Whale Rider (Special Edition)
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DVD details
Actor: Cliff Curtis, Grant Roa, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky HaughtonBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
Published: 2003-10-01
DVD Release Date: 2003-10-28
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Whale Rider (Special Edition)
DVD Review: Blending tradition and modernity
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, it's been a while since this movie came out, but I finally felt I had to put in my 2 cents because of some of the more recent reviews which are just plain ignant in places.
First of all, the capsule: This is one of the great, great movies of all time. It's much more subtle (and kinder) than Once Were Warriors but perhaps translates a little less immediately for people outside of Polynesia because Niki Caro, herself a Pakeha (British-descended, non-Maori) New Zealander, doesn't feel compelled to explain Maori culture to outsiders. This reflects the increasing familiarity of many New Zealanders of all races and cultural backgrounds with Maori culture and in this respect it is the most mature bicultural film to come out of Aotearoa. However, at the same time, this does make it a bit harder for the poor old foreigners to understand or feel the more nuanced parts of the wairua (spirit) of this movie.
This is a movie that is uplifting, humane and deeply emotional. Anyone who thinks there is a "man-bashing" agenda here must have brought that particular mindset in with them. There are plenty of men who support Pai in the movie: her dad, her uncle, her friend Hemi (in an ungainly, preteen kind of way). Anyway, I digress. This movie rocks, and Niki Caro, the cast, and especially Keisha Castle-Hughes (Pai), Rawiri Paratene (Koro) and Vicky Haughton (Nanny Flowers) deserve huge praise for their wonderful work.
On to the more cultural stuff: First of all, if anyone has said this before then my apologies, but Koro is a modern Maori even if he has some old-fashioned ideas. He lives in the 21st century and is dealing with 21st century issues. This idea that only white people or people who live in cities are modern is something that continues to annoy me intensely. Although the movie doesn't hit you over the head with it, there are plenty of reasons why Koro is so desperate to find "the one": The hopelessness of the young people in the community, the lack of opportunity and an aimlessness that leads kids to drugs, gangs and to a systematic loss of faith in themselves and in their future. These things are at once familiar to anyone who works with rural young people in almost any industrialized country and also specifically a local issue because of the idea among quite a few people (including, sadly some of the kids themselves) that Maori youth and in particular rural Maori youth are expendable in the market-driven, vacuous, ad-saturated world of mainstream consumerist New Zealand society. Having spent some time in the far north of the country (in and around the Hokianga), I could recognize a lot of the kids and the older young people in the secondary characters of the movie.
That said, Koro is a traditionalist within the context of his particular part of the world and he does hold to the notion that women don't have the nature to wield the kind of mana (spiritual power) that is required of a chief. Nanny Flowers on the other hand, comes from the Arawa people where women did and do hold political power. Moreover she herself is descended from the great chiefess Muriwai, This is one of the reasons why she continually helps Pai and resists Koro's attempts to demean Pai just because she was born a girl. Flowers' stance is just as "traditional" as Koro's so this movie (in its typical, quiet way) challenges us to not to get too comfortable with easy pigeon-holing.
I also want to take issue with the people who felt the whole thing with the whales was too "New Age-y". In traditional Maori understanding, specific groups of people are connected by genealogy to landscapes, rivers, mountains and other natural resources including animals and plants. The original Whalerider, Paikea, established the link between the Ngati Konohi (the community shown in the movie) and the whales. As relatives, the whales are bound by obligations to the people, just as the people are bound by obligation to the whales. Koro's inability to call to the ancestors reflects the fact that he has lost some part of his mana as a descendant of Paikea because of his foolish adherence to the form of tradition, rather than its spirit. The whales beach not because Pai called them too close to the shore, but because their plight mirrors the plight of the people (directionless, failing and blind). This issue was downplayed by the director, and is the only place where, in my humble opinion, Niki Caro's instincts as a film-maker perhaps over-rode the need for an explicit narrative to the detriment of the film as a whole.
The whole issue of how to blend the "traditional" with the "modern" is the central axis of this movie. It's just a guess but I think that the reason why this movie was so incredibly popular when it finally made it here to Hawai`i was that it suggested that you can marry the two (tradition and modernity) together. That traditions can be changed without losing their ability to keep people strong and moral. That while traditions are the root that makes the tree strong, the branches of the tree should adapt to their own specific situation. The question of how to apply traditional ideas to modern contexts is one of the big issues facing colonized and disenfranchised peoples everywhere.
However, (and let me be clear about this) this is a different issue from the idea of cultural authenticity and cultural identity. No-one would argue that Europeans (or Euro-Americans, or Euro-New Zealanders) should practice 18th century European culture in order to be considered "authentic" white people. Why the heck should native people be held to a different standard?
One thing that might make some of this clearer, is to watch the "making of" documentary in the special features part of the DVD. This is a really nice piece of documentary film-making and it gives a much better sense of the real Maori community who hosted the film crew but also the tremendous pride and sense of connection that the actors and crew (both Maori and Pakeha) felt to the community and to the wairua that lies behind the film. Without the real people and the real culture, this would have just been a pretty story in a beautiful landscape. The reality is much, much deeper.
One other thing that might help people understand Whale Rider a little better is to learn a bit more about Maori culture. Some suggestions are: novels: "The Bone People" by Keri Hulme; anything by Witi Ihimaera (including the book the movie was based on "The Whale Rider" although for my money, "Tangi" is better), and Patricia Grace's "Potiki". In non-fiction: "Making Peoples" by James Belich, "Two Worlds" by Anne Salmond, "Tikanga Whakaaro" by Cleve Barlow (fairly rare these days but a great resource as is Hiwi and Pat Tauroa's "A guide to customs and protocol"), "Tikanga Maori" by Hirini Mead which is also very good but much denser and Linda Tuhiwai Smith's "Decolonizing Methodologies". Avoid anything by Alan Duff until you have some familiarity with what's really going on in Maori culture. Once you know something, you can also go back and look at movies like "Once Were Warriors" and "Utu" and appreciate the things they say (and don't say).
Niki Caro, Witi Ihimaera and the cast and crew of Whale Rider have made a beautiful and memorable addition to world literature. It's great as a story about an individual, but it's true greatness comes as a story about a people.
Description of Whale Rider (Special Edition)
There is a legend that Paikea rode on the back of a whale and led his people to New Zealand. Since that time tradition has decreed that the first-born male descendant will become chief of the tribe. Then Pai is born...and she is a girl. She grows up within a close-knit village which retains the tribes traditional spiritual relationship with the sea and their warrior values. Although loved by all, Pai faces rejection from her grandfather, Koro, who is brokenhearted that there is no grandson to carry on the line.One of the most charming and critically acclaimed films of 2003, the New Zealand hit Whale Rider effectively combines Maori tribal tradition with the timely "girl power" of a vibrant new millennium. Despite the discouragement of her gruff and disapproving grandfather (Rawiri Paratene), who nearly disowns her because she is female and therefore traditionally disqualified from tribal leadership, 12-year-old Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is convinced that she is a tribal leader, and sets about to prove it. Rather than inflate this story (from a novel by Witi Ihimaera) with artificial sentiment, writer-director Niki Caro develops very real and turbulent family relationships, intimate and yet torn by a collision between stubborn tradition and changing attitudes. The mythic whale rider--the ultimate symbol of Maori connection to nature--is also the harbinger of Pai's destiny, and the appealing Castle-Hughes gives a luminous, astonishingly powerful performance that won't leave a dry eye in the house. With its fresh take on a familiar tale, Whale Rider is definitely one from the heart. --Jeff Shannon
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