Sam Neill Movies
One of the most famous film personalities to hail from the South Pacific, New Zealand-bred actor Sam Neill possesses the kind of reassuring handsomeness and soft-spoken strength that have made him an ideal leading man. Born Nigel Neill to a military family in Omagh, Northern Ireland, Neill relocated to New Zealand in 1953 at the age of six. There he picked up the nickname that would become his stage name, and attended both the University of Canterbury and the University of Victoria before beginning his acting career. Neill labored as a director/editor/screenwriter for the New Zealand National Film Unit for several years; he made his first movie in 1975 and scored his first significant film success four years later as the romantic lead opposite Judy Davis in director Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career. Shortly thereafter, Neill was brought to England under the sponsorship of star James Mason (who undoubtedly recognized the marked similarity between his acting style and Neill's).The actor's subsequent movie work included two memorable collaborations with actress Meryl Streep and director Fred Schepisi: Plenty (1985) and A Cry in the Dark (1988). Neill's British TV credits were highlighted by his starring role in the unorthodox espionage drama Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983), for which he won the British television BAFTA Best Actor award. He also began working on American films during the '80s, including the 1981 Omen sequel The Final Conflict (in which he demonstrated a considerable breadth of range as Satan's son Damien) and the 1987 TV miniseries Amerika. Neill also kept busy with projects down under, with perhaps his most memorable film being Dead Calm (1989), a masterfully crafted thriller that starred the actor as Nicole Kidman's husband.
Neill truly came to international prominence during the '90s (as evidenced by his guest spot as a cat burglar on an episode of The Simpsons). He experienced a bumper-crop year in 1993, portraying the raptor-fearing Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park, before returning to New Zealand to portray Holly Hunter's taciturn, unexpectedly violent husband in The Piano (1993). He was also honored with the Order of the British Empire that same year. Neill continued to work on a wealth of diverse international projects throughout the rest of the decade, notably John Duigan's Sirens (1994), which cast him as a '30s bohemian artist; the Australian satire Children of the Revolution (1996), reuniting him with Judy Davis; Revengers' Comedies (1997), which cast him as a suicidal businessman; the acclaimed miniseries Merlin (1998), in which he played the titular wizard; Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer (1998), as the husband of Kristin Scott Thomas (the two had previously co-starred in Revengers' Comedies); and Bicentennial Man (1999), which featured the actor as the head of a family who purchases an uncannily human robot played by Robin Williams.
In addition to acting and managing a New Zealand winery, Neill directed an acclaimed 1995 documentary about the New Zealand film industry, Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A barely recognizable Meryl Streep plays the real-life Lindy Chamberlain, who for a long period in the early 1980s was the most hated woman in Australia. While visiting the Ayers rock monument in the Outback with her husband Michael (Sam Neill), Lindy notices a dingo creeping into the tent where her baby lies sleeping. Seconds later, the horrified woman discovers that her child is gone. Despite Lindy's anguished insistence that the dingo killed her baby, the Australian public is of the opinion that Lindy herself is the murderer. This lynch-mob atmosphere is fueled by the press, which insists upon crucifying the Chamberlains in print on a daily basis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Meryl Streep, (more)
- 1987
As the brainchild of writer-director-producer Donald Wrye, the 14 1/2 hour ABC movie event Amerika marked one of the most expensive and controversial miniseries in the history of prime time television when it bowed over the course of seven nights in February of 1987. Regarded as something of a conservative counterpoint to Nicholas Meyer's The Day After (which screened on ABC, four years prior and allegedly demonstrated leftwing bias - prompting very outspoken criticisms from Republican pundit Ben Stein), this $40 million production imagines a dystopian future set in the late 1990s. When the drama opens in May of 1997, the Russians have effectively won the Cold War by wresting control over the United States, with the backing of a U.N. Peacekeeping Force. Although the initial takeover was not annihilative or even apparently violent, the consequences are overwhelming; a puppet leader holds court in the Oval Office, the American economy has fallen to pieces with Midwesterners lining up for vegetables, and gulag prisons are scattered across the land; meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of refugees have hit the countryside and wander aimlessly. The majority of the action unfurls in a rural Nebraska community, where onetime antiwar protester and presidential candidate Devin Milford (Kris Kristofferson) has just been released from a gulag, and now discovers his family farm being whittled away by the Russians. Meanwhile, his childhood friend Peter Bradford has somehow landed a position in the government hierarchy and finds himself being drawn in more deeply. Across the land, Russian stormtroopers engage in acts of violent intimidation, such as burning farmhouses and brainwashing abductees, while the Russian occupiers systematically maneuver on the political front to bring the once-powerful republic tumbling down. The supporting cast includes Christine Lahti, Wendy Hughes, Sam Neill, Armin Mueller-Stahl and many others; the title, of course, was intended to reflect "America" as modified to a slightly more Russian spelling. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Wendy Hughes, (more)
- 2007
- NR
A destitute but determined young woman living in turn-of-the-century England ascends the social ranks after authoring a series of successful romantic novels in French writer/director François Ozon's first English-language feature. Romola Garai takes on the title role in a French and Belgian co-production co-starring Sam Neill, Charlotte Rampling, and Michael Fassbender and financed by Fidélité Films, Canal+, Celluliod Dreams, France 2, and Pan-Européenne. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romola Garai, Sam Neill, (more)
Force Z is a crack Australian military corps during World War II. When a plane carrying a high-profile Japanese defector crash-lands somewhere in the South Pacific, it's up to Force Z to find it. Complicating matters is a traitor in the good guys' midst. John Philip Law heads the cast of Attack Force Z, but some video companies have bestowed top billing upon Mel Gibson, originally listed 3rd in the cast. The film also features an early leading peformance by Sam Neill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Phillip Law, Mel Gibson, (more)
If a robot spends enough time around humans, can he learn to become one of them? The Martin family purchases a domestic android as a servant and names him Andrew (Robin Williams). Andrew comes to know the man of the house as Sir (Sam Neill), his wife as Ma'am Wendy Crewson, and their daughter as Portia (Embeth Davidtz); before long, the Martins suspect that they do not have an ordinary robot on their hands. Andrew seems capable of expressing emotion and generating original thoughts, and the longer he stays with the Martins, the more strongly these human traits manifest themselves. Over the next 200 years, Andrew becomes less a machine and more a member of the family, until a mechanic (Oliver Platt) tells Andrew that he might be able to turn him into a human being. Based on a short story by renowned science fiction author Isaac Asimov (surprisingly, it's only the second Asimov story to be brought to the screen), Bicentennial Man was directed by Chris Columbus, who previously worked with Robin Williams on Mrs. Doubtfire. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Sam Neill, (more)
Children of the Revolution is an Australian film whose cinematic roots go back to the sardonic comedies of Billy Wilder. It is set in two time periods, the 1950s and 1990s, and goes back and forth between them. In the 1990s, Australian politician Joe Welch (Richard Roxburgh) is having some serious difficulties. We learn just how serious they are through a series of interviews with important political commentators. Joe blames his mother, Joan Fraser (Judy Davis), for his problems. This claim seems ridiculous until we flash back to the 1950s and discover that Joan, an ardent communist, had a very brief fling with Joseph Stalin (F. Murray Abraham) and that Joe Welch could be Stalin's love-child. Welch was brought up accompanying his mother on her political rounds, and acquired a fondness for jack-booted women -- something which haunts him in his adult life. Double agent David Hoyle (Sam Neill) also had an affair with Joan during her one brief trip to Moscow, and his shadowy influence also follows Welch into the time of the film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Davis, Sam Neill, (more)
- 1995
This documentary is New Zealand expatriate actor and filmmaker Sam Neill's moody entry in the British Film Institute commissioned series, "Century of Cinema," designed to be a collection of the personal opinions of renowned international filmmakers concerning the cinema of their native countries. The film is highly charged with Neill's conflicting emotions about his country, which according to his film, still suffers greatly, cinematically and culturally, from an identity crisis. Through film clips, Neill analyzes not only the earliest years of Kiwi cinema, but also its heyday during the 1950s when it first gained international attention. He also presents a rather dark analysis of the films of contemporary New Zealand. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This Australian drama has been adapted from Chekov's Uncle Vanya. It is set in post WW I Australia at a time when the Aussies were getting ready to break away from England. After his father's death, Jack Dickens sacrificed his literary aspirations to run the family farm. He lives in the old farm house with his aged mother and his plain, soft-spoken niece Sally, who was abandoned by her father Alexander Voysey after her mother, Jack's sister, passed away. Sally suffers unrequited love for Max Askey, the local doctor. Jack sends monthly payments to his brother-law Alexander, an aspiring London literary critic. After secretly dishonoring himself in London, Alexander returns to Australia with his lovely and much younger wife, Deborah. Alexander is a wind-bag and it is plain that Deborah is unhappily married. Jack and the doctor are attracted by the comely woman and vie for her attention at the expense of long suffering and ignored Sally. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Greta Scacchi, (more)
Author Daniel Dafoe's timeless novel gets the small screen treatment in this television series following a young traveler who winds up shipwrecked on a secluded tropical island for twenty-eight years. Robinson Crusoe left his one true love behind in order to seek out adventure on the open seas, though his travels were cut short when he became hopelessly shipwrecked. His former life drifting further away with each passing day, Crusoe clings to sanity by dreaming of the day he will be reunited with his beautiful wife, and confiding in his new best friend Friday. As the days stretch into months, Crusoe and his new companion must brave the elements while standing their ground against formidable foes and violent marauders. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Winchester, Sam Neill, (more)
- 2010
- R
- Add Daybreakers to Queue
Fresh off the success of their inventive take on the zombie genre, Undead masterminds Michael and Peter Spierig direct Ethan Hawke in an ambitious tale of a futuristic Earth populated entirely by vampires, and the efforts made by the creatures to ensure that their food supply doesn't run out as humankind is faced with extinction. The year is 2017, and a vampire plague has turned most of the planet's human population into bloodsucking ghouls. As the population of mortals fast begins to dwindle, a resourceful team of vampires sets out to capture and farm every remaining human while simultaneously researching a consumable blood substitute. Just when all hope seems lost, a secret is discovered that may provide the key o saving the human race. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, (more)
Grieving over the death of their son, a married couple decide to take a long yachting trip for relaxation's sake. Their journey takes a dark turn, however, when they rescue a young man from a drifting vessel. The couple soon discover that the other ship's crew had been brutally murdered by their new passenger, and find themselves in a battle of wits against this violent sociopath. Interestingly, a previous attempt had been made at adapting the novel that inspired this film by none other than Orson Welles; footage from his unfinished version, known as The Deep, can be seen in the documentary Orson Welles: The One-Man Band. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, (more)
- 2008
Multiple Oscar nominee Peter O'Toole adds yet another offbeat role to his long resume with the mystical comedy-drama Dean Spanley. Adapted from Lord Dunsany's popular novella My Talks with Dean Spanley and helmed by Toa Fraser, the film stars O'Toole as Horatio Fisk, an irascible, cantankerous septuagenarian living out his final days at the turn of the 20th Century. Despite his distant and slightly strained relationship with his son Henslowe (Jeremy Northam), Horatio willfully joins the young man on regular outings; the tedium and monotony of these routines eventually grow so overwhelming, however, that the two decide to attend a lecture on the Transmigration of Souls by a visiting Hindu Swami. At the meeting, their paths intersect with the eccentric Dean Spanley (Sam Neill), and a friendship blossoms between Spanley and Henslowe. When Spanley joins Henslowe for a private dinner, and accepts his invitation to sample a rare Hungarian wine known as the Imperial Tokay, Spanley instinctively brings forth reminiscences of a prior life lived out as a canine - and his recollections hold a rather bizarre connection to Horatio's familial past. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Northam, Sam Neill, (more)
- 1990
Carl Fitzgerald (Sam Neill) is a shy, unassertive man, given to following orders from anyone around him who will take the trouble to boss him about, starting with his nagging mother. In this story, he is very much down on his luck and is forced to take a job as dishwasher in a Greek restaurant in Brunswick, his rundown neighborhood in Melborne. There, he swifly is hauled off to bed by an assertive young waitress. While he is with the girl, he accidentally kills his co-worker, a hysterically abusive and drug-dealing Turk, He calls on his old friend Dave for help in disposing of the man's body. The best solution Dave can come up with is to dump the body in another person's grave, but he manages to boss Carl around a lot in the process. And even Dave's wife gives Carl what-for, lambasting him for his overall uselessness. Somehow, despite his passivity, Carl manages to seem like the ultimate victor in all these confrontations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Zoe Carides, (more)
Directed by David Caesar, Dirty Deeds is an Australian crime picture inspired by real-life Sydney mobsters, and is set in the Sydney crime underworld of 1969. Bryan Brown stars as Barry Ryan, a prominent gangster whose ruthlessness rivals some of the toughest in the trade. He lives with his downbeat wife, Sharon (Toni Collette), and their son, but spends the majority of his time either with fellow mobsters or his mistress, Margaret (Kestie Morassi). Ryan's business is threatened when a Chicago Mafia boss dispatches two of his goons to scope out the poker machine scene for a potential takeover. Tony (John Goodman) and Sal (Felix Williamson), however, are lost when it comes to Australian culture, and stick out like a sore thumb. Negotiating with the Americans will be difficult enough for Barry, but the real blow comes when he learns that one of his own gang members has been deceitful. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryan Brown, Toni Collette, (more)
Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize-winning novel of love and betrayal amidst the Soviet Revolution is given a new interpretation for the small screen in this made-for-television adaptation. Yury Zhivago (Hans Matheson) is a young man who is sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Anna and Alexander Gromeko, (Celia Imrie and Bill Paterson) after his father takes his own life as a result of the machinations of his corrupt business partner, Victor Komarovsky (Sam Neill). As Zhivago grows to manhood and studies to be a physician, he falls in love with his cousin Tonya (Alexandra Maria Lara), but one day he sees a beautiful woman and immediately becomes deeply infatuated. Zhivago learns that the woman in question is Lara Guishar (Keira Knightley), whose mother is the lover of Komarovsky. Eventually, Zhivago marries Tonya, and Lara weds Pasha Antipov (Kris Marshall), a passionate Bolshevik. As World War I breaks out, Zhivago once again crosses paths with Lara, who has become a combat nurse and is searching for her missing husband. After Zhivago is severely wounded, Lara nurses him back to heath, and along the way the two fall deeply in love. However, after the end of the war, the reality of Zhivago's marriage to Tonya puts a halt to their romance, and the explosive impact of the Soviet Revolution changes the shape and character of the land they knew, especially when Lara discovers that her husband is not dead, but has become a powerful and calculating leader of the new regime. Doctor Zhivago had its American debut on the acclaimed PBS anthology series Masterpiece Theatre. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keira Knightley, Hans Matheson, (more)
Directed by TV-anthology veteran Jeannot Szwarc, Enigma has a certain small-screen "feel" to it. Adopting a musical-comedy foreign accent, Martin Sheen plays Alex Holbeck, an Iron Curtain defector who returns to East Germany at the behest of the CIA. His mission is to save five political "undesirables" from the communists. Holbeck runs up against some formidable opposition, namely ambitious KGB agent Dimitri Vasilkov (Sam Neill) and a quintet of highly trained Soviet assassins. Brigitte Fossey co-stars as Holbeck's former love, whom he involves in his escape plans by asking her to romance the susceptible Vasilkov. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Sheen, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
In this sci-fi/horror scarefest, Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill) is a scientist who has designed a spacecraft called Event Horizon which will explore the outer reaches of space past the planet Neptune; the ship employs a special transport mechanism that, in effect, creates a black hole that the ship can pass through, allowing it to travel tremendous distances in a few seconds. The Event Horizon mysteriously disappears in the midst of a mission with no trace of either the ship or its crew, but it reappears in Neptune's orbit after a seven year absence and it's sending out a distress signal. The spaceship Lewis and Clark, and Dr. Weir, are sent to investigate; the crew -- Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne), pilot Smith (Sean Pertwee), engineer Justin (Jack Noseworthy), navigator Starck (Joely Richardson), physician D.J. (Jason Isaacs), and emergency technicians Peters (Kathleen Quinlan) and Cooper (Richard T. Jones) -- are already tired and unenthusiastic about this assignment, and somewhat confused by Weir's reports. The crew of the Lewis and Clark are convinced that Weir is not telling them something, and when they discover the Event Horizon, they find that things are not what they seem, and an evil presence has taken over the ship. Incidentally, the term "event horizon" describes the outer boundaries of a black hole. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, (more)
Family Pictures is a two-part TV adaptation of the Sue Miller novel of the same name. Anjelica Huston and Sam Neill are Lainey and David Eberlin, a 1950s married couple with six children, one of whom, Randall (Jamie Harrold), is autistic. The parents' initial decision not to institutionalize the boy results in a terrific strain on the rest of the family, until finally only Lainey is willing to shoulder the responsibility of raising Randall. The second half of Family Pictures, related from the vantage point of the 1980s by the Eberlins' oldest daughter (Kyra Sedgwick), details the effect that Randall's inevitable institutionalization had on the family. This anecdotal four-hour drama first aired on March 21 and 22, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Christina Stead's novel For Love Alone was a best-seller in Australia, but remains essentially unknown to the outside world. The same can be said for this 1986 film version, likewise a homegrown Australian product. Set in the 1930s, the film stars Helen Buhay as a starry-eyed young girl chafing under the oppressive attitudes of society in general and her father in particular. She kicks over the traces to enter into a romance with college Latin professor Hugo Weaving. Still not realizing that Weaving considers her a pleasant diversion and nothing more, Helen nearly misses out on a chance for happiness with liberal-minded banker Sam Neill. Once she's settled down with Neill, the idealistic Buhay is smitten by another aesthete, poet Huw Williams. Neill encourages this affair, hoping that Buhay will eventually realize that there's more to true love than mere sexual impulsiveness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Buday, Sam Neill, (more)
Originally presented to an unsuspecting New Zealand public as the real deal, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson's masterful mocumentary initially proved so convincing that unsuspecting viewers bought it hook, line, and sinker. A remarkably detailed look at the life of early filmmaker Colin McKenzie (Thomas Robins), the film traces the life of the young innovator as he makes incredible advances in the realm of cinema years before they are generally though to have occurred. From McKenzie's creation of the first "talkie" in 1908 (the first true sound feature is generally considered to be 1927's The Jazz Singer) to his creation of the first color film three short years later (which is generally considered to be 1922's The Toll of the Sea), the discovery of the remarkable advances made by him would forever change the face of film history. With Jackson himself providing commentary on the importance of the recent "discovery" of McKenzie's lost epic Salome -- which was preserved in a garden shed for nearly a century -- the significance of this "lost film" is further cemented by interviews with such notable film figures as Miramax's Harvey Weinstein and film critic Leonard Maltin. As McKenzie's rise and eventual downfall is documented through the use of newspaper articles, still images, and rare behind-the-scenes footage of Salome, the viewer is drawn into a remarkably staged ruse that is so effectively executed that it even includes interviews with McKenzie's "wife," Hannah (Beatrice Ashton). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Robins, Peter Jackson, (more)
A remake of the 1992 British film of the same name, the made-for-cable Framed begins as New York cop Mike Santini (Rob Lowe) is vacationing with his family in the Bahamas. By chance, Santini spots another "tourist": Eddie Meyers (Sam Neill), a high-profile fugitive mobster and a key player in a major money-laundering scheme. Once Santini collars Meyers, he is surprised at the mobster's friendly acquiescence; in fact, Meyers requests that Santini, and Santini alone, interrogate him once they are safely ensconced in a secluded New York compound. What follows is nothing less than a prolonged seduction, with Meyers using every resource at his disposal -- money, women, lavish gifts, luxurious mansions -- to corrupt the heretofore incorruptible Santini. The American version of Framed first aired April 13, 2003, on the TNT network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Produced over the course of six years, drawing on over seventy archives in Europe and beyond, and researched with over sixteen international historians to ensure the it was as accurate as possible, this documentary from director Tolga Örnek draws on the diaries, letters, and documents of average soldiers in order to emphasize the historical importance of Gallipoli. By using materials from soldiers on all sides of the conflict, Örnek's film approaches the subject from an objective vantage point; never sacrificing historical fact for dramatic impact. In exploring the conflict through the perspectives of two British, three New Zealand, three Australian, and two Turkish soldiers, the filmmakers gradually break through the soldiers' dutiful exteriors to show exactly how they felt it from a human standpoint. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- R
This direct-to-video thriller stars Sam Neill as a British secret agent who wants to retire--much to the dismay of his superiors, who decide instead to have him killed. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Talisa Soto, (more)
