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Smash Palace
Film (Trailer and Excerpts) – 1981
Smash Palace is the classic film which launched director Roger Donaldson's international career. Al Shaw (a brilliant, brooding Bruno Lawrence) is a racing car driver who now runs a car wrecker's yard in the shadow of Mount Ruapehu. His wife Jacqui is unhappy there and leaves him, taking up with Al's best mate. When she restricts Al's access to his young daughter, his frustration explodes and he goes bush with the girl, desperate not to lose her too. Completed in a rush, the tale of a marriage breaking down was praised as "amazingly accomplished" by American critic Pauline Kael. Read more about Smash Palace here.
The film is so deeply imbued with a New Zealand atmosphere ... should be top ranked too because its story demands and gets so much more from its actors than most films dare to try for ... it's a a wrenching portrayal of a marriage breakdown.– Geoff Chapple, reviewing Smash Palace in The Listener, 16 January 1982, page 24
Key Cast & Crew
See all 34 credits
Produced by
Aardvark Films
Acknowledgements
Made with funding from the NZ Film Commission
More Information
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The cast & crew recall Smash Palace on its 30th anniversary, The NZ Herald, May 2011
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The original press kit for this film (scroll down), NZ Film Commission website
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Article on Horopito Motors, the film's main location, MTA website
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Interview with Horopito Motors' Michelle Fredricksen, TV Guide, August 2015
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Documentary on actor Bruno Lawrence
Coming Home - Roger Donaldson & Steve Millen
Features Smash Palace's director and stunt driver
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Gordonia
Real life drama from a wrecker’s yard
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Greer Robson’s follow-up role
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Another classic Bruno Lawrence role
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Documentary that includes Smash Palace
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Smash Palace features in this survey of NZ film
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Also stars Keith Aberdein
The Dominant Species
More car wrecks
Blerta Revisited
Featuring Bruno Lawrence
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Roger Donaldson film on Edmund Hillary in Fiordland
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Another tale of daughters and parents
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Short about divorce and kids
Everything We Loved
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She's Racing
More filmic car carcasses
Nutcase
Also directed by Roger Donaldson
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Another tale involving a child and a manhunt
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Also featuring Bruno Lawrence
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A Roger Donaldson-shot documentary on NZ hippy culture
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NZBC Classics - Wahine Disaster
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Bad Blood
A true life story of a 1941 manhunt
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Another hostage drama
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Roger Donaldson as a co-director
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