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Smash Palace is a 1981 New Zealand Drama film/Thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson. The film chronicles Al, a retired race car driver (played by Bruno Lawrence) who runs "Smash Palace", a carwrecking yard in rural Manawatū-Whanganui, with his depressed French wife Jacqui (Anna Jemison) and their seven-year-old daughter Georgie (Greer Robson). After their turbulent marriage breaks down and Jacqui obtains a restraining order against him, Al kidnaps Georgie and descends into the forest.
Shot on location in the North Island Volcanic Plateau between February and May 1981, Smash Palace was the second feature film Donaldson directed. Lawrence contributed heavily to writing. The soundtrack was composed and performed by New Zealand-born singer Sharon O'Neill. Concerned that cultural cringe may result in an underwhelming box office performance, Donaldson decided to first release the film in Europe and the United States. Smash Palace premiered at Cannes in May 1981, barely four months after filming began. The film's subsequent American release was met with widespread critical acclaim for its performances, themes and cinematography. It was released theatrically in New Zealand in January 1982 and became a box office success.
Smash Palace is often cited by critics as one of the best films of 1981 and 1982. The film launched Donaldson's international career. The enthusiasm the film garnered in particular among American critics won him interest from Hollywood, and the chance to direct the first of a number of films financed outside of New Zealand, The Bounty. The film's eponymous wrecking yard is a real location that still exists today.
Jacqui becomes closer with Ray after attending a party with him and seeks out his advice on her worsening relationship with Al. Coming back home with Georgie one afternoon, Al finds Jacqui and Ray having a drink together and violently beats and rapes her. Jacqui leaves Al, taking Georgie with her. Jacqui subsequently takes up a job as a French teacher and continues her relationship with Ray.
Al cannot adjust to the separation and continuously makes efforts to see his daughter, but Jacqui denies him contact. After Al takes Georgie rabbit-shooting without telling Jacqui first, she files to issue a protection order against him. Jacqui goes to Tiny for advice. He becomes concerned with both parties, feeling that Al should have treated her better but that the restraining order is unnecessary and provocative.
Al plans to make a racing comeback, and Jacqui forbids Al from taking Georgie to the race. In response, he destroys part of Jacqui's house with his tow truck and is arrested. With Al making no effort to contest it, Jacqui's protection order goes through the court process. Al sets up a hideout deep in the bush, then kidnaps Georgie from Jacqui at gunpoint. He pushes his tow truck off a cliff into a river to create a diversion for police. The Armed Offenders Squad launch a manhunt and locate the truck but have no success.
Al and Georgie get reacquainted in their bush hideout. Georgie reminds her father that tomorrow is her birthday; he makes amends by baking her a pie decorated with household candles. After just a night, Georgie suddenly falls ill. Al drives into town and robs a pharmacy at gunpoint, where he is spotted by a patrolling police car. He takes Rose the pharmacist hostage and flees with her and Georgie back to Smash Palace.
Ray and Jacqui arrive at the hostage scene inside a large tool shed. Jacqui defies orders and runs through the cordon to reunite with her husband and daughter. There, she claims she still loves Al and proposes they sell the yard and move to Australia. Al reciprocates and hands over Georgie and agrees to let Rose go in exchange for Ray. When Ray enters the tool shed, Al traps him with a noose made of chicken wire he has tied to the end of the gun. He lets Rose go and forces Ray out to the garage and into Ray's green vintage Ford. Surrounded by police, Al drives Ray slowly through the wrecking yard and onto the nearby railway tracks in front of an approaching train in an apparent murder-suicide attempt. However, the train switches to the other track at the last minute, completely missing them. Al claims he knew that would happen, as he never would have destroyed a car he loves so much, and begins to laugh hysterically.
Bruno Lawrence made significant contributions to the film's script, working on writing sessions after shoots. One of the conditions of the film's eventual funding by the NZFC was that it be completed in time to screen at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. This forced a tight schedule on the production team, giving only four months between the commencement of the shoot and the film's premiere.
The film was released theatrically in New Zealand on 22 January 1982 in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and on 29 January 1982 in Hamilton, New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Dunedin. The film grossed NZD$600,000 at the local box office (approximately $2,700,000 in 2024). Donaldson later admitted he exaggerated to foreign distributors how much the film cost to make, inflating the budget to $1,000,000 out of fear it would not be taken seriously.
In New Zealand, Smash Palace has an R16 rating.
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