The Making of Smash Palace

Short Film (Full Length) – 2004

This documentary tells the story behind Smash Palace. The iconic 1981 drama had a shaky start; the NZ Film Commission found an early draft "too personal". Cast and crew share stories from the central North Island set and recall Donaldson's improvisational approach, while director Geoff Murphy admires Donaldson's team building skills. Donaldson's casting proved crucial to the film's success: actors Greer Robson, Keith Aberdein and Anna Maria Monticelli all come in for praise. As for the part of tormented car yard owner Al Shaw, the "fearless" Bruno Lawrence was Donaldson's only choice.

One of the things that I felt about a car wrecking yard as being sort of symbolic of the sort of the pain of this story, is that every one of these cars wrecked by the side of the road is somebody's dream that has come to an end; you know somebody's got hurt in these cars, or somebody's life savings have gone down the drain. If you're looking for a symbol of relationships under crisis and a story that had a lot of tension to it then you couldn't set it in a better place than somewhere like this.
– Director Roger Donaldson on the Horopito Motors car yard, the setting for Smash Palace