Traditions. Review on Whale Rider Movie

Traditions by people or religions can be a good thing but sometimes they hurt people.

The Plot

Whalerider is a story about a indigenous tribe, Te Tai Rawhiti, who live in New Zealand.

The movie begins when a women gives birth to twins. The boy and the mother die but the girl lives. Pororurani, (Cliff Curtis), is the father and he doesn't want the responsibly of being the chief and won't listen to his father, Koro (Rawiri Paratene). He leaves and Kahutia Te Rangi is raised by her grandparents.

Everyone in the village loves Pia, (Keisha Castle-Hughes),except her grandfather, (is the Chief of the tribe), who ignores her. Everyone in the village love Pia's grandmother and is scared of he grandfather...except Pia and his wife. He thinks he's the boss but when you see this film you'll find out who the boss is!!

The village looks like most towns in New Zealand. They drive trucks, cars, work, have quests for dinner and do all of the same things as we do.

For over a thousand years in the Te Tai Rawhiti tribe only a male can become a Chief so her grandfather picks out the young most likely to succeed. Pia is a strong willed girl and tries to learn the traditions as well.

Her grandfather finds one of the boys trying to teacher how to fight with a stick and tells him if he finds him helping her again he will be banished from the school. These boys must know all of the traditions of the tribe and he begins to teach them. The best one will become the chief.

Kahutia Te Rangi's grandmother, (Vicky Haughton), is a wise women she suggest she go to see her uncle who might help her. Her uncle is extremly angry at his brother for leaving and he and his friends decide to teach he the same things that the boys are learning in class.

All indigoes tribes have a ''totem'' and this Maori Tribe's was the whale because they were lost in the Pacific Ocean and had followed the whale to find land. They became the Paikea, the Whalerider.

What I Thought

This film moves between reality and myths as we learn a lot of things about the tribe and who will become the next Chief.

The cinematography was fabulous especially in the whale scenes. The acting was superb and I'm sure that is why this movie won so many awards in 2003 such as the Peoples Choice Award and the Sundance Films Award & in 2004 Keisha Castle-Hughes was nominated for the best actress at the Academy Awards.

The Director Niki Caro did a brilliant job of following the book that was written by Maori writer, Witi Ihimaera.

One of the traditions I liked was the chanting and the dances. One chant I had seen before when I watch New Zealand play in an international team sport. The men paint some black on their faces and look their opponent in the eye. As they chant they crouch down and begin to move forward. They continue until they are almost touching their opponent, then they roll their eyes back and stick our their tongue as far as it can be stretched. When the tongue is out it means ''your dead''!

The most tender moments for me were when Pia touches a barnacle on a huge whale, (I have seen a lot of whales because we have a lot of pods near Victoria but I have never seen a whale this big), and when Koro takes his students out on a war boat. It is red and shaped like a scooped out whale.

If you would like to know more about this movie the link is:

https://whaleriderthemovie.com

This movie is bitter sweet and tragic as well. I laughed and cried and sad when it was finished. I thought the actors played their parts very well.

I learned a lot about whales, the tribe and New Zealand. New Zealand was never a destination I had considered but after seeing this movie I would love to see both of the Islands.

I enjoyed the hour and 45 minutes it took to see this movie. Children, over 13 and adult will enjoy it too. I must admit that when we watched in on TV my 10 year old grandson was intrigued by it and thought it was very interesting.

I hope you will go out and rent this film.

Thanks for reading my review.

©LL2005