Conference bookie::movies

645.0. "Once were Warriors (NZ Film)" by 58633::TRP109::Chris (prognosis negative) Mon Sep 12 1994 12:37

From the Toronto Film Festival...

ONCE WERE WARRIORS (****)

This movie was terrifying and violent and I still have a headache this 
morning from the fitful sleep it gave me last night.  That being said, it 
was also a brilliant film.  A New Zealand production, directed by Lee 
Tamahori and the two principal actors of a very fine cast are Rena Owen and 
Temuera Morrison.  The story is set in urban NZ and concerns a Maori (NZ's 
indigenous people) dysfunctional family.  I believe it could have involved 
any race and been as effective.  The Heke family is more or less held 
together by Beth, who has been married to Jake for 18 years.  At first, he 
is handsome and charming but not too far into the film we discover that he 
is also a macho pig, a semi-alcoholic, and violent both inside and outside 
the home.  Beth, of course, is his preferred victim.  Their marriage is 
still heavily sexual and he can still entice her into bed with a smile.  
They have 5 children who suffer from their parents' tempestuous relationship 
and the growing undercurrent of violence eventually erupts and blows things 
wide open.  It was a very difficult movie to sit through, and at points I 
had to massage my throat to try and get rid of the lump that was making 
breathing almost impossible.  It is unrelentlessly honest and never 
sentimental.  The performances are so real that one cares about each of the 
characters, even Jake who is treated with understanding but not much 
sympathy.  I feel that any family caught in the same sort of urban horror 
(poverty, alcoholism, violence) would be portrayed the same.  There was 
another Q&A with the director and actress who played "Beth" and at first 
nobody could say anthing because the audience was sitting in stunned 
silence.  Tamahori said that this had happened frequently at the other film 
festivals he has taken this movie to.  The movie was done with a very low 
budget and the NZ Film Board has little financing, so I guess this was a 
showcase movie in order to attract future investors.  The question was asked 
on whether or not this was "typical" of the Maori situation, and both the 
director and lead actress stated that it was.  If I have one criticism of 
the movie, it was that it seemed to portray ALL Maori lifestyle the same 
way.  I was in NZ for 6 weeks in 1990 and spent some time on a Marae, which 
is a Maori meeting house and also had a Maori tour guide for 6 days who took 
us out to bars to meet his friends, and was able to see another side of life 
to this race.  However, the point was made that Maori's are 12% of the NZ 
population and 50% of the prison population, which is probably comparable to 
the statistics for the Afro-American race in the States.

Did anyone see this movie after it opened in wide release?  It's still 
playing here in Toronto and has done quite well.

    I did.  I liked it quite a bit.  It's very interesting, although I
    thought the plot slighted the (dern, forgot his name) father's
    character a bit in favor of the mother.  It would have been interesting
    to discover more about what made HIM tick.   
    
    I thought the girl who played the daughter did a marvelous job.  
    
    And of course, the tattooed Maori gang members were the more
    intimidating collection of people I've ever seen.  They were
    cool-looking, to be sure, but when I think of the word intimidating
    nowdays, I think of them.
    
    ***.5 out of ****
    
    Cheers,
    
    kim