Let Sleeping Dogs, Lie

Here in New Zealand, we have a proud history of filmmaking. While many believe this history started recently with Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings mega-franchise, it goes back far further than that. Perhaps one of the best New Zealand films of all time was the 1977 film, Sleeping Dogs, the Roger Donaldson dystopian classic. If you haven’t seen it, you really should.

My article today, however, isn’t about the New Zealand film industry. I’m going to avoid the temptation to tell you that Peter Jackson’s first breakout film, Bad Taste, was actually filmed in the same historic building I was married in. I’m not even going to talk about the logic, or otherwise (you be the judge) of tax subsidies to support the Kiwi film industry.

Instead, I’m going to riff on the title of that classic, Sleeping Dogs, and write about occasions in which we (and by we I mean both the public and the media) should simply let sleeping dogs lie. In writing this article, I went down a veritable rabbit hole investigating the origin of the saying. Some suggest it all started with Geoffrey Chaucer’s story, Troilus and Criseyde, published in 1374. Others suggest it originated in France even earlier in the 14th century, as found in the Proverbia Vulgalia et Latina. But beyond my etymological meanderings, the saying is relevant.

What, you might ask, has me thinking of this saying? It all started with some coverage recently of the 30th anniversary of the Bain murders. Now almost everyone reading this article will be well aware of the history of that trial. The tragic death of five members of the Bain family. The arrest of the remaining son and the subsequent trials, appeals, Privy Council quashing of the conviction, retrial and eventual acquittal of Bain.

Since then, Bain has married, raised a family and assumed a new identity to enable him to live a quiet and peaceful life in rural New Zealand. Nothing new has happened in this case in recent years, the legal process is over and all those years that Bain spent in jail cannot be returned.

The point here is one around the voyeuristic interest that we seem to have still. Journalists ambushed his house and banged on the door till he answered. Those same journalists outed his new identity and his location of residence. The gratuitous rehashing of the decades-old gruesome details of the murders. It is immensely gratuitous and sadly voyeuristic.

Regardless of whether you’re in the camp that is adamant that Bain murdered his family, or you’re a vehement supporter of the innocence school, it matters naught. The legal system has been exhausted, Bain (rightly or wrongly) did time and was subsequently acquitted.

If there were some point in extra coverage, if there was some new evidence, some societal learnings from the case, even a reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of the police, judicial or penal systems in New Zealand, then maybe dragging this all up would have been justified. But there was none of that, it was simply voyeuristic clickbait by lazy journalists feeding the insatiable appetite of a public wedded to reality television. And don’t even start me on Reality TV which is an utter oxymoron given that reality TV tends to be more fictional than the best (or worst, even) SitCom.

I get that it sounds like I’m getting all pent up about something inconsequential. I get that yesterday’s news is today’s fish and chip wrapper (notwithstanding that most people consume the news electronically and trying to wrap fish and chips with an iPad is doomed to failure). But, frankly, for those people directly affected by this event – the extended family, the various lawyers involved, the support network around Bain and, most importantly, David Bain himself – this digging up the past is actually damaging.

I’ve never closely followed the Bain story, I don’t have an opinion either way about whodunnit and, frankly, at this juncture and after 30 years it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the impact on those still around and for their sake, I reckon, like the title of that classic Kiwi movie, we’re much better simply letting sleeping dogs lie.