Film Review of OUT OF THE BLUE
Written by David Brokenshire and Stephen Brown

Out of the Blue, is a movie based on the true events of the mass murders committed by David Gray in the small town-ship of Aromoana outside Dunedin on the 13 November 1990.

Out of the Blue shows us how isolated our lives are and how one event can change our lives.

Out of the Blue shows us 3 themes of what kind of world the movie depicts.
Firstly is that ordinary people doing ordinary things, people just living their lives, with everyday ups and downs. We see blended families, children playing, families biking and fishing and people having bbq’s and drinking. There was life in Aromoana, shown by the dynamic camera shots which show life and movement.
Secondly was the darkness and evilness of David Gray’s killings, shown by the static camera angles on David Gray showing his life as one of sadness.
Finally was the peacefulness of the tranquil sea, which the filmmakers tried to use as the backstop to show the beauty of the environment.

Out of the Blue shows us what we are like as people. These include that often people refused to acknowledge that bad things can happen to us and therefore we are totally unprepared for when they do happen.
The second thing is, like the Gun Shop keeper, we only try to recognise the good in people. So when a David Gray comes along we fail to see the situation early.
The final thing that “Out of the Blue” showed us as people is when bad things happen we come out of our isolated lives and reach out to our neighbors e.g. talking to our neighbors when they noticed the fire, or the lady and the gentleman talking next to the phone while one lay there shot and they just wanted to make it seem normal.

“Out of The Blue” gives us an indication of what is wrong in the world and especially what is wrong with the human condition.
The movie shows signs of broken relationships with divorce and neighbors David Gray and Gary drifting apart, having being childhood mates. The movie also shows one community failed to accept the outsider, which if people got to know David Gray as a friend, tragedy may have been avoided.

Out of the Blue shows New Zealanders that we are not exempt from people committing mass murder and it only takes a small thing for people to crack and it causes us to look into our inner self e.g. policeman vomiting after saving the girls and David Gray looking at the mirror then wiping of all the camo paint before giving himself up. What did David Gray and the policeman see?

Out of the Blue raises many questions that are applicable to this small community and the wider human race. These question’s include: What does the community do for the David Grays of this world, do we reject them before we know them or do we accept them and try to help them?, Does the good of this movie (people helping each other) outweigh the evil that existed remembering 13 people lossed their life to this tragedy? The final question has to be raised do we do enough to reach people outside our own close in lives?