Once Were Warriors a searing look at domestic violence

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REVIEW

From New Zealand comes Once Were Warriors, winner of more than 13

international awards, including Best Film, Best Actress, Most Popular

Film and the Ecumenical Award at the Montreal World Film Festival.

In New Zealand, this film has outgrossed every other, including

Jurassic Park and The Piano. It's also been used as an educational tool

by schools there, and the Auckland Police Force.

Once Were Warrior hits you like a mugging. In this tale of modern

native life in New Zealand, the martial prowess of the Maori people --

which once terrified the British army -- is now directed at their wives

and children. This film, a brutal love story, takes a searing look at

domestic violence in an urban Maori family. But this could be violence

in any dysfunctional family, anywhere.

The story begins beside a busy freeway racing by the inner city plight

and poverty of the Maori people. Beth Heke (Rena Owen) returns home

with a armful of groceries to find her 13-year-old daughter Grace

(Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell) sitting in their back yard reciting to her

younger siblings the traditional story of Tunifa.

Shortly after Jake Heke (Temeura Morrison) proudly shows up with a

"seafeed" for his family. He proceeds to seduce his wife in their

kitchen at which point we discover that his gift is merely to soften the

blow of his being laid off. Jake's romantic advances are immediately

thwarted by Beth's sudden anxieties. This fuels an emotional eruption

between the two to which Jake calmly replies, "You think I'd said my

pick had dropped off!"

Jake Heke's vast forearm, covered with a tribal tattoo, can break the

back of any man in the all macho bar where he hangs out, playing the

perfect gentleman to any attractive women who catch his eye. But urban

poverty and the surrounding white culture have coarsened the warrior

ideal: Jake uses the same forearm to hurl his wife across the kitchen,

slam her body against walls and doorways, and smash her face with his

big fist each time she bounces off the wall, before dragging her off to

bed.

In the morning, their children inspect the after-party wreckage: "Who

got beat to piss this time?" asks one innocently.

By way of comfort the next day, Beth's best friend Mavis, who obviously

succumbed to male domination a long time ago, offers her this advice:

"Keep your mouth shut and your legs open."

It's easy to understand why Beth married Jake 18 years ago. He's

handsome, muscular, and exudes sexual energy. Even now, five kids

later, he can seduce Beth with one look. A large part of Jake's problem

is his jealousy of Beth's background. She was the pride of her tribe --

a princess, whereas he came from a long line of slaves who've had no

self-esteem for centuries. Beth points out to him that he's now become

a slave to his fists, the alcohol and ultimately himself.

But Beth's a survivor. It will take more than 18 years of beatings to

conquer her spirit, and besides she's still deeply in love with Jake.

Director Lee Tamahori makes his directoral debut with Once Were

Warriors. Tamahori, like all of his crew and cast and many New

Zealanders, is of mixed blood. His father was Maori, his mother

European. He does not talk about his film as a tale of oppressed

minority turning its violence on itself.

"Oh, I hate that political correctness stuff," he says impatiently.

"It's nonsense about Aboriginal cultures being superior. And it's

especially ridiculous in New Zealand, where everybody -- and I mean

everybody -- is of mixed blood."

The movie, like New Zealand itself, is ambiguous on the racial

question. Yes, everybody there may be a little bit Maori, but the Heke

family is very much Maori, and Beth, who speaks her Native tongue,

dreams of returning to their ancestral landscapes to escape whatever

poisonous distillate is ruining their lives.

Tamahori states that: "I really did not mean for the movie to suggest

that a dysfunctional family can fix its problems by going back to its

roots, I'm just saying thats it's a beginning, that you have to get

something to hang onto."

There are some hopeful sequences where the kids rediscover their

culture, whether by joining a street gang that reproduces Maori

traditions (i.e. extensive tattooing), or by ending up in a reform

school where tribal pride is taught. There Boogie (Taungaroa Emile)

learns from his Maori teacher that his mind is his most formidable

weapon, not his fists. Nig, (Julian Arahanga), a gang member, asks his

younger brother Boogie if he'd like a tattoo, to which he replies, "No I

wear mine on the inside."

Many movie goers have been shaken up by the film but that's not

necessarily a bad thing. Teenagers in New Zealand have gone to see it

over and over again, because they finally have a picture which

represents them, says Rena Owen.

"Boogie is a very positive role model for teens, and they're very

attracted to Nig, the bars, the fashion, the style, the sounds --

teenagers just go mad over it.

"Now in our country domestic violence is a crime. Guys get arrested

for domestic violence, simple as that, whereas in the past they never

did. Last year we had 56 murders resulting from domestic violence

that's one person per week, whether it's a woman or a child."