A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

The Evaluation System Reviews by Title Reviews by Date

Reviews from Video Reviews of the Classics Personal Background

Title: Whale Rider

Date Viewed: 8/1

Details:

Keisha Castle-Hughes

Rawiri Paratene

Vicky Haughton

Cliff Curtis

Grant Roa

Director: Niki Caro

Score: +

The Review: When the only surviving child of a long line of Maori chiefs turns out to be a girl, it sets in motion the events of this intriguing, though occasionally slowly paced, film.

Taken from the 1992 novel by Witi Ihimaera (who was also associate producer on the film), and although modified substantially, it still works quite well. Whale Rider is part children's tale, part character study, and part anthropological commentary on the place of traditional Maori culture in contemporary New Zealand life. This film offers a very different feel for the Maori and contemporary Kiwi cultural conflicts from that presented in Once Were Warriors (1990 book by Alan Duff; made into an intense 1994 movie by Lee Tamahori). There are also some echoes of Peter Weir's The Last Wave (1977), but it's not at all spooky.

The protective totem and ancestor spirits of this village and Te whanau (extended family or clan) Apirana are Te Rangi, the whales of the northeastern New Zealand coast, off North Island (Te Ika a Maui). The Apirana proudly take their founder's myth from the story of Paikea -- the pre-historical namesake of the lead character -- who was rescued from drowning at sea and carried to land on the back of their ancestor whale. This cetacean theme permeates the film, from Paikea's reluctance to leave home, to the roof-beam decoration on Te whare runanga -- the clan's meeting house, and to Te waka taua -- a ritual war canoe that her father (Curtis, a carver who has abandoned the traditional forms, as well as his homeland) started work on but has not completed. Paikea has been raised by her grandparents (Paratene and Haughton) in a small village with close relatives nearby, proximate to the shore.

The young girl who plays Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is superb, bringing a bit of waif, a bit of tomboy, and a large dollup of fascination with her living Maori heritage. And this last point is the source of most of the conflict in the film, since there exist separate and distinct functional, traditional and mythological lineages for the male and for the female of the Maori clans -- and Paikea is more interested, and seemingly fated, to learn and lead from the male side of tradition, contrary to all tribal taboos (in Maori, tapu). Her grandfather Koro (a very stern Rawiri Paratene) has taken upon himself the role of tohunga (elder or teacher) in order to instruct the young boys of the village in these traditions, and from the start excludes Paikea, irrespective of heritage or talent, simply because she is a girl. But then, Koro has had a chip on his shoulder ever since her birth, when his (now absent) son named her Paikea, in defiance of tribal history in which this is normally a male child's name.

There is a bit of narration scattered throughout the film, from Paikea's perspective, and if we pay attention to this, we end up knowing something that her whanau (as portrayed) does not. Music/score by Lisa Gerrard, subtle but effective. Alas, the whales that appear in the film are not sperm whales, the primary indigenes (and the reason the Brits spent so much time in this geography), but baleen -- likely small right or bowhead whales. They work, but there is a bit of a inherent contradiction when you examine closely the carved chief's charm worn by Koro.

(2-Aug-03)

Back to the chronological list of reviews