True story set in a farming community in New Zealand during WW2 where the government decrees that all firearms must be collected by the police. However when the police approach increasingly paranoid, broke and struggling to keep his family fed Stan Graham's (Jack Thompson) he refuses to hand his weapon over and ends up killing seven people including a number of policemen. He is then subject to one of the biggest manhunt's in New Zealand's history.
Whilst certainly gritty and brutal with Stan depicted as a simple, but ruthless killer, you do feel a degree of sympathy for him and his wife as they are left with nothing and facing a bleak future. The local townsfolk are none too bright either, generally disliking the family and treating the hunt as a giant jolly never seemingly understanding what they have on their hands. The case became a considerable cause celebre and political hot potato in New Zealand as in some parts Stan was viewed as a hero in such socially troubling times. Quite excellent performances from Thompson and Carol Burns as his supportive but equally crazed wife, this is now rightly seen as a New Zealand classic.
