Smash Palace

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

Graeme Cowley

Cinematographer

Keith Aberdein

As: Ray Foley

Greer Robson-Kirk

As: Georgie Shaw

Mike Horton

Editor

Bruno Lawrence

As: Al Shaw, Script Advisor

Roger Donaldson

Director, Writer, Producer