Latest / The K.B. Radio Network / Remembering Sam Neill 1947-2026
Transcript
- 0:02hello everyone and welcome to movie goodness where we examine life through cinema here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed welcome everyone to the show i wish it was under better circumstances but uh
- 0:20i'm glad that you are here nonetheless today is a somber episode i really don't like doing these episodes you know like this but i was compelled to do it
- 0:31because this actor,
- 0:34I don't think,
- 0:35got the flowers he deserved.
- 0:38I don't think he got the respect that he rightfully deserved.
- 0:43He did in the circles of Hollywood and whatnot and all the work that he had contributed to,
- 0:51but
- 0:52I mean it like in the mainstream.
- 0:54He hasn't been or wasn't considered an aidless actor in a lot of circles,
- 0:59Good.
- 1:01he was a list to me he's one of those guys that i just adored him in every single film that he was in i don't care if it was a bit part uh uh supporting role or even
- 1:18in the lead uh occasionally when he did get the lead he was just one of those guys that you would gravitate to in case you don't No,
- 1:29on July the...
- 1:3113th the early morning of july the
- 1:3313th it was announced that the great sam neill passed away at the age of 78 years old and sam neill has a filmography like no other you you can go down his filmography and
- 1:52it's like none of the none of those movies are one in the same you know he He did not just stick in one job.
- 2:01he was all over the place i don't care if it was a drama uh an adventure film a comedy uh action adventure film uh horror films uh he he excelled
- 2:16in them all and i think that's what made him special to me i think that's why he just stuck out to me because if he was in something it wasn't
- 2:29like you went into it like oh this is going to be just like he he was in jurassic park no or this just this is going to be like he was in the hunt for red october no he would he would constantly reinvent himself he would constantly challenge himself and he excelled everywhere he went i
- 2:49i can't think of a performance he gave where he melded in even in the small role that he had in
- 2:57Thor Ragnarok.
- 2:59where he played olden uh a actor portraying olden in that film he was good in that you know and it was only for one scene but it just added something to the film i don't it's just something about him that i'm going to miss and
- 3:18he is he is highly decorated you know i say he didn't get his flowers he's a decorated actor no Academy Awards but
- 3:30He was truly recognized all over the film industry as one of the greats,
- 3:38and I think he needs to be remembered as such.
- 3:43Sir
- 3:44Nigel
- 3:45John
- 3:46Dermott Sam Neill.
- 3:49That was his name.
- 3:51And I often wondered,
- 3:53because when he was knighted,
- 3:55I think that was in the
- 3:5790s when he was knighted.
- 3:59He,
- 4:01they said his name and I'm like,
- 4:02well,
- 4:02where does Sam come from?
- 4:04I don't know.
- 4:05I guess that was a nickname or something like that.
- 4:08But he had,
- 4:10that was his name.
- 4:11And he was from New Zealand,
- 4:12born and raised from New Zealand.
- 4:16Aside from being an actor,
- 4:17he was also a businessman as well.
- 4:20But he was a leading man in film and television.
- 4:24He did get nominated for.
- 4:27three primetime Emmy Awards,
- 4:29two Golden Globe Awards.
- 4:32And as I mentioned before,
- 4:34he was appointed as an officer of the Order of British Empire in
- 4:411991 by the Queen for his services as an actor.
- 4:46So he was recognized,
- 4:49but I just wish he was recognized more,
- 4:53you know,
- 4:53as just one of those go-to actors.
- 4:56because you can...
- 4:57You can rely on him to come and give you his all.
- 5:01Now,
- 5:01the boobies.
- 5:03Not all the movies were great.
- 5:05I mean,
- 5:05I'm not going to sit here and say,
- 5:07oh man,
- 5:07he was in just some bangers,
- 5:09you know,
- 5:10five-star classics.
- 5:13He was in a few.
- 5:15But,
- 5:16you know,
- 5:17not all of them were great,
- 5:18but he was great.
- 5:20And today,
- 5:22instead of just going over his life and what all he accomplished in his life,
- 5:27I decided to do a short little show today and count...
- 5:32down my top five sam neill films or his performances in those films now this top five is not to say that these were the just greatest films in his filmography but
- 5:48these are my favorite performances by him and it was tough to narrow it down because i left off some that i felt were superior films,
- 5:59but
- 6:00I...
- 6:00I enjoyed his performance in
- 6:03X film rather than Y film.
- 6:06So I just,
- 6:07it was,
- 6:08it,
- 6:08I made it tough on myself.
- 6:11I'm just going to tell you like that.
- 6:12I made it hard on myself for no reason whatsoever.
- 6:17I could have just gave my list of my favorite Sam near films,
- 6:21which is basically what this list is,
- 6:24but they're my favorites because of the performance that he gave.
- 6:28But I will go through his whole filmography.
- 6:32This was his whole filmography,
- 6:34and it goes all the way back.
- 6:36I wasn't even thought of in 1975.
- 6:42Landfall,
- 6:43Ash in 1977,
- 6:47Sleeping Dogs in 1979.
- 6:51Just reach out the journalist,
- 6:54my brilliant career in 1981.
- 6:58the omen three the final conflict possession from a far country in 1982 attack force z uh in 1984 the blood of others the country girls in 1985 robbery under arms and plenty uh in 1986 for love above in 1987 the umbrella woman in 1988 leap of faith
- 7:29Also in 1988,
- 7:31Evil Angels.
- 7:32In 1989,
- 7:35Dead Calm.
- 7:35In 1990,
- 7:37The Hunt for Red October.
- 7:40Shadow of China.
- 7:42In
- 7:431991, Death Brunrich
- 7:46Until the End of the World.
- 7:48In
- 7:491992, Memoirs of an Invisible Man,
- 7:53Hostage.
- 7:54In 1993,
- 7:57The Piano,
- 7:58Jurassic.
- 7:58park and sirens in 1994 country life the jungle book in the mouth of madness in 1995 restoration in 1996 children of the revolution and victory in 1997 event horizon snow
- 8:19white a tale of terror uh i've never seen that one i gotta check that one out uh in 1998 8
- 8:28the horse whisperer and sweet revenge in
- 8:321999 bicentennial man in the year 2000 my mother frank the dish the magic pudding in
- 8:432001 jurassic park 3 the zookeeper in 2002 dirty deeds in 2003 perfect strangers in 2004 or
- 8:57Yes,
- 8:58and Wembley in 2005,
- 9:02Little Fish in 2006,
- 9:05Irresistible in 2007,
- 9:08Angel in 2008,
- 9:11Dean
- 9:12Spankley and Skin in 2009,
- 9:17In Her Skin,
- 9:19Iron Road,
- 9:20Under the Mountain,
- 9:22Daybreakers.
- 9:23and 2010
- 9:25Legend of the Guardians.
- 9:27owls of gahu in 2011 the dragon pearl the hunter in 2012 the vow in 2013 escape plan the adventurer the
- 9:43curse of the minus box in 2014 united passions and a long way down in 2015 backtrack
- 9:57and the daughter in 2016 hunt of the wilder people
- 10:03and tommy's honor in 2017 mind gamers sweet country and thor ragnarok in 2018 the commuter and peter rabbit in 2019 palm beach blackbird
- 10:22ride like a girl and take home pay in 2020 rams in 2021 peter rabbit 2 the runaway Thank you.
- 10:32in 2022 jurassic world dominion and thor love and thunder uh in 2023 the portable door assassin club scary girl and brain him to me in 2025 the
- 10:51fox and we got two movies that he completed before his passing uh coming out next year in 2027 upcoming you have
- 11:02Godzilla vs.
- 11:03Khan,
- 11:04Supernova,
- 11:05and
- 11:06The Last Resort.
- 11:08Those were his final films he did.
- 11:13Like I said,
- 11:14very diverse filmography.
- 11:16He did everything from family films to just gore-out horror movies.
- 11:24He did every genre you can think of.
- 11:27But out of all of those films,
- 11:29I had to narrow that down to...
- 11:31five and believe it or not it was hard it was it was very hard to narrow down my favorite five performances from the great sam neill and so starting off at number five this
- 11:48comes in number five because of it was a small role for him you know he didn't have a big role but it was big nonetheless because he was
- 11:59the second in command on this submarine under sean connery and i loved how up to that point you know you didn't see sean connery being challenged like that because that was sean connery man this is james bond you know it he was the the the
- 12:21uh voice of reason on that submarine and that is of course the hunt for red october and
- 12:28He was the one that kind of brought Sean Connery's character down to earth.
- 12:35You know,
- 12:36this bombastic character,
- 12:39this larger than life figure,
- 12:41not only in the Russian military,
- 12:44but globally.
- 12:46Everybody revered this character and he was so powerful,
- 12:52you know,
- 12:52so well respected that nobody really messed with him.
- 12:56No one really challenged him.
- 12:58And Sam Neill in that role had to be the one to talk him down,
- 13:04to be the one to tell him,
- 13:05no,
- 13:05you're wrong.
- 13:06No,
- 13:07we can't do it like this.
- 13:08You know,
- 13:09you can't do this,
- 13:10Captain.
- 13:11He was the one.
- 13:12And
- 13:13I thought he bounced well off of him in that film.
- 13:17Perfectly cast.
- 13:18That was just an amazing movie altogether.
- 13:21And it was hard to put that at five.
- 13:24But the reason it's at five.
- 13:27Because it's not a bigger role than it is in the other four that I'm going to list here.
- 13:33But he is phenomenal in that role.
- 13:37Coming in at number four is,
- 13:41I don't know what you would,
- 13:43this is like the guiltiest of guilty pleasures for me.
- 13:47And the reason,
- 13:48let me give you a little backstory before I spill the beans on what it is.
- 13:54I worked at a movie theater.
- 13:57the year this came out so when i'm when i'm there and this movie comes out and i'm like what is this you know and i was an usher so we we would go in and uh that's how i got to see a lot of movies around that era uh
- 14:14i would it could be for nothing for free basically i was getting paid to watch it it was a beautiful thing but i stood in there and watched this movie and this was the
- 14:26scariest movie i've seen set in space and i'm i know aliens is probably everybody's premium horror space movie but for me event horizon was the movie that was like i've
- 14:45never seen a haunted spaceship movie you know you ever think about that it's a haunted spaceship movie the ship was haunted
- 14:56in space and you're drifting in space it uh sam neill's character is the uh scientist
- 15:04who virtually built this ship and it was to uh pass through different dimensions it was supposed to bend space and time to get across the galaxy quick quicker or on the other side of the universe quicker and whatever and
- 15:21what it did it tore the fabric of space so when the ship first left and it miraculously came back years later come to find out the ship went to hell
- 15:35and it came back and so when the rescue crew came and sam nils on there because he knows the ship that's his ship and he was a part of this team that goes on this ship hell was on the ship with him you
- 15:51know and it was the freak is still to this day my go-to horror movie like around halloween you know it's something about that movie that just appeals to me yeah it wasn't a big
- 16:04box office smash hit but it is a cult classic it is a movie that holds up still to this day because i watched it recently within the last two or three months i've seen it and it still holds up to me it still has that same flair and uh
- 16:22sam neill's character in here has the biggest arc even though he isn't the star lawrence fishburne is the star of the movie but
- 16:33Sam Neill's character has the biggest arc and not in a good way because he starts off as a good guy he's a decent guy and he's trying to he's just trying to figure out what happened on this ship this was his baby you know this was his life's work and
- 16:50he wasn't like uh one of those slimy type figures that like oh this is my ship you know this pompous guy that's not his approach to it you know.
- 17:02He was beholden to the captain who was a large fish burn in the crew and gave them the respect,
- 17:08gave them the lead because this is their mission.
- 17:11But he was still searching for answers and trying to find out where this has been,
- 17:16because at the end of the day,
- 17:17he is a scientist.
- 17:19You know,
- 17:20he wants to see if his experiment work.
- 17:21Where did the ship go?
- 17:23And everybody else is like,
- 17:25man,
- 17:26do you see what's going on around you?
- 17:28This ship has been somewhere.
- 17:31it shouldn't have went and then whatever wherever it went it brought it back with us you know so he he started off as a good guy and to ultimately end up as the villain the ultimate antagonist at the end and for him to make that turn was great i
- 17:49i love event horizon and i love sam neill in this movie and i had no business loving him in this movie like this i have no business loving this movie that much.
- 18:00hey it happened event horizon is number four on my list coming in at number three which i know is going to turn a lot of people's heads and and probably turn off this episode but i'm glad you joined me this far but
- 18:16coming in at number three is jurassic park yes it's at three it's at three it is not because the movie's bad i mean it's jurassic park like i told you before this is not
- 18:30a list of the best movies you know this was this was my list of sam neill's best contribution to the film you go to jurassic park for the dinosaurs it wasn't because of sam neill and let's be honest a
- 18:46lot of people didn't know who sam neill was before jurassic park even though he was in a plethora of films and television shows you didn't know who sam neill was matter of fact this role wasn't even written for him.
- 18:59this was written for harrison ford but harrison ford turned it down and so they went to sam neill and for the first time and probably the only time i felt that was the best decision and not to say that uh harrison ford wouldn't have crushed it yeah he you know even
- 19:20though he was basically playing indiana jones again but uh sam neill was perfect for this role perfect
- 19:28for this role uh to be this archaeologist who hates children and gets stuck on this adventure with children you know and in charge of protecting these children from these dinosaurs you know and
- 19:47who better to protect these children from dinosaurs but an archaeologist who's been studying dinosaurs his entire life and you know
- 19:57I love
- 19:57his arc in this one.
- 20:00Hating kids.
- 20:02didn't want him around him didn't want him in the same want to be in the same car with him at the beginning of this movie but by the end when they're all leaving the island on a helicopter and he's hugging the kids and making sure they're safe and everything and it was
- 20:17a beautiful it was beautiful man i know we all were distracted by the pretty dinosaurs in it but it was a beautiful story with Sam Neill and his progression throughout this film to
- 20:31want to protect these children at all costs as opposed to the uh alan grant in the beginning of this film who probably would have fed the children to the dinosaurs if he had the chance but i i love the vid it and yes it comes in at number three and
- 20:49it comes in at number three because number one and number two are far superior performances not because of the movie but because of the performances it
- 21:00they're just my favorites and it's my list so i could do that and so jurassic park comes in at number three coming in at number two this was my first exposure to sam neill i didn't know who sam neill was uh
- 21:17when i saw this movie and it's still to this day one of the creepiest movies that i've seen in
- 21:28my life really i i really i'm if i was if i was to rank thrillers psychological thrillers this would probably be top 10 and it is dead calm from 1989 i remember watching this movie and this this stars
- 21:52not only sam neill but you have a young nicole kidman who plays his wife in his movie and Billy Zane.
- 21:58who this was my first time being exposed to him at that time and so you get these two i mean these three actors before they're big you know at least in my eyes you know uh because i was what 11
- 22:1610 11 and you may want you was 10 and 11 years old watching dead calm look don't tell don't tell mom but yeah i did i was snuck and watched it this was
- 22:29amazing this was an amazing movie i love movies that are claustrophobic you know even though i am claustrophobic i guess that's why i'm drawn to movies like that because when you're in a confined space in
- 22:47a situation that you do not want to be a part of and you wish and you know when you when you sit back and watch movies and you're like man i'm glad that's not me
- 22:59You know you're in a good movie.
- 23:03They hooked you.
- 23:03They got you.
- 23:05And I'm glad that wasn't me.
- 23:06They're on a boat with this psychopath.
- 23:10And Sam Neill gets separated from his wife off this boat.
- 23:13He gets thrown off the boat.
- 23:15So his wife is stuck on this ship,
- 23:18on this yacht,
- 23:19I should say.
- 23:20Not even a yacht.
- 23:21It's just a boat.
- 23:23You know,
- 23:24a nice boat.
- 23:25And he...
- 23:28he being Sam Neill he manages to get to the other ship that this guy came from and come to find out that he he uh you know the psychopath killed everybody on that boat and it's sinking so
- 23:43the whole movie or at least a majority of the movie
- 23:47Sam Neill is trying to repair this boat now he's a
- 23:52I think he's in the Australian Navy or something like that or was in the Australian Navy that they did.
- 23:57Something of that nature.
- 23:59But he knows nautical stuff.
- 24:02So he's managing to get this ship functional enough to get back to that boat where his wife is stuck on with this psychopath.
- 24:15I love this movie.
- 24:18Everybody in this movie was great.
- 24:22But Sam Neill impressed me so much.
- 24:25And like I said,
- 24:26this is my.
- 24:26first time being exposed to him me being young at this time you know i was like man this dude need to be in more movies i just had to wait a couple of years and he would have been running from dinosaurs you know but he was amazing in this movie the movie in within itself is
- 24:46amazing and i would still sit down and watch it today i i haven't seen it in so long and this is one of the
- 24:55Movies that are
- 24:56immediately thought of when i read the news about uh
- 25:01Sam Neill's passing
- 25:03I was like man dead calm you know because everybody kept throwing up pictures of him as uh Alan Grant from Jurassic Park of course because that's his most popular successful film but my mind just immediately went to this you
- 25:20know because this is my first time seeing him on the screen and being impressed by his performance and his stillness you know as
- 25:30taking command of the screen like he did i i love this movie love it i i do plan to watch it in the very near future because i haven't seen it in such a such a while but uh yeah this comes in at number two dead
- 25:48calm coming in at number one is a movie that look once again is not about the quality of the move.
- 26:00we're just focusing on performance here and this is in my humble opinion my favorite not his not saying it's his best but this is my favorite sam neill performance and
- 26:16the reason this is my favorite sam neill performance is because he literally had to put this film on his back the entire movie.
- 26:27We follow him the entire...
- 26:30movie and he has to narrate or or navigate i should say the audience through this crazy hp love crab insanity of
- 26:45a movie and it is the 1994 john carpenter directed film in the mouth of madness this was during the era when john cop
- 26:59carpenter was making these weird low budget horror movies and for some strange reason it appealed to me those those movies like prince of darkness and they live and stuff like that i i love those john those john carpenter movies of course i love the thing and christine and halloween and all that other good stuff but there was then this small little window in the early
- 27:2490s and
- 27:26really mid
- 27:2780s to the early
- 27:2890s with john carpenter was just spitting hot fire man he was doing some wacky crazy stuff and in the mouth of madness was probably the most insane john carpenter movie i he ever made um
- 27:45sam neill plays the lead in this movie and he's uh an insurance investigator and he goes to this small town to investigate
- 27:56the disappearance of this success successful art author of horror novels and then he begins to question his sanity throughout so because the the the lines between reality and fiction start to blur the deeper he digs into this author who turns
- 28:17out to be whatever he was you know satan or whatever.
- 28:22So he,
- 28:24he,
- 28:24you literally.
- 28:26watch him go insane as the movie goes on and you go insane following him the movie really really disturbed me i guess that's why it sticked out the
- 28:41most to me because sam neill's character really goes through the ringer in this movie mentally and physically in some sort i mean driven insane you
- 28:56And
- 28:57Sam Neill played it so well.
- 29:03I don't know if it's because it's John Carpenter or it's a horror movie and a lot of people frown upon those type of movies,
- 29:11you know,
- 29:12as far as awards and accolades are concerned.
- 29:17But his performance in In the Mouth of Madness was bananas,
- 29:25bananas.
- 29:26You hear stories about,
- 29:29like with Heath Ledger playing the Joker,
- 29:31how that played into his psyche,
- 29:34which led to his demise,
- 29:35which we find out that that wasn't 100%
- 29:39true.
- 29:40you know it going off the interviews for people like no that's not what happened you know they were like when when the director yeah cut he was back to being heath ledger he didn't really go full method as the joker but you
- 29:55hear stories about people uh diving into their roles really hard and really going insane because of the the material or not really going sane i'm embellishing But,
- 30:08you know...
- 30:09it affects them mentally they they gotta take a break you know because that's all this was heavy and you watch a movie like this and what sam neill went through during the course of this film was insane and
- 30:26of course it would drive him crazy because it was driving me crazy watching it and at the end just to see at the end that nothing was resolved
- 30:38you know that he really did go insane and sam neill just going full in on this man he he did not mail this in at all you know those those postage stamps stayed on his desk he really he
- 30:54dove head first into this role it's my favorite sam neill performance uh not my favorite sam neill film but my favorite
- 31:06performance from sam neill i i really enjoyed him in the mouth of madness but those are my top five sam neill performances uh like i said i just wanted to talk chat about
- 31:21him a little while because i i loved sam neill gonna miss sam neill he's he's an actor that you know i guess the reason it hit so hard.
- 31:32It's...
- 31:33he's one of those actors that you just didn't expect to go nowhere you know or one of those people you expect to be around forever you know because he he played such a big part of at least my life growing up dating all the way back to when i was a pre-teen you know i've been watching him on the screen and you know seeing him in low budget things seeing him in big budget things and seeing him pop up in the MCU and seeing him on.
- 32:02television and seeing him in a comedy and all that he's just been a part of my life and i he's one of those ones you i took for granted that it will be around forever and sadly forever ended today
- 32:19uh when he passed away at the age of 79 sam neill oddly enough just beat cancer as early as april this year when he reported that
- 32:31went to the doctor they found no traces of cancer in him he he was fighting this uh uh blood cancer this leukemia uh leukemia however you pronounce it uh for years he was diagnosed with that and he went through chemo and all that there and finally in april he
- 32:53after his chemotherapy Stopped working
- 32:55He went and did this
- 32:58New cell therapy In
- 33:01australia on a trial run and they found no cancer in his body and then here we are in july he passed away unexpectedly suddenly you know and it
- 33:17just goes to show you you never know you never know what it is you never you think that is one thing you've been dealing with for quite a while and it could be something else you know and that's why
- 33:30you constantly got to get checked up constantly got to take care of yourself and not to say that he wasn't uh we don't know what the at least the time of this recording we don't know what would what was the cause but uh you
- 33:45know you want to prolong your life as long as you can so make sure you're getting checked make sure you're going to your screenings make sure you're going to your doctor regularly and getting your checkups your blood work and all that good stuff so
- 34:00yeah,
- 34:00man,
- 34:01we lost a good one.
- 34:02Sam Neill,
- 34:04may he rest in peace.
- 34:07I would like to know what was your favorite Sam Neill film?
- 34:11Was it any of the ones I listed or was it another one?
- 34:16Another one.
- 34:16I mean,
- 34:18there's no wrong answers.
- 34:20I think all of his performances were great,
- 34:22but I would love to know your favorite Sam Neill performance.
- 34:27Let me know.
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- 35:01Everybody,
- 35:01thank you for joining me as we looked back and reminisced on the great Sam Neill.
- 35:08Rest in peace.
- 35:09I want you all to know that I love you.
- 35:11Continue to love everyone.
- 35:13And until we speak again,
- 35:15you all be blessed.