Bad Blood.

Stanley Graham, his wife Dorothy and their two children lived on New Zealand’s South Island in a wee town called Kowhitirangi where they worked a small farm. Around about 1938 Stanley and his wife were convinced that the local people were poisoning their beasts. When the income from the farm plummeted the family fell into debt and their relationship with the neighbours deteriorated. Convinced that their bad luck was due to the town folk the couple started to threaten and abuse people who happened to pass their property. Target shooting late at night, the fact that they had an assortment of lethal weapons in the house and that Stanley was an expert marksman did not make their association with the local people any less tense. In 1941 the police started to collect firearms from the inhabitants for wartime use. It was during the dispute over weapons that Graham began his chain of killings and went into hiding in the bush. 

 

Jack Thompson's convincing portrayal of Stanley Graham.

The depiction of these events was the subject of Mike Newell’s 1982 New Zealand/UK feature film Bad Blood, which was based on the book Manhunt – The Story of Stanley Graham and adapted for the screen by Andrew Brown. This is an exceptionally well-made film that conveys the historical context of the period and communicates the social realities found in these small insular communities. Even after witnessing the brutal and unnecessary killings you can’t help but empathise with Stanley Graham who, along with his wife, had obvious metal problems brought on by a persecution complex. The outstanding nature of the movie is underscored by the quality of the acting and not just the great Australian actor Jack Thomson who plays Graham with just the right amount of understatement but Carol Burns. Burns, who had honed her skills in the theatre a good ten years before acting in film and in TV play’s, give’s a more than credible performance as Stanley’s devoted wife and accomplice Dorothy.  Denis Lill plays Constable Edward Best, a familiar face at one time on British TV. The other plus with this film is that it was made and shot in the actual locations where the carnage took place.

The memorial to the victims of Stanley Graham. 

Great Expectations 2012.

The Author.

The only problem with Charles Dickens TV and film adaptations is that the stories have become very familiar over the years. Great Expectations (2012) is certainly no exception with something in the region of sixteen versions to date starting with a silent feature film in 1917. The most celebrated film adaptation has to be the 1946 version directed by David Lean, which all other adaptations have to aspire to. It stared John Mills as Pip, Finlay Currie as Magwitch, Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Jean Simmons as the young Estella and Valerie Hobson as the adult Estella. But to be fair the last television version shown as a three part BBC mini-series in December 2011 was also outstanding featuring Ray Winstone as Magwitch and an excellent Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham.

Pip meets Magwitch for the first time.

Mike Newell’s 2012 film adaptation of this Victorian coming of age drama makes up for the familiarity with an absolute cracking cast with Pip played by two brothers, the younger incarnation played by Toby Irvine and the older one played by Jeremy Irvine last seen in the saccharine coated sanitised period piece Warhorse (2011), Helena Bonham Carter gives her creepy best as Miss Havisham with Holliday Granger as the grown up Estella. Magwitch is on this occasion played, with all his normal Shakespearean relish, by Ralph Fiennes, even the smaller parts are portrayed by well known British thespians like Robbie Coltrane, Sally Hawkins and Jason Flemyng, with a great cameo from David Walliams as Mr. Publechook, Joe Gargery’s uncle. The casting director is Susie Figgis whose name you would have seen in many closing credits including Harry Potter.  David Nichols (And When Did You Last See Your Father 2007) wrote the screenplay and the cinematography is in the experienced hands of John Mathieson. All in all a very acceptable and attractive adaptation of the novel, but lets hope we get a reasonable break before the next reworking.  

Pip gives Estella his best chat up line. 

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Dastan Prince of Persia.

As if remakes in general aren’t bad enough what about a remake of a 2003 video game? Shot on location in Morocco and at Pinewood studios. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2010) is set in the sixth century and is about a magical dagger with powers to turn back time and of course if it fell into the wrong hands could evoke world shattering chaos!!! The villain of the piece is the Persian Kings brother, played with some style by Sir Ben Kingsley. Using all the standard text book villainy he gets hold of the dagger which is known as the Sands of Time. The only person capable of defeating this tyrant and saving the world is the Kings adopted son Dastan assisted by the plucky Princess Tamina.

The two main leads, Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton, are totally unconvincing as Dastan and his eastern princess who is lacking even the slightest hint of a suntan! It’s a cross between a very bad remake of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Spider Man’s outtakes. Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2005) directs this tolerably entertaining swashbuckler, but don’t expect any real substance or depth.