with the killer's rampage. The characters are developed over the first half hour to become credible representations of the actual people who endured (or died) in a small seaside town in New Zealand, back in 1990. The film is packed with neat touches which turn the characters into real people: the bickering about turning down a stereo (and turning it up instead); the senior policeman lumbering his junior with all the report writing; the couple who want to start living together but don't quite know how to tell their children... it all adds up to perfectly normal village life -- which is ripped apart when a man loses control, grabs his guns and starts shooting.
The killing and stalking scenes which follow are utterly unlike any thriller / horror / action movie. The killer is not viewed in a sympathetic light, but he's not made into a monster either. Nor are his actions explained. We see some of the incidents which may have pushed him over the edge, but the film itself offers little in the way of resolution or explanation.
The 'heroes' of Out of The Blue are the people who have to deal with sudden and deathly violence in their midst, from someone they all knew was a bit weird but had tolerated for his whole life. Maybe that's why the local police officers, at the crucial moment, find themselves unable to pull the trigger?
Scattered throughout the film are small acts of personal bravery -- neighbours who bring a cover to a man who has been shot (and without it he'd have died of exposure). A little old lady with a broken hip who crawls to phone for help. An officer who puts himself at risk to comfort and protect a child. And so on.
Some of the dialogue can be very hard to hear at time -- in the circumstances the actors are whispering, or out of breath, and their accents are hard to decipher at low volumes. But overall this is a polished and carefully considered film. It aims to relate what happened in a fatal group shooting, and makes very few judgements.
Maybe that's why, in the end, I came away feeling somewhat disatisfied. I generally enjoy being left to think things out for myself, but in this instance I could've done with a conclusion or some interpretation. The director and producers deliberately tried not to colour this film with overt opinions -- and perhaps they made it too tightly-laced as a result.
7/10
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