The New Zealand Film Archive

Reference Number
Film : F7935
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GOODBYE PORK PIE

Year
1981

  Production Company
AMA

  Country
NEW ZEALAND

Duration
1:45:00

  Category
Feature

   
"Pork Pie is the story of two young men who journey from Northland to Invercargill, pursued by police most of the way, in a very small yellow car. Their escapades grow to front-page proportions, and the reputation of the police hangs on their capture. En route, and hard up, the travellers sell off pieces of the car to finance their journey" - (Vernon Wright, "Goodbye Pork Pie, hello success", NZ Listener, February 7, 1981)

"In movieland's world of tinsel and superlatives, the term blockbuster can truly be applied to the film Goodbye Pork Pie which on Thursday became the first New Zealand film to make a box office gross of $1 million. That's more than twice the amount grossed by any other film made in this country. The success of Goodbye Pork Pie has sent our film industry into raptures. And understandably so. Nearly 500,000 people have seen it in this country. It has been sold to 26 overseas countries and the New Zealand Film Commission is negotiating with others" - ("Hello Success", Wanganui Chronicle, April 18, 1981)

"I enjoyed the film when I first saw it and still do. I think it has a warm feeling. I get genuinely involved in the build-up of the chase, even though when I see that scene with the mini humping up and down in the car yard I wonder how they got away with it, it's so sexist. You wouldn't get away with it now [...] As part of the promotion for the film Tony Barry and I were driven round the centre of Palmerston North in an open-topped white convertible, sitting on the top waving to the crowd. I was really embarrassed. All I'd done was five days in a film about nothing much. When I consider the creative input I've put into parenting, as most women have, I think we should all be carted around in white convertibles and cheered, but not for five days work in a movie" - (Shirley Gruar in, Barbara Cairns & Helen Martin, Shadows on the Wall - a study of seven New Zealand feature films, Auckland: Longman Paul, 1994, pp.57-58)

Watch the trailer for Goodbye Pork Pie


Credits
John: Tony Barry
Gerry: Kelly Johnson
Shirl: Claire Oberman
Sue: Shirley Gruar
Maureen: Maggie Maxwell
Rental Girl: Shirley Dunn
Kaitaia Policeman: Don Selwyn
Mulvaney: Bruno Lawrence
Phil: Stephen Tozer
Annette: Frances Edmond
Dad in Cafe: Ian Watkin
Murphey: Marshall Napier
Cromwell Car Wrecker: Bill Juliff
Snout: John Bach
Armed Offender Squad Officer: Michael Woolf

Director: Geoff Murphy
Producers: Nigel Hutchinson, Geoff Murphy
Screenplay: Geoff Murphy, Ian Mune
Photography: Alun Bollinger
EDITOR: MICHAEL HORTON
SOUND: DON REYNOLDS
Music: John Charles
CAMERA OPERATOR: GRAEME COWLEY
ART DIRECTORS: KAI HAWKINS, ROBIN OUTTERSIDE
STUNT DRIVER: PETRE ZIVKOVIC
SPECIAL EFFECTS: ANDY GRANT


Site/Shelf Location
Film Archive, Wellington Please See Staff