Vale Sam Neill: 5 Must-See Films

Cinema of Unease (1995) is Sam Neill’s personal journey through New Zealand cinema, drawing from his childhood and upbringing.

Neill toasts the country’s impressive filmmaking culture with his characteristic personability.

Highlights include his reflections on Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures and Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table. The latter “seemed miraculous…A masterpiece from our own place.”

Beautifully filmed by Alun Bollinger and scored by Don McGlashan, it’s a shame Neill never made a companion piece introducing Australian cinema. 

Death in Brunswick (1990) is one of the absolute classics of Melbourne cinema, black comedy at its best.

Neill’s Carl Fitzgerald is 34 but behaves like a teenager, and still lives at his conservative mother’s. He gets a gig as a cook at a dodgy Greek nightclub, and takes up with young barmaid Sophie (Zoe Carides). Like all true romantics, they believe the world is theirs.

Instead, they get caught up in bad business between Greek and Turkish criminals.

The dearly departed John Clarke is also hilarious as Carl’s best friend Dave, a gravedigger. Clarke and Neill’s rapport and affability shines.  

Neill is magnificent as Uncle Hec in Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Taika Waititi’s hilarious and heartfelt adventure.

The film— the highest-grossing New Zealand film at the local box office— follows Hec and his nephew Ricky Baker on the lam across the cinematic landscapes of the central North Island.

The dialogue zings: “Trees. Birds. Rivers. Sky. / Running with my Uncle Hec / Living forever.”

Beneath Hector’s curmudgeonly exterior is heart. Has there ever been a cooler Kiwi screen uncle? Pretty majestical, aye?

Everybody knows Jurassic Park, The Piano and Peaky Blinders. With over 150 screen credits, however, Neill did a bunch of strong smaller films (and series) which are underseen.

Rob Sitch’s The Dish and Gaylene Preston’s Perfect Strangers are two salient examples. Set on the wild West Coast, Perfect Strangers (2004) is a twisted romance, deftly using under-utilised locations.

As in Neill’s Possession and Dead Calm, he is a very engaging presence. 

Sam Neill’s dear friend John Clarke once gave me a memorable line about the Australian film industry’s fondness for him: “‘Can you get Sam Neill for it?’ But it’s a script about a 12-year-old girl.”

For almost 50 years, since My Brilliant Career (1979), Neill built an impressively varied and ubiquitous career through Australian cinema.

Warwick Thornton’s superb Sweet Country (2017) is a powerful western about justice. Neill portrays farmer and preacher Fred Smith. “We’re all equal in the eyes of the Lord,” Smith declares.

Powerfully acted and filmed, Sweet Country showcases Neill’s flair for period pieces. Off-screen, he was a supporter of Indigenous rights on both sides of the Tasman.