Sam Neill, 1947-2026

The actor Sam Neill died earlier today aged 78.

He appeared in a number of fine movies — Sleeping Dogs, Dead Calm, The Piano, Jurassic Park, Event Horizon — and a couple — Omen III and Attack Force Z — which maybe aren’t so fine but which I quite like anyway.

One of his best moments on screen came in the excellent Cold War thriller, The Hunt for Red October. Neill plays second in command to Sean Connery’s Soviet submarine captain, who is trying to defect and take his experimental boat with him, and there is a scene where they share their dreams of life in America.

This scene captures the yearning felt by hundreds of millions of people trapped under the oppression and poverty of socialism in countries like the Soviet Union for the freedom and wealth possible under capitalism in the United States. Americans may take it for granted at times; increasingly so, it seems, with socialism’s increasing popularity here. Those who have seen the socialist alternative are rarely so enamored.

A scene like this, showing the desire for simple freedom, is a tribute to America and a challenge to Americans; let us keep it that way.