“An isolated valley on New Zealand's South Island is the setting for the bizarre but true incidents of Bad Blood. In 1941, a contentious backwoods farmer gunned down four peace-making gendarmes and set off the largest manhunt in New Zealand history. Thirteen days later, Stanley Graham had left seven dead men and a muddled legend. Though a local man from a well-established family, the high-strung, gun-crazy Graham (Jack Thompson of Breaker Morant) sets himself outside of his close-knit community by marrying a city woman, (Carol Burns), and, later, with his family, enjoying target practice in the moonlight. When the neighbors finally call in the police, Graham erupts into violence, escaping into the jungle for a hide-and-seek manhunt that is to have international repercussions. For, while Graham defies the Kiwi Home Force, Nazi propagandist Lord Haw-Haw suggests an Axis invasion by announcing that the Fuhrer himself has sent a telegram: ‘Hold the South Island. Sending another man to take the North.' Filming at the actual location, director Mike Newell and cinematographer Gary Hansen have cast the rough lush landscape as an active character.” Sally Syberg
Selected for Filmex '83.