Film: Once Were Warriors

Directed by: Lee Tamahori

Year: 1994

Starring: Temuera Morrison, Rena Owen, Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell

Reviewed by: Zombieslayer

I saw Heavenly Creatures and Once Were Warriors in succession. Heavenly Creatures was good. Once Were Warriors had one of the best story-lines I've ever seen in a movie.

To make a movie good, the first thing you need is a script. The script will always be the backbone of a movie, and surprisingly, scriptwriters are the most unappreciated and underpaid people in Hollywood.

Quentin Tarantino understands this. So does the country of New Zealand, for with only three and a half million people, they seem to put out more than their share of fine scripts.

Once Were Warriors is about a Maori family. Beth and Jake battle for the reigns, and any of us with a conscience hope Beth succeeds. A strong and proud woman, if she has any faults, it's her taste in men.

Jake is a rage-aholic. He has many heroic qualities, but his temper turns him into not a demon, but rather a wild animal.

Together, they have five kids. The two youngest ones in this film are insignificant and not worthy of an entire sentence, but the three oldest ones I'll briefly describe.

Nig is the oldest, and often at odds with his father. They communicate by shouting, put downs, and walking out the door while still exchanging words. Nig joins a gang, and as much as I'm anti-gang, I actually like this one. It preserves the old ways of the Maori, a culture with some historic relevance.

I never read the book, but I assume Boogie and Grace are twins. Grace has a heart of gold, and tells stories to her troubled younger siblings. Her stories have a way of getting you through the tough times. If she has a tragic flaw, it's her naivety.

Boogie is a juvenile delinquent. Getting taken by the government from his family turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. His new guardian turns out to be a proud and fierce Maori, who knows New Zealand law like the back of his hand but you know could trade punches with the best of them.

What worked - the directing and the acting all seemed so real. The fight sequences were brutish, and I'd take Temuera Morrison (the guy who played Jake) over any Hollywood actor today in a street brawl. He looked so scary, it didn't seem like it was acting. The soundtrack also worked. Not spectacular, but it worked.

Once Were Warriors showed a harsh reality for those of us who didn't know what the Auckland ghettos were really like. When I was there, I went to the bug museum and other tourist attractions. The only Maoris I encountered were when they asked me to play rugby with them. I'll box, kickbox, MMA wrestle, and play American football, but you couldn't pay me enough money to play rugby with a bunch of Maoris.

All and all, a very good film, but very disturbing. I saw it once with a Lakota from Pine Ridge and he said it reminded him of the Res. I once recommended it to a film class and watched a lot of them turn away from the screen during the domestic violence scenes. I watched it with a city Injun and she cried in my arms afterwards. I still to this day can't get Kate to watch it, nor my wife.

10 dead zombies. You want to see good screenwriting? This is it, cut down to the bare bones. Nothing fancy. Nothing overdone. Just straight up good writing. Hollywood, take notes.

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