Dagg Day Afternoon

I think the film's a cracker, I think it's a beauty, I'm very happy with it. With any luck and a good tail wind, it'll be a boomer.

– John Clarke talks up Dagg Day Afternoon, The Listener, 28 May 1977

Now the government has come to us. Well aware they are of our reputation in sheep and related matters — which of course is other sheep. And quite a lot rests on our shoulders, not so much on yours Trev, but on the rest of us a fairly weighty burden.

– Fred Dagg (John Clarke) gathers the Trevors to talk about a matter of national security

Now look here: don't randy birds with me, bandy words with me my good man. I tell you I'm trying to conduct a military exercise out here, and I don't need long-haired louts like you coming up here and mucking it all up.

– A pompous army officer (Derek Payne) bandies words with Fred Dagg

...Dagg's the name, Taihape's the place.

– Fred Dagg (John Clarke) introduces himself to the prime minister on the phone

It's more or less obligatory to see this film ... it shows what could happen, and in fact what did happen, when certain stalwart citizens stepped in and saved the country ... it didn't make the papers at the time because of course it was secret ... and we pulled it off with our customary dash and class ... I don't think that's too big a phrase to put on it.

– John Clarke on Dagg Day Afternoon, The Listener, 28 May 1977

When I'm working with an actor and a script, I don't spell out what I want, I let him have a bash at it. I mostly find he offers things that have never occurred to me. But with John Clarke, he starts into it and you realise you've got another five minutes of material. We kept shooting until we ran out of film stock.

– Co-director Geoff Murphy on working with John Clarke on Dagg Day Afternoon, The Listener, 28 May 1977

None of us got paid for it, but at least the project was able to pay its bills. And of course for quite a lot of people it was their first film experience ... at that time in New Zealand if you didn't do it yourself, it didn't happen.

– John Clarke in his ScreenTalk interview A bit of a Dagg, 9 March 2011

Within a year of this film going on we should see people like Barbra Streisand, Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson coming out and having a pretty close took at Taihape as a backdrop to making films here. It should put New Zealand on the map as a major film-producing country.

– John Clarke on the importance of Dagg Day Afternoon, The Listener, 28 May 1977