Once Were Warriors
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VHS Movie Reviews of Once Were Warriors
Movie Review: Transcendent movie.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have seen this movie over a month ago and have wanted to write a review of it ten minutes into beginning the movie. Alas, I never found the words to perfectly describe the movie's beauty and power. Because really this movie is beyond words and beyond moving pictures.
Once Were Warriors is a movie about a poor Maori family. Jake is unemployed and is also an alcoholic. His wife doesn't work and his children are heading straight for the life of crime and no future. A suicide in the family forces the family to reevaluate their culture, their friends and their complacency. (I am aware that I am being vague, but I have opted to do so, because I believe that the viewer is entitled to know as little about the plot as posssible preceding the viewing. Read another review for more plot).
Before watching this film, I hadn't the slightest clue as to what it was about. The beginning didn't give me too many hints either, but it could have gone in a thousand directions. The first half of the movie shows us the disintegration of the family. One son is sent to a Maori boarding school where he learns about his culture, another is initiated into a Maori street gang with tatoos on their faces just like those worn by traditional Maori warriors, the Mother gets beaten, and the daughter finds no place to go.
About halfway through this movie, I had a dirty t-shirt in my hand and began to wipe the tears from my face with it every few seconds. My roomates were in the room and I was doing everything in my power to hide my emotions, but alas they probably leaked out (quite literally). As an 18 year old male, I seldom cry while watching films. Instead I typically laugh at the emotional scenes ,while everyone else has a tissue to their face. For some reason, Once Were Warriors managed to break down my defences and open the floodgates. It wasn't that the act itself was so horrible, there are many movies with far worse instances of abuse and hopelessness, but somehow the presentation of the suicide transcended any presentation of a death that I have ever seen before.
So far, I have only gotten halfway through the film... but the movie keeps improving from there. The decisions made by Jake's wife and his son Nig reflect true and utter power and conviction. Each scene was acted out to its utter potential, each line (especially the line "once were warriors") reflects true and pure emotion of the characters, actually, I'll call them people because they were nothing short of it.
I could write a thousand essays on this movie, analyzing each action and each subtext, but alas, I will just suggest that everyone see this movie, for it is more than just watching a film is a literal experience in the brutality and reality of the life of a family. Watch it alone with a clear mind and I am sure that any viewer will be able to experience the movies sheer intensity.
Movie Review: Gritty, realistic, fantastic acting, a film you will never forget
Summary: 5 Stars
When this movie came out my younger brother went to see it and came back in awe -he said the entire theatre were crying at one part of the movie. I rushed off to see the film and have seen it several times since, it really is excellent.
As a New Zealander I can say this movie is a real depiction of the lives of some families in New Zealand. The actors are brilliant, many are familiar to me from local TV and films, but in this movie any preconceptions about the actors are brushed aside -they play their parts so well and so powerfully. Rena Owen (who plays the mother Beth "Fry-your-own-f'n-eggs" Heke) even took it to real life, a year after the film came out she was convicted and discharged for clubbing someone on the head with a pool cue at her local pub!
The violence, both at home and at the pub; the sexual abuse, the beatings and gang depictions -it all adds up to what could be a very depressing movie. But there is mercifully light at the end of the tunnel.
A must-watch film, keep your tissues handy though!
Movie Review: Once Were Warriors
Summary: 5 Stars
This is without a doubt one of my top 3 favorite movies, and it is my FAVORITE foreign film. Extremely powerful, and moving story, it has never failed to evoke emotion from me, or those I have shared it with. I highly recommend it. Movie Review: A Fantastic Drama! One of my all time favorites!
Summary: 5 Stars
You just feel for this family. I guess it hit closer to home for me because this family did in some ways remind me of mine, especially Jake the Muss who has to be one of my all time favorite movie characters. He comes off as so ferocious and vicious at times, yet can have some endearing moments although the real him always comes out. Rena Owen is ALL WOMAN in this movie as she struggles mightily to keep her family together in the modern world after abondoning her heritage.
If you haven't seen it, you must. It's that good.
**Favorite Scenes: any part with the haka in it and Jake finding out the truth
Movie Review: Sensational movie from New Zealand!
Summary: 5 Stars
"Jake the muss" is the main character in this one.A violent drunk who has a fuse shorter than 10 centimetres he causes trouble first then thinks later.Don`t rent this movie buy,its that awesome.