ONCE WERE WARRIORS
A film review by Krishin Asnani
Copyright 1995 Krishin Asnani
"Sharp Edged" were the words that floated through my mind when I saw the film from New Zealand called ONCE WERE WARRIORS last night at the chi-chi Paris theater that is adjacent to the very elegantly arching Grace building outside of which are trees with very pretty yellow flickering lights. As I walked back to the car after the film in the freezing night with my hands firmly planted in the pockets of my jacket, none of this beatific scenery outside helped me escape the film which remained lodged in my mind long after it was over.
The opening shot of the film is a picture-perfect postcard view of New Zealand's pristine mountains. We quickly realize this is a billboard poster as the camera pans away from it to reveal a highway and the dilapidated neighbourhood under it which forms the stark canvas of this film. The attention grabbing opening credits with the hip-hop music juxtaposed with very short bluesy guitar riffs set up the brutal tone for the film.
We are in the home of the Heke family who are descendents of the Maori tribe. This tribe has urbanized itself but the members of the family still have varying degrees of ties to the tribe and its rituals. Jake is the brutal-looking and very muscular father who wears small tattoos on his neck and like every member of the member wears leather paraphernalia-all characters in this film look like they belong to a motorcycle gang; Beth is the mother whose face has many similarities to Jeane Moreau though her mouth is not pointed downward like Moreau's and therefore Beth's smile is quite sensuous. (Janet Maslin at the Times actually sees the connection between Beth and Moreau). Her broad forehead, silky golden hair, and a very angular and high cheekboned face convey a sense of congeniality and are pointers to her Maori roots.
Jake and Beth have five children who occupy two rooms. One night the boozy and recently unemployed Jake brings home his huge party of drunkard friends who also belong to the Maori tribe who don the same type of costume as the Hekes; they have a grand time sitting around the living room, drinking and crooning melodious tunes-there is one by Jake and Beth that is really quite affecting. The children sleeping in the next room remark that alcohol brings out the true feelings of love. Beth's bliss is very short-lived, a fight breaks out between Jake and Beth and this is probably the scene that will rattle you and make you recoil-the vividness of Jake's brutal and vicious violence is so acute that you just can't look at the screen but before you know it its over-your eyes have no chance to bolt. The exquisite and the expressive face of Beth is battered. And the "true feelings of love" are very scarce at that point. Not to sound too cold but the editing of this scene is remarkable.
This has been going on for most of the sixteen years of their marriage; Beth endures the husband for the sake of the children. Jake can be a real charmer and that makes Beth forgive him. His charm is phony and there was never a doubt in my mind that Jake is a very two dimensional man, all his impulses are excessive: his violence, his eating and drinking, and his love-making. There is absolutely no sense of balance let alone self-doubt to him. After this first flare-up, his physical menace is always at the back of our minds. Besides Beth, some of the patrons at a local bar become his punching bags too. The nihilistic onlookers display very little alarm. The man who plays Jake (Temeura Morrison) actually plays a very well-likable doctor in a New Zealand soap opera. What a transformation this man must have gone through to play the role of Jake.
Beth's face has had such a workout that she is unable to go to court next day to prevent her younger son from being taken into a state welfare institution. This son, by the end of the film, achieves some measure of identity--thanks to the teacher at the institute who is able to channelize the son's energy into learning Maori rituals. These rituals performed by the disaffected yet trying to reform youth are a form of martial-arts dance that is accompanied by their beautiful chanting. The direction of these scenes is handled with panache, stylization and theatrics that only an experienced director would be capable of. Surprisingly, this is director Lee Tamahori's debut film.
An older son takes refuge in a gang that has strong ties to the Maori tribe: the members wear very creative tattoos on their faces and their entire body and their uniform is all leather and chains. The initiation rites are brutal but are exquisitely well photographed. Grace, the 13 year daughter in the family is the only sane child with a very innocent face that exudes equanimity in this violent home. Her best friend is a soulful, chain-smoking, dreadlock-wearing homeless boy who lives inside a junked car under a highway.
The relationship between Beth and Grace is well explored in a scene which occurs few days after the violence and Jake has apologized to Beth. The family takes a trip in their new car to see their younger son in the institution. On their way, they stop at a picnic spot to revel in nostalgia of their former lives as tribe members. These scenes are magical in their lyricism, the scenery of the picnic spot is breathtaking. They get back in the car and Jake and Beth sing along to a pop song blaring out from their car radio.
Again, this bliss is transitory: on their way to the institution, Jake stops at a bar for one beer only (he promises) while the family waits for him in the car. After half an hour, when Beth goes in to get him, he shouts at her in a way that will make anyone tremble to stop interrupting him from watching the horse races on the tele. At this point Beth is convinced that she has to dig herself out of this dysfunctional marriage.
After yet another heartfelt tragedy that will go unmentioned here, Beth lectures Jake on the greatness of her tribe and how its characteristics are different from Jake's. The speech is didactic, and it is delivered with great passion: the only face on the screen is Beth's, the wind makes her hair sway back revealing the steely determination of her clear blue eyes in a broad face that deserves a lot better fate.
The film is supposed to be an exercise that explores the rootlessness of this tribe, the politics of how they deal with the present society that knows very little about them and the past that they have little connection to. It has become the most popular film in the history of New Zealand and deserves to be be in the Top 10 lists of US critics at the end of 1995. The director is very talented, has found an interesting topic to explore and has many talented friends in the sound, editing, music and cinematography departments and all pitch in to give this the film a raw, industrial, and a very professional look.
For me, the personal was far more engaging than the political.
-Krishin
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