Wild Horses

Wild Horses is a New Zealand western set in Tongariro National Park, and based around real events and people associated with the wild equine inhabitants of the Central Plateau during the 1960s and 1970s.

Wild Horses, New Zealand, 1984

Endeavour Productions
Director: Derek Morton
Producer: John Barnett
Executive producer: Gary Hannam
First assistant director: Peter Bennett
Second assistant directors: Lee Tamahori, Jonty Barraud
Camera: Mike Hardcaslte
Director of photography: Doug Milsome
Original screenplay: Kevin O’Sullivan
Music: Dave Fraser
Production designer: Joe Bleakley
Editor: Simon Reece

With: Keith Aberdein (Mitch), John Bach (Jack), Kevin J Wilson (Harry), Robyn Gibbes (Sara), Bruno Lawrence (Tyson), Marshall Napier (Andy), Martyn Sanderson (Jones), Michael Haigh (Benson), Tom Poata (Sam), Kathy Rawlings (Mary), Matiu Mareikura (Kingi), Peter Tait (Joe)

35mm, 89 minutes, PG

When Dan Mitchell loses his job at the local mill, he decides to capture and sell the wild horses which roam free in the foothills of Mount Ruapehu. Joined by friends, the Sullivan brothers and former rodeo riders Sam and Sara, Dan packs up house and home and heads for the hills. Trouble begins when deer hunters in the park maintain that the horses and their catchers scare away their prey. They begin shooting the horses at random. They also hire a professional exterminator to shoot the horses, the park is soon littered with rotting carcasses as he goes about his task with grisly efficiency.

Wild Horses is a New Zealand western set in Tongariro National Park, and based around real events and people associated with the wild equine inhabitants of the Central Plateau during the 1960s and 1970s.

“There are diverse characters, richly detailed digressions, top-notch production values, and a realistic sense of the pragmatics that intersect with ideals on both sides of the issue. But all these story elements clearly take a back-seat here to the real stars of such a film. It is the horses themselves, and the massive beauty of land they roam, that are the films greatest strength, and what stays vividly imprinted on the memory.” — 3rd Annual Vancouver International Film Festival

Bruno Lawrence as Tyson
Bruno plays hired gun, Tyson. He is the figure on the skyline: a brooding, ominous presence, the instrument of change. The park ranger and Benson (manager of the venison recovery firm) call him in as the “final solution” to the wild horse problem. Tyson is a deer culler of long experience, brought in when a really thorough extermination job is required. He is not a cruel man or an unreasonable one. He has a job to do and sets about doing it in a cold, efficient and professional way.

Story Background – Production Notes
Wild Horses is a true story. For the purposes of the film, events that took place during the 1960s and 1970s have been juggled and compressed into one year – 1970. But there really were characters like Dan Mitchell and most of the things that happen in the film also happened in real life. Until the early 70s, wild horses were well established over the Tongariro plateau. But during the early 60s they began to be regarded as an ecological threat. Like the deer, who were also numerous, they damaged the regenerating bush and carried gorse and broom seeds through the park. When construction began on the Tongariro hydro scheme, State Highway 47 (the National Park-Taupo Road) was built. Problems with erosion caused the pumice banking to slip in wet weather, forcing the closure of the road. To combat the problem, clover was planted on both sides of the road. This, in turn, attracted the wild horses to the verge of the road and a number of serious traffic accidents occurred. A third factor spelt the beginning of the end for the wild horses. Although there has been a national park at Tongariro since the early 1890s, it wasn’t until the early 1960s that a ranger was first appointed to manage the park – and his charter decreed that only native wildlife and fauna were permitted. Compounding this, the boom in venison exports attracted hunters to the area and they were encouraged to shoot the wild horses. The general public was also given carte blanche to hunt the horses and shooting them became a popular local sport. Some people, like Dan Mitchell in the film, made their living by catching and selling the horses. They saw the need to keep the horses alive – not only to preserve their livelihood, but out of respect for the balance of nature.

The Kaimanawa Horses – adapted from www.doc.govt.nz
Wild horses were first introduced into the Central Plateau in 1814, it was not until 1876, but that they were first recorded in the Kaimanawa Mountains. Prior to 1981 there was no official monitoring of horse numbers and no formal management; it was generally believed that there were plenty of wild horses. Pressure from land development, along with increased competition from the activities of people and hunting drove the number of wild horses down, reducing their range to a fraction of its original extent. Concern for the decreasing number of wild horses led to the establishment of the Kaimanawa Wild Horse Committee in 1978 and a study conducted in 1979 found that only approximately 174 wild horses remained. In response to public lobbying a protected area for the Kaimanawa Wild Horses was established in 1981, until 1989 however the area was not managed. Since then the Kaimanawa Wild Horses have been better managed and their numbers have regenerated. In 1994 the Kaimanawa Wild Horse Working Party was convened by the Department of Conservation to develop a management strategy to oversee the horses. From 1993 the Department of Conservation has conducted an annual muster of the wild horses to ensure a herd limit of 500, and with the Kaimanawa Wild Horses Advisory Group they evaluate the minimum herd number required for a viable herd (minimum number, 300) against the impact they will have on the environment.

Production History – from The Listener, 5 June 1982
A stop-go project from its inception Wild Horses “began as a co-production between Pat Cox, best-known as a producer of TV commercials, and Wellington actor Kevin Wilson, who wrote the script. They wanted Geoff Murphy to direct, but Murphy and Wilson disagreed over aspects of the script and the Pork Pie man (now filming Utu) eventually lost interest. Derek Morton, an original member of the Ian Mune-Geoff Murphy-Bruno Lawrence clique that launched the current movie-making boom in New Zealand, was subsequently engaged as director. But then Cox dropped out as co-producer, claiming the repeatedly revised script still wasn’t up to scratch, and John Barnett – producer of Beyond Reasonable Doubt and Race for the Yankee Zephyr, among others – took over. Finally the cameras rolled, but the problems weren’t over: shooting on location was plagued by production foul-ups and the crew managed only 39 days of filming instead of the 48 that Morton had calculated were necessary. At that stage drastic revisions were made to the script and Morton figured he needed six more days on location to salvage the project. But before he could resume filming Barnett terminated his contract and lead actor Keith Aberdein took over as director, making yet more changes to the script and supervising final location filming. Morton now refuses to be associated with the film, pointing out that he has no control over the vital post-production stages. Changes were also made to the cast which Cox and Wilson had originally decided on. Wilson’s actress wife Kathy Rawlings was dropped from the leading role in favour of Australian actress Robyn Gibbes, and Tony Burton (ex Close to Home) was wiped as the movie’s bad guy. Burton’s role was re-assigned to Bill Stalker, and after Stalker’s death in a motorcycle crash was taken on by Bruno Lawrence. Burton, ironically, was the person who first gave Wilson the idea for the flim… Despite all the apparent hassles, producer Barnett says he’s happy with the film.”

Screenings: Wild Horses screened on 20 July 2005 as part of a selection honouring the work of actor Bruno Lawrence.