Smash Palace (1981)

[MifuneFan]

Arrow Academy will be releasing the New Zealand film Smash Palace (1981) on May 29th.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition (Blu-ray) presentation
• Original mono audio (uncompressed LPCM)
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Commentary by writer-director Roger Donaldson and stunt driver Steve Millen
• The Making of Smash Palace, a 51-minute documentary on the film’s production featuring interviews with Donaldson, actor Keith Aberdein, filmmaker Geoff Murphy and others
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Ian Barr, a contemporary review by Pauline Kael and the original press book

Premiering at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, Smash Palace was the second feature of Roger Donaldson following the success of Sleeping Dogs, a film which had heralded the arrival of the New Zealand New Wave.

Smash Palace concerns itself with the marriage of former racing driver Al (Bruno Lawrence, The Quiet Earth) and French-born Jacqui (Anna Jemison, Nomads). The pair had met when she nursed him back to health following a career-ending injury. They married, returned to Al’s native New Zealand to take over his late father’s wrecking yard business – the Smash Palace of the title – and had a child. But over time stagnation has set in, Jacqui’s resentment of Al has grown, and things are threatening to spill over…

Playing out as a darker, more haunting New Zealand variation on such US separation movies as Kramer vs. Kramer or Shoot the Moon, Smash Palace offers a brilliant, vivid messy portrait of masculinity in crisis, driven by Lawrence’s immense central performance – once again confirming his status as one of New Zealand’s finest actors.

Smash Palace (Roger Donaldson, 1981) trailer - YouTube

[Hoke Moseley]

Great news. Been wanting to see this for a while.

[LordCrumb]

Originally Posted by Armchair NZ

I still haven't seen this. Or Sleeping Dogs. Been wanting to check both out for ages though. Great to see this one finally being released, I believe the DVD is long OOP. (Went looking around for it several months ago and didn't have any success.)

so this is very welcome news, always great to see more NZ movies making it to Blu-ray

Dude you'll love this and Sleeping Dogs. Absolute classics and yet to be beaten imo.

[Scottie]

Pre-order

[CQD84]

I'm interested in checking this out. It comes out next week and Amazon still has it up for almost $40. Yikes.

[cash_black]

Have not seen this since I was a kid, I would definitely rewatch before think of buying.. from memory it is not blind-buy material

[Monterey Jack]

HULK SMASH PALACE...!!!

[Alfred E. Neumann]

Stunning cinematography and restoration. Looks like a brand new movie.

[MifuneFan]

DVDbeaver states that it looks a little waxy, and It does look a little bit more cleaned up than I would expect. I think the New England Film Commission went a little too heavy-handed with the DNR during their digital restoration.

Look at this shot for instance, grain is just about scrubbed away.

[Show spoiler]

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

DVDbeaver states that it looks a little waxy, and It does look a little bit more cleaned up than I would expect. I think the New England Film Commission went a little too heavy-handed with the DNR during their digital restoration.

Look at this shot for instance, grain is just about scrubbed away.

[Show spoiler]

The Blu-ray transfer definitely has some DNR or some form of degraining added. If you watch the documentary also on the disc, the various scenes taken from the film there do show a lot of grain. If you watch those same scenes in the actual movie on the disc... very little natural grain, if any.

The review on here states "Grain looks natural throughout the presentation" – which I wouldn't agree with at all.

The DNR isn't a disaster though, as there is still some good visible detail to be seen. But yeah, they probably should have toned it down a few notches.

[The Great Owl]

I ordered Smash Palace and Sleeping Dogs.

[Peter_A]

Originally Posted by Katatonia

The Blu-ray transfer definitely has some DNR or some form of degraining added. If you watch the documentary also on the disc, the various scenes taken from the film there do show a lot of grain. If you watch those same scenes in the actual movie on the disc... very little natural grain, if any.

The review on here states "Grain looks natural throughout the presentation" – which I wouldn't agree with at all.

The DNR isn't a disaster though, as there is still some good visible detail to be seen. But yeah, they probably should have toned it down a few notches.

I couldn't agree more. I have no idea how the reviewer can state "Grain looks natural throughout the presentation," after watching this. The grain is all but scrubbed away, leaving a fairly "waxy" and smoothed-over image. I've certainly seen worse, but this would have looked much better without the heavy-handed DNR.