OUT OF THE BLUE

New Zealand, 2006, 103 minutes, Colour.
Karl Urban, Matthew Sunderland, Lois Lawn, Simon Ferry.
Directed by Robert Sarkies.

Out of the Blue seems a rather quiet title with a suggestion of some surprise. This is how the opening of the film works, a leisurely look at a small New Zealand town near Dunedin which wakes up one November morning in 1990. There is a glimpse of a cross-section of people doing very ordinary things, breakfast, getting ready for work, kids going to school. Most audiences can identify with this kind of day.

One of the characters glimpsed seems a little odd. David Grey is a loner, living in an isolated house, with many books, some guns and military magazines. The film follows him going into the city by bike and bus, with some taunts from the kids in the school bus. He goes to the bank and, on being asked to pay an extra charge, he erupts and storms out. He checks on a gun he has put aside to buy later and returns home.

Later that morning, he is confronted by a neighbour and he explodes, shooting the man, his wife and some children. A siege begins which lasts all the day, through the night and is only resolved with Grey’s death the next morning.

There are suggestions about what made Grey the way he was, living along, preoccupied with guns and military magazines, edgy in his mental illness. His behaviour is unpredictable, firing shots yet quietly entering a house and sleeping the night there.

What impresses about the film and its treatment of the terrible events is that it does not glamourise them in any way. People are frightened and uncertain about what is happening and what to do. The police are doing their best but have to work out strategies for something they have never anticipated. They are fearful, sometimes hesitant, but courageous. Wounded people are stranded. An old woman is trapped in her home but keeps in touch by phone.

The media also descend on the town.

Editing and pace are just right to make this a tribute to those involved, a memorial for those who have died. (In the 1980s two other films about murderous outbreaks in New Zealand were made, Bad Blood and Beyond Reasonable Doubt.)

1.The impact of the film? Memoir? Tribute? The true story, using the actual locations? The collaboration of the characters in the making of the film? Their approval? A glimpse into the New Zealand psyche?

2.The South Island locations, the town, the bay, homes, streets, the police precinct, the hospital, going into Dunedin? An authentic feel of New Zealand? The musical score?

3.The title, David Malcolm Gray's action out of the blue?

4.The leisurely introduction to the town and the people, the day and the date, the family waking, the killer and his home, books? The children, the police, the mother and her plans? Jimmy and his care for his mother? Mundane, detailed, ordinary, a collage, audiences able to identify with the place, the people, the situation?

5.David Gray, alone, his house, the books, the desk, guns? His lifestyle? His going to town, the bike, passing Jimmy, the schoolkids taunting him? The loner, on the outer? Going into the city, the bank, his eruption over the bank charge, talking about his family, his anger, going to check on the gun that he was to buy? The return? His mental illness?

6.The family and the man on the property, their life, characters, ordinary? An ordinary day? With Gray, Gray shooting him, shooting the children? The woman lying on the ground - her survival for the day but her eventual death?

7.Gray, firing, his targets, putting on camouflage, going outside, wary, random shots, killing the man at the phone booth, circling the house, hiding and sleeping in the house?

8.The mother, her little girl, taking her to the hospital, the other dead girl, her grief?

9.Jimmy's mother, her home, the detail, the knick-knacks (and Gray later looking at all of these)? Going out, the man shot, her talking to him, climbing through the ditch, into the house, the phone calls to the police, the ambulance, her hiding, the phone calls to her, the fridge, Gray in the house, her surviving, the death of her son?

10.The old couple, walking down the street? The man shot at the phone booth, his lingering during the day, talking with Helen, the ambulance coming too late?

11.The picture of the police, Stu, a good man in charge, the respect of his police, Nick, arriving for work, reading, the detail of work, his going home, his wife, family, working on the roof? The other police and their being called in? The time taken to travel to the scene of the crime?

12.The media, following, watching, photographing, the news on television?

13.The police, their fears, uncertainties, courage, the broken equipment, trying to keep contact, making judgments, Stu and his enterprise, his being killed? The dead woman? Nick, his character, with Stu, with his associate? Having Gray in his sights, hesitating, missing the opportunity? The effect on him? Talking with his partner? Collecting the dead, the children on the truck?

14.The confrontation with Gray, his death?

15.The aftermath of the episode, the effect on New Zealand consciousness?

16.The film revisiting real events, a tribute to the people concerned, realism and unexpected violence in ordinary situations?