Actors playing shot policemen, who had to lie on the floor in pools of blood for long periods of time, to relieve the boredom, would sing and whistle the Monty Python song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", which had been at the time recently popularized in the movie Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979).
Lead actor Jack Thompson spent a considerable amount of time alone during principal photography, particularly between takes, where he would walk off to be by himself. This was part of his actor's process as the role he was playing was a character who was a loner who lived in semi-self-imposed isolation with his wife.
The film was shot in the Kokatahi-Kowhitirangi Valley, where Stanley Graham and his family did actually live and where all the events occurred (shootings, manhunt). There is a memorial to the victims of Stan Graham at the location of his house which has been demolished.
First New Zealand film of actor Jack Thompson who would go on to make a second consecutive back-to-back Kiwi co-production when he then next also appeared in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983).
The period of time that the manhunt went for was twelve days.
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