Once were Warriors

Genre: Drama
Year released:1995
Director: Lee Tamahori

"Cook the man some fucking eggs!"

I live in New Zealand and strangely enough this was the first time I had watched this movie. I heard lots of people talk and recommend this movie, I don't really know why I had not seen this movie earlier. I liked it. GJ New Zealand that what number 4 good movies you have made.

Once were Warriors is about a Maori family living in a Maori neighborhood, this family goes through many hardships, the father has a bad temper to say the least, they live in a dump, have too many parties thrown by the parents while the young children sleep/try to sleep. This movie does have rather good acting, in my opinion, sure it was not any Taxi Driver or On the Waterfront performances but I was really surprised at how well Temuera Morrison acted. The story is also very sad as well as being very violent. I like how the story is very real and relates to real life situations there are people who live like this.

The acting never once bothered me, sorry New Zealand. Temuera Morrison plays Jake the father of this family in trouble, Jake is an alcoholic and is a violent person who seems to communicate with his fists. His blasts of rage were acted out well acted. The other characters although not as worked on except maybe the mother, who I felt sorry for, were not bad either. They all had their problems except Grace who was quite normal in very non normal situations, I believe and anyone who watches this will believe she had a very hard time dealing with this. The two older boys are trying to be strong, though are both troubled they have their anger stored up inside them and are bad at communicating and looking for some thing, their lives are empty. The mother is a good character, she too is addicted drinking and parting. The mother Beth is also acted well Reno Owen did an alright job of her character. Beth is on the verge of leaving Jake, although struggles as she loves the non violent Jake. The kid that lives in the car too was cool.

The violence is quite graphic and intense, I don't really notice the violence in a lot of films, but in this it really stands out. The way these scenes are done is great in a sick way. Jake who is big beating really badly his helpless wife Beth is extreme it might be the way of something so powerful beating up such an innocent women incredibly badly makes me feel every punch. It makes you quite sad and feel so bad for Beth.

In conclusion a very good New Zealand film, that is quite deep through human values of what is right and acceptable and how some times these values slip through who you are around and the things you hold inside you. The acting and overall movie is much better than I expected. This is a movie about a family not a family movie.

7.5/10