Out of the Blue
by Robert Sarkies
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Karl Urban, Lois Lawn, Matthew Sunderland, Simon Ferry, Tandi WrightDirector: Robert Sarkies
Brand: Genius
Cinematographer: Greig Fraser
Writer: Robert Sarkies
Producer: Steven O'Meagher
Producer: Tim White
Producer: Timothy White
Writer: Bill O'Brien
Writer: Graeme Tetley
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-06-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 81081
Studio: Ifc
Movie Reviews of Out of the Blue
Movie Review: Astonishingly powerful
Summary: 5 Stars
Released completely under the radar 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 handheld 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 handheld 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.
The DVD comes with an excellent selection of extras on both the real tragedy and the making of the film. Highly recommended.
Summary of Out of the Blue
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