BATTLETRUCK

“An action packed adventure film, set in the all too probable future - a post oil future - a future where countries have become bankrupt and governments have collapsed, heralding a new lawless age... and the BATTLETRUCK Shot in the rugged countryside of Central Otago in the South Island of New Zealand, BATTLETRUCK is a story of conflict - conflict between Colonel Straker, rogue commander of the BATTLETRUCK, who takes what he will, and Hunter the hero, who like a Samurai, finds his code and love of a woman too strong to submit to Straker’s tyranny” - (BATTLETRUCK publicity flyer)

“BATTLETRUCK is an all-out chase film, with lots of violence, fast action and stroppy vehicles. Evil Straker, thoroughly cartoon as he shoots from the hip, is in the end no match for noble Hunter’s cunning. The vehicles are ingenious and the rest of the production design has futuristic ambience. The Central Otago Plains are magnificent: brown, dusty and almost lunar in their barrenness [...] BATTLETRUCK’s production exacerbated worries among the local film-making community that New Zealand was in danger of becoming a Hollywood satellite with overseas interests exploiting our cheap actor and crew rates and great locations.” - (Helen Martin & Sam Edwards, “New Zealand Film 1912 -1996”, Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1997, p. 82)