Whale Rider review

 Number 606 on the top 1000 films of all time is the New Zealand drama 'Whale Rider'.

Set in modern-day New Zealand, Whale Rider is about Kahu 'Paikea' Apirana (Keisha Castle-Hughes,) a twelve-year old Maori girl who dreams of becoming the chieftain of her tribe, despite the fierce opposition of her grandfather Koro (Rawiri Paratene) who is adamant that the chieftain should always be male. Paikea works hard to overcome these patriarchal traditions.

It was a joy watching this film. I was fortunate enough to visit New Zealand in early 2020 and even more fortunate to attend the Tamaki Maori village. This was a fantastic experience which taught me a lot about the Maori culture and Maori traditions. And it was lovely revisiting some of these memories within 'Whale Rider.' And it was also great seeing the beautiful New Zealand landscape again.

One of the things I've loved about this challenge is that I get to watch films that I would otherwise have never heard of. And Whale Rider was a film that was definitely not on my radar, but I did enjoy it. It's strange, because the film seemed to give off a very low-budget feel, despite having a budget of almost 10 million New Zealand dollars. There wasn't any explosions, CGI or special effects and the film quality never seemed that high, but maybe that's because this was filmed in 2002. Despite that, I did enjoy watching it. Keisha, in her feature film and acting debut, gave a great performance as Paikea. She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar and deservingly so.

I feel like it's all too common for a lot of children to feel like the black sheep of their families. They feel like they don't live up to expectations or have unsupportive, strict parents. A lot of well-meaning, but misguided parents can fail to properly support their children to realise their goals. Or as in Koro's case, they do everything in their power to stop them. This could have made Paikea a bitter and resentful character, but, instead, she was empowering and inspirational. She was determined to overcome the obstacles placed before her and that determination made her very endearing to watch. After her conflict with her grandfather comes to a head, Paikea gives an emotional speech in front of her family and friends that is dedicated to Koro and the traditions of her tribe. Keisha delivered it well. And it was difficult not to feel for her.

I also enjoyed Rawiri Paratene as Koro. He provided a lot of depth to what could have been a cardboard cut-out character. Instead of being only a grumpy grandfather, Koro is just an old man desperately clinging to his traditions in an ever-changing world. It was a sensitive portrayal of how sometimes we have to abandon tradition in the favour of progress.

The only thing that I took issue with was the ending. MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT. Koro throws his rei puta (whale tooth) into the ocean and  sets a challenge for his male proteges to recover it. The winner will become the new chieftain of the tribe. After they all fail, he despairingly summons the ancient ones - a group of whales as tradition stated that the first leader of their tribe rode to land on a whale - for guidance. Paikea also summons the whales in an attempt to help. The next evening, a pod of whales beach themselves. Despite the efforts of the whole tribe, they fail to get them back into the sea.

Just when it looks like all hope is lost, Paikea mounts one of the whales and coaxes him back into the water. The rest of the whales follow suit, but instead of returning to land, Paikea rides the whale back into the open water, seemingly ready to drown. I thought this went against the key message of 'Whale Rider.' This whole film is about her becoming the first female chieftain of her tribe. She is determined to smash open the traditional patriarchy. Why would she be so ready to die like this? If she does die then all of her efforts would have been for nothing. The audience has been invested in her journey and what have they received for it? A dead heroine? Unless she was hoping to be a martyr who would go onto inspire other women, but I didn't buy that.

Of course, this drowning was just a fake out. Paikea survives and is nursed back to health. Realising the error of his ways, Koro declares her the new chieftain. So Paikea achieved her goal, but I think this was a really extreme way of doing so.

The ending was a shame, as it did spoil an otherwise really good film. But that shouldn't stop you from watching Whale Rider. I would argue that it is an underrated movie that deserves all the recognition it can get.

The Last of the Mohicans review

 Number 474 on the top 1000 films of all time is Michael Mann's epic historical drama film 'The Last of the Mohicans.'

Nathaniel 'Hawkeye' Poe (Daniel Day-Lewis) is an English man raised by the Mohawk tribe in 18th century America. When he falls in love with Cora Munro (Madeline Stowe,) the daughter of Colonel Munro (Maurice Roeves) of the British army, he's dawn into a colonial war between England and France. Meanwhile Colonel Munro and, by extension, Cora and her sister Alice (Jodhi May) are being hunted down by Magua (Wes Studi,) a Huron with a grudge to bear.

Never mind the Last of the Mohicans, I thought I would be the last of the Lintons by the time I finished watching this film. It was only two hours long, but it could have easily been an hour and a half, if it wasn't for all the bloody slow-motion. Don't get me wrong, slow motion can be great when used correctly, but not when it's used for every other shot. We don't need to see the characters walking or riding their horses in slow-motion. Even the fight scenes were in slow motion which became tedious after a while. They're fight scenes, they're supposed to be fast and chaotic.

Beyond this, the film was slowly paced. There was a lot of talking for what was supposed to be a drama. You get the colonials fretting about their ranches being attacked or Munro fretting about his daughters or the colonials plotting to desert the base. There was so much talking that when the action scenes finally happened I had almost switched off. And the less said about all the staring in the fight scenes the better.

The music did nothing to help the pacing either. Large parts of the film including the slow-motion scenes were set to a grandiose, often cheesy, instrumental score, which made the film even slower.

As for Day-Lewis, when he was on screen, I thought he was good, but I also think he was severely underused. This was weird as he is the main character. But it took him a while to appear, and even while writing this review, I was struggling to remember his character's name. But I did like the supporting cast. Madeline Stowe who played Cora had a good agency about her, stealing a pistol and later shooting an Indian who's going to kill her.

And even her sister Alice, rather than be a prisoner of Magua, takes her fate into her own hands by jumping from a cliff. Then we have Major Heyward (Steven Waddington) who goes through a nice redemption arc. He proposes to Cora only to have him reject him and then he quickly becomes jealous of her growing closer with Nathaniel. The two become enemies, uneasy allies and eventually Heyward sacrifices himself to Magua in exchange for Lora's life. Although I found that a bit difficult to believe. Magua, not only wants Munro dead, but also his bloodline. Why would he let Cora go instead of killing her?

If a film stars Daniel Day-Lewis, you would expect to enjoy it, but the Last of the Mohicans didn't do ti for me. Too much slow motion and grandiose music.