Shaker Run

1985 New Zealand film

27 March 1985 (1985-03-27)

Running time

90 minutesCountryNew ZealandLanguageEnglish

Shaker Run is a 1985 New Zealand action film directed by Bruce Morrison and starring Cliff Robertson, Leif Garrett, and Lisa Harrow. It follows a stunt driver Pierson and his ace mechanic Lee on the run from secret police in the South Island of New Zealand with Doctor Rubin, who has stolen a manufactured virus from the government lab where she works (filmed at Larnach Castle), with the intent of delivering it to the CIA.

The "Shaker" of the title refers to the pink and black Trans Am used by the three to outrun the New Zealand secret service.^[1]

Derek Malcolm said that the film, "while not exactly an aesthetic experience ... has the best stunts ever accomplished in a New Zealand picture, some of them quite breathtaking".^[1] Journalist Dominic Corry, writing in The New Zealand Herald in 2012, called the film a New Zealand classic, and noted that the movie relies "almost entirely on its car stunts".^[2] Film critic David Robinson described the film as a "hit-and-miss" and that the story didn't make much "sense", relying on the "dramatic New Zealand scenery and the cars".^[3]

The film was considered part of New Zealand's "New Wave" of cinema following the establishment of the New Zealand Film Commission and has been described as among those films that "foregrounded geographical representations of the country while examining male relationships."^[4] The film's production was aided by tax breaks in New Zealand in the early 1980s.^[1]

Cast

Cliff Robertson^[5]^: 271 as Judd Pierson; described as "an American star" by critic Robinson^[3]
Leif Garrett as Casey Lee
Lisa Harrow as Dr. Christine Rubin
Shane Briant as Paul Thoreau
Peter Rowell as Mr. Carney
Peter Hayden as Michael Connoly
Ian Mune as Barry Gordon
Bruce Phillips as Dr. Marshall
Fiona Samuel as Casey's Girl
Nathaniel Lees as Squad Commander
Igo Kantor as CIA Man; also a producer on the film^[5]^: 170
Shona Laing as Singer

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Shaker Run". NZOnscreen. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
^ Corry, Dominic (2 July 2012). "Remembering a classic: Shaker Run". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
^ ^a ^b Robinson, David (28 February 1986). "Invention and skill blossom out on a shoestring budget". The New York Times. p. 19. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
^ Conrich, Ian. "New Zealand". Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film. Vol. 3. Thomson Gale. p. 249. Retrieved 23 June 2023 – via Internet Archive.
^ ^a ^b Monush, Barry, ed. (1991). International Motion Picture Almanac (62nd ed.). New York, New York: Quigley Publishing Company. ISBN 0-900610-44-1 – via Internet Archive.