ROBBERY UNDER ARMS (1985) – The irreplaceable Sam Neill has passed away. Other sites will be focusing on Neill’s more well-known projects like the Jurassic Park movies, Reilly – Ace of Spies, The Hunt for Red October, Omen III: The Final Conflict, Event Horizon and so many others. In keeping with Balladeer’s Blog’s theme I’m taking a look at Sam’s neglected Bushranger movie Robbery Under Arms.
Before I dive into a review of that Australian production, let me point out two of my previous examinations of lesser-known Sam Neill films like the horror tale Possession (1981) and the Cold War espionage movie Enigma (1982). Plus a review of the better known In the Mouth of Madness (1994).
Thank you to Jason McGathey for reminding me about the 1994 film.
On to Robbery Under Arms, the film is based on the Australian novel of the same name, which was published in serialized form in 1882 before being collected in novel form later in the decade. Robbery Under Arms is a monumental work of fiction Down Under and has been adapted several times since 1907 – a year after Australia’s silent movie The Story of the Kelly Gang.
For readers who are not aware of this, Australia’s Gold Rushes beginning in the 1850s spawned a tableau like America’s Wild West in terms of outlaws and desert landscapes. Real life Bushrangers (Aussie outlaws of the deserts and bush regions) included Mad Dog Morgan, Ben Hall and of course Ned Kelly and his gang. Any fan of American Westerns would likely enjoy Bushranger flicks.
In Robbery Under Arms, Sam Neill stars as a fictional outlaw leader known by the alias Captain Starlight, the type of flashy name used by real-life Bushrangers like Midnight, Moondyne Joe, Captain Moonlite and others. Continue reading
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994) – Directed by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca, this movie was an unabashed valentine to H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King’s imitations of Lovecraft, and The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers. The King in Yellow, of course, is the 1895 book 
Soon, Trent is visited in his padded cell, where he has used a black crayon to cover his body and the padded walls with crucifixes for protection. His visitor is Dr Wrenn, played by David Warner, the panicked, crucifix-surrounded man from The Omen, now talking to the panicked, crucifix-surrounded Sam Neill in this film. (I admit that’s a sly touch in keeping with the style of the movie. It even has echoes of the victim in the 1970s film Equinox fixating on his protective crucifix.) 
Balladeer's Blog 