I've always meant to catch the 1994 New Zealand film Once Were Warriors, and finally did last night.
First: did Auckland really have bits as ugly as that in 1994? Did Maori gangs really look exactly like escapees from the Mad Max movies? Do they still look like that? What about that trashy bar, and the amount of beer typically being drunk? (Actually, I read in an article afterwards that it was not a Maori pub at all in real life. Huh.)
Anyway, apart from it looking much uglier than I expected, and the acting sometimes in my opinion feeling a bit more theatrical than cinematic, I could see why the film had impact. Unexpectedly, almost, I found myself quite upset by the pivotal death and the funeral scenes.
I was surprised that it did not get more criticism, or at least questioning, from other countries about its race politics at the time, though. I see that the author of the book was a right wing figure, and although the movie changed the book's perspective a lot (focusing on the mother - and its hard to see how you could do it otherwise), the deeply bleak picture it painted of urban Maori behaviour was still controversial in New Zealand. But not, it seems, in other nations' reactions.
I suspect it would face a strong attack on PC lines everywhere if being released today.
Update: Vice asked recently why a prominent NZ bike gang, the Mongrel Mob, uses Nazi symbols. Seems it wasn't started by Maori, but is now dominated by them. But on the upside, membership is ageing and not being replaced by younger. This article shows artsy photos of the gang members, whose heavy face tattooing is, shall we say, a tad on the extreme side.
I'm afraid to say its all true. Think how many people die in the movie? Maybe only two. The girl and perhaps "uncle Billy" (was that his name) at the end. So barely any body count and yet you get the feeling of extreme intimidation and violence. Its true to life for New Zealand for sure. The movie couldn't have been made in any other country because anywhere else with that sort of vibe around someone would pull a gun. The thing about New Zealand is we all had the shotgun and 22 rifle at the farm house. But there was real cultural restraint about misusing them. Yet in the suburbs of South Auckland where all these maoris would get around without the moderating influence of consistently employed relatives and whitey you would definitely get this culture as depicted. I think its very true to life.
ReplyDeleteI consider the writer as a kind of prose genius. Bested by Cormac McCarthy and Norman Mailer sure. But how many others? Not a great many others. Really he's a genius. He wasn't appreciated much by his own community. I asked an older Maori workmate about this when I was in Brisbane. I said shucks man this is the greatest literary artist you guys have ever produced. Why isn't he seen as a saint or great hero. The Maori reckoned that their community didn't hold these things in high regard. You were more admired for your ability to put away a huge feast.
ReplyDeleteIt was about that time or after that time that Maoris must have gotten a lot of reparations vis a vis the violation of the treaty of Waitangi by whitey. And a big part of the compensation seems to have come in the form of paying big money to go get a degree or advanced training. As far as I can see its been extremely successful. When I was in Otago I knew of maybe two or three Maoris in the whole place. But when I have visited after 2000 Maoris with degrees and advanced training are pretty commonplace. There is always this feeling of intimidation in the air around these people. But you'd have to say the compensation program has been a wild success.