#100days - '71: Smith's Dream feat. @TwoPaddocks

Not many New Zealand novels were published in 1971, but Smith's Dream by C. K. Stead - first issued by Longman Paul that year, in hardback no less - retains a certain chilling timelessness nearly half a century later.

It reimagines the small South Pacific nation falling under the spell of a populist leader, with people almost sleep-walking their way into martial law. In a time of Trump and similar politicians, Smith's Death is all too credible.

The Vietnam-era book struck a chord with readers, and was reprinted that  year. Ian Mune & Arthur Baysting adapted the novel for cinema, with Roger Donaldson directing and producing the film, renamed Sleeping Dogs.

Playing the lead was a young Sam Neill [a/k/a [url=https://twitter.com/TwoPaddocks]@TwoPaddocks[/url] on Twitter], with Mune also featuring in the film. That's the two of them on the movie tie-in paperback, alongside my battered first edition of the hardback.

Sleeping Dogs was a sensation when unleashed on NZ cinemas in 1977. Kiwis weren't used to seeing their country on the big screen, let alone portrayed as dystopian police state with riots and anarchy on the streets.

Here's the trailer for Sleeping Dogs - the narrator is something else! There's a new Blu-Ray edition of the film coming out in April this year.


Four years later life was imitating art as the controversial Springboks tour brought scenes eerily reminiscent of Sleeping Dogs to New Zealand streets as protestors clashed with riot police outside rugby grounds. [Here's some [url=https://youtu.be/Tedpps24qWw?t=30m10s]footage of the riots[/url], from a documentary made ten years later.]