Goodbye Pork Pie/Fun Facts

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Goodbye Pork Pie
  • Most of the audio for the chase scenes had to be re-recorded in post-production. This was due to the noise made by the numerous gravel roads.
  • The beginning title card mentions driving your car whenever you pleased. This is a reference to 'car less days' that were introduced by the Muldoon government in 1979. With car less days, unless you had a exemption, you were not supposed to drive your car on the day of the week displayed on your windscreen or you could face a hefty fine. Ironically, they were phased out before Goodbye Pork Pie even reached the cinemas.
  • While John and Gerry are in the tearooms, the television news announces the death of Pope John Paul I. This would date the film to occur around 28 September 1978.
  • Shortly after the film's release, New Zealand Police reported an increase in Mini thefts across the country.
  • According to a piece Geoff Murphy wrote for "Film in Aotearoa New Zealand", it would have cost too much to get stunt drivers out for the shot of a police car flying off a bank and into a lake, so Murphy himself was the driver of the car for this shot.
  • In one scene, John and Gerry visit Cromwell and sell the steel trim, grille and batter, and take an oil can at a garage before driving over a bridge. Where this scene takes place was later flooded in 1992-93 by the creation of Lake Dunstan as part of the Clyde Hydroelectric Dam scheme. The garage was demolished and the bridge is now under 10 metres (33 feet) of water.
  • The film was remade 37 years later as Pork Pie (2017).
  • In the United Kingdom, the film was given the 18 rating. However, in New Zealand, the film was rated R13, but the rating was later changed to PG.
  • The film takes place in 1978.
  • John is trying to get a ride to Invercargill and wanders into a dispute outside the Auckland bus station between Gerry and a traffic cop. When he tells the cop he's "involved" with Gerry and the yellow Mini, the cop asks John for his name, and he replies, "Smith". The cop smirks and walks away. Smith was the name of the main character in Sleeping Dogs, who was played by Sam Neill. The traffic cop in Goodbye Pork Pie was played by Clyde Scott, who played Jesperson in Sleeping Dogs. Jesperson, a crooked cop, relentlessly pursued the innocent Smith until his death, for "crimes against the government". Ian Mune scripted both Goodbye Pork Pie and the screenplay for Sleeping Dogs.
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