Once Were Warriors
by Lee Tamahori
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DVD details
Actor: Julian Arahanga, Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell, Rena Owen, Taungaroa Emile, Temuera MorrisonDirector: Lee Tamahori
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Stuart Dryburgh
Editor: Michael Horton
Producer: Robin Scholes
Writer: Alan Duff
Writer: Riwia Brown
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); Maori (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Line Home Video
DVD Reviews of Once Were Warriors
DVD Review: Very moving
Summary: 4 Stars
I finally bought this DVD for lack of being able to find a place that had it for rental. It is an amazing film even if it is sad and quite violent.
The film follows the lives of an inner-city Maori family and deals with issues of abuse and finding inner strength.
It is certainly not a movie that everyone will like, but it is a powerful look at what people are capable of when it comes to difficult choices.
DVD Review: one of my favorite movies of all time w/scenes I never saw before
Summary: 5 Stars
I have loved this movie for well over a decade after catching it on the Independant Film Channel one day. Had several copies on VHS (was always getting people to watch it and never once did anyone not like it) and went as far as to get a DVD copy from Europe once but my girlfriend has that copy. This one I got had several scenes I had never seen before which blew me away. The copy itself was great (no scratches, no skips). I was EXRTREMELY happy with this purchase.DVD Review: The Maori's of New Zealand
Summary: 5 Stars
This film shows that people are the same no matter where they live. Rape and spousal abuse are universal.DVD Review: A Correct Cultural Film
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is a very correct interpretation of the urban Maori culture based in South Auckland, New Zealand. This film is highly recommended by sociologists. However, it is not a "nice" film and is by no means sugar coated. This film is a realistic movie about the problems the Maori culture encounters on a day to day basis and the family problems they encounter. I strongly recommend this film.DVD Review: Unforgettable and powerful drama
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie, impressively, describes the daily reality of a Maori family in New Zealand and puts a stop straight away to any romantic myths one might harbor considering the Maori people. This is perfectly illustrated with the opening shot in which we look at a beautiful landscape with a sun soaked lake, marvelous trees and hills. The camera however moves back somewhat and reality sets in: we were looking ad a bill board and as a matter of fact we find ourselves near a highway winding itself through the slums of Auckland, New Zealand.
Its director, Lee Tamahori weaves, in a truly unforgettable way, the torturous existence of the Heke family, a tapestry of which the strains have been dyed in blood, sweat and tears, even though in some spots specks of sunlight can be noticed, but the chain of dramatic events that lead to a tragic unraveling, prove unstoppable.
Tamahori is far from gentle with the audience and the impact of the at times extremely violent scenes at times hit with the force of a sledge hammer. These images show a family trapped in social-economic hopelessness, to which the only escape seems to be through alcohol and/or sexual abuse and fortunately, every once in a while, a beautiful song. As head of the family, Jake, magnificently portrayed by Temuera Morrison, in this sense also takes the lead through physical violence in what he considers maintaining his pride in a world that will not allow him any otherwise. As these attempts fail on a regular basis, he takes out his frustration and subsequent rage on his family, especially his wife, an equally impressive portrayal by Rena Owen, who seems to be the victim but in the end is the only one maintaining her dignity and pride.
When we first meet this family, it's clear it has been suffering under these circumstances for years, causing family ties to be strenuous to say the least, if they haven't already been irreparably damaged as they are between Jake and both his sons Nig, Sonny (who we only meet in the sequel to this movie "What becomes of the broken hearted") and young Mark.
Their mother already has a hard time making ends meet, so the children are mostly left to their own devices.
Dramatic events follow, mostly ensuing from Jake's violent nature and selfishness, until a climactic event becomes the turning point in the movie and the lives of all involved will change definitively and will also be engraved in the viewer's soul.
Description of Once Were Warriors
An urban Maori family deals with great difficulties in adjusting to normalcy in urban New Zealand.New Zealand filmmaker Lee Tamahori (The Edge) directed this brutal but powerful story drawn from the culture of poverty and alienation enveloping contemporary Maori life. Rena Owen plays the beleaguered mother of two boys--one of whom is already in prison while the other contemplates membership in a gang--and a daughter whose potential is being smothered at home. Temuera Morrison gives an outstanding and sometimes shocking performance as the violent head of the household, more adept at keeping up his social stature within his community of friends than holding down a job. The film pulls no punches, literally and figuratively, but despite the rough going, Tamahori gives us a rare and important insight into a disenfranchised people digging down deep to find their pride. --Tom Keogh
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