Once Were Warriors

Once Were Warriors deserves every accolade New Zealand society can award it. Make it the next film you see.

Once Were Warriors, New Zealand, 1994

Communicado
Director: Lee Tamahori
Producer: Robin Scholes
Screenplay: Riwia Brown, from the novel by Alan Duff
Photography: Stuart Dryburgh
Editor: Michael Horton
Designer: Michael Kane
Design assistant: Guy Moana
Music: Murray Grindlay, Murray McNabb

With: Rena Owen (Beth), Temuera Morrison (Jake), Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell (Grace), Julian Arahanga (Nig), Taungaroa Emile (Boogie), Rachael Morris (Polly), Joseph Kairua (Huata), Cliff Curtis (Bully), Shannon Williams (Toot), Pete Smith (Dooley)

35mm, 102 minutes, R16 – contains graphic violence

Watch the trailer for Once Were Warriors (2.6MB; 2.02 minutes)

“Tamahori weaves Once Were Warriors multiple storylines expertly; we jump with ease from Toot and Grace staring at the stars to Nig’s gang initiation ceremony. Although shot with an eye to a video and television future, the film’s intense, claustrophobic style works well on the big screen. Generally, directors who have spent most of their career in advertising are better at shot composition than storytelling, but that’s definitely not the case with Tamahori. Warriors has the impact of a well-structured commercial stretched to fill almost two hours. It is aggressive in delivery as much as content, and few will leave the theatre without feeling drained and exhausted. Tamahori is helped in no small way by the performances of Rena Owen as Beth, and Temuera Morrison as Jake. Morrison’s Jake is an uncompromising physical and emotional bully, for whom the pub is home territory. Carrying some jugs over to his handsome mate, Bully, Jake sees him talking to a couple of women. “If I’d wanted to drink with women I’d have gone to the f---ing lounge bar,” says Jake, and the women take the hint and leave. In Jake’s own mind he is still a warrior, master of his domain. Morrison revels in the role, becoming a truly frightening figure, all machismo and guile. Rena Owen’s Beth is the best anti-hero ever to grace the New Zealand screen. After spending most of the film as a victim and punching-bag, she is eventually transformed by the film’s pivotal tragedy into a much wiser, stronger person. And it’s a spiritual rebirth that seems completely natural, credible and long over due. Once Were Warriors is a masterpiece… The actors’ performances are great, the direction is involving and exciting, and the script impeccable. Sometimes the film feels so real you expect to be able to smell the glue in the bag, or the mince burning on the stove. Once Were Warriors deserves every accolade New Zealand society can award it. Make it the next film you see.” — Mark Tierney, NZ Listener, 14/5/1994

“Celebrated as the top-grossing film of all time in New Zealand, Once Were Warriors is also the first Maori work to reach an international art-house audience. In terms of genre, however, it fits neatly with recent Afro-American urban films in dealing with a community disenfranchised through economics and race. Rap music and a punchy credits sequence indicate that, for director Lee Tamahori, the genre connection is important. Quick-fire editing and burnished visuals give the film a rich appearance, far from the sober, social-realist tradition that the subject matter might ordinarily suggest. In style then, this story of an imploding dysfunctional family borrows more form Ken Loach. Although the film is adapted from Alan Duff’s novel, the producer/scriptwriter team of Robin Scholes and Riwia Brown agreed to “shape it more to Beth’s story”. With Beth as the emergent protagonist, Warriors is thus clearly a woman’s comment on the status quo, gaining much of its dynamism from Rena Owen’s sparky performance as the matriarch.” — Lizzie Francke, Sight & Sound, April 1995

“Once Were Warriors would be unrelentingly downbeat if not for the magnetic performances of the lead players and for the fact that, despite the drinking and the violence, the relationship between Beth and Jake is, against the odds, a warm one. Scenes in which husband and wife spontaneously sing together are wrenchingly touching when placed alongside the ever-present violence… Rena Owen plays Beth with distinction, creating a believably passionate woman whose life hasn’t turned out the way she planned. As Jake, Temuera Morrison manages to invest this brutal shiftless character with charm, which makes him all the more human… This is a remarkably assured first feature, which has been executed with total confidence. A major asset is the brooding cinematography of Stuart Dryburgh (totally different from his work on The Piano), and Michael Horton’s editing is a precision job.” — David Stratton, Variety, 20/5/1994

Screenings: Once Were Warriors screened on 9 July 2008; on 18 October 2006 in the Censored: NZ Films and the Censor's Office programme; and on 31 October 2004 as part of a season selected by film maker Larry Parr