“Pork Pie is the story of two young men who journey from Northland to Invercargill, pursued by police most of the way, in a very small yellow car. Their escapades grow to front-page proportions, and the reputation of the police hangs on their capture. En route, and hard up, the travellers sell off pieces of the car to finance their journey” (Vernon Wright, “Goodbye Pork Pie, hello success”, NZ Listener, 7 February 1981.)
“In movieland’s world of tinsel and superlatives, the term blockbuster can truly be applied to the film Goodbye Pork Pie which on Thursday became the first New Zealand film to make a box office gross of $1 million. That’s more than twice the amount grossed by any other film made in this country. The success of Goodbye Pork Pie has sent our film industry into raptures. And understandably so. Nearly 500,000 people have seen it in this country. It has been sold to 26 overseas countries and the New Zealand Film Commission is negotiating with others” (“Hello Success”, Wanganui Chronicle, 18 April 1981.)
“I enjoyed the film when I first saw it and still do. I think it has a warm feeling. I get genuinely involved in the build-up of the chase, even though when I see that scene with the mini humping up and down in the car yard I wonder how they got away with it, it’s so sexist. You wouldn’t get away with it now [...] As part of the promotion for the film Tony Barry and I were driven round the centre of Palmerston North in an open-topped white convertible, sitting on the top waving to the crowd. I was really embarrassed. All I’d done was five days in a film about nothing much. When I consider the creative input I’ve put into parenting, as most women have, I think we should all be carted around in white convertibles and cheered, but not for five days work in a movie” (Shirley Gruar in Barbara Cairns & Helen Martin, “Shadows on the Wall: a study of seven New Zealand feature films”, Auckland, Longman Paul, 1994, pp.57-58.)