Once Were Warriors (1994) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★★ 11

  No one is born an alcoholic, misogynist, bully, gang member or wife abuser! These things are a result of conditioning, they are taught, handed down from one sick generation to another! While many will attribute the symptoms depicted in the film to Maori culture alone I would argue this is not a result of being Maori, it is a result of losing the meaning of what it truly means to be Maori, and this could be descriptive of ANY oppressed indigenous people or others ostracized simply because of poverty, gender or gender identity, race, religion or what have you! And at what point do the oppressers own up to their part in the sick equation!

  Director Lee Tamahori's film made…

• Review by London ★★★★★ 1

  In my opinion a must see for anyone interested in not just Polynesian culture, but the effect poverty and colonialism has on these communities. An absolutely brutal lesson in abuse and love.

  The scenes no matter how awful to watch, are beautifully crafted and lovingly made. They are all well shot, and the acting, especially from the two central characters played by Temuera Morrison and Owen, are jaw dropping.

  The music is beautiful and the many scenes of a group gathered around singing together kind of perfectly reminds me of Polynesian cultures. And thats what makes everything so shocking. The portrayal of these cultures are so beautifully done that when characters aren't also beautiful and kind it is so much more shocking and intense.

• Review by Sudhakar Kumar ★★★★★

  One of the finest films ever made on New Zealand soil.

  It sheds light on domestic violence and volatile family dynamics in a way that most films would rather shy away from, which is one of the things that makes it both a difficult and unforgettable watch.

  It deserves more love and attention because as far as these sorts of uncompromising family dramas go, it's one of the best.

• Review by 20oldboy03 ★★★★½ 4

  English Version below

  
  Ka Mate

  Anführer:

  Ring paika! ------ Schlagt die Hände auf die Schenkel!

  Uma triaha! ------ Drückt die Brust nach vorne!

  Turi whatia! ------ Beugt die Knie!

  Hope whai ake! ------ Und die Knie!

  Waewae takahia kia kino! ------- Stampft mit den Füßen, so fest ihr könnt!

  Anführer:

  Ka mate, ka mate ------- Das ist Tod, das ist Tod (oder: Ich werde sterben)

  Mannschaft:

  Ka ora, ka ora ------- Das ist Leben, das ist Leben (oder: Ich werde leben)

  Anführer:

  Ka mate, ka mate ------- Das ist Tod, das ist Tod

  Mannschaft:

  Ka ora, ka ora ------- Das ist Leben, das ist Leben

  Alle:

  Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru ------ Das ist der haarige Mann …

  Nāna nei i…

• Review by Austin Shermer ★★★★ 6

  Film #20 of What Should I Watch?

  Recommended by Tarryn-tino

  If you would have told me prior to watching Once Were Warriors
  that the guy who directed XXX: State of the Union and Die Another Day made a powerfully gripping drama starring the guy who played Jango Fett, I would have had you committed to a mental institution.

• Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★★ 10

  Once Were Warriors is a film which really presses down on you and crushes the soul. It is an unpleasant film, though not without purpose. The film highlights dangerous, toxic lifestyles and the darkest consequences of that. The film is most obviously about domestic violence and alcoholism, depicted in a brutal way that cinema generally refuses to grapple with. These broken homes which people experience do not have Hollywood glamour.

  Once Were Warriors centres on a family led by a patriarch with a predilection for violence. The central destructive relationship leaves the children raised in a house of anger and fear, placing them in an unhealthy situation. They yearn from independence, realising their mother is stuck with an abuser. This…

• Review by panos75 ★★★★

  The Hekes are a Maori family of seven that lives in squalid conditions in Auckland's suburbs. When father Jesse loses his job and starts spending most of his time at the local pub drinking with his friends, things turn dramatic for the Heke household.

  Grim and grimy, uncompromisingly violent and emotionally devastating, "Once Were Warriors" is a tough watch in search of brave moviegoers. A parable for the once fearsome Maori people who were subjugated by conformity in a way that the white conquerors would have never dreamed of. Observing everyday life unfold in the Heke home is like watching a car wreck in slow motion: it's horrific but you just can't take your eyes away. All the characters, from…

• Review by Movie Good or Movie Bad? ★★★★

  One Popular Film Around The World Challenge Film #73
  New Zealand

  Once Were Warriors is a powerful examination of what it means to be pulled away from one’s culture, the effects of colonization and how it removes from culture, and how that can be personified through drug abuse and alcoholism. So many aspects of this film were overwhelming to me in its depiction of violence, and that may make this a difficult recommendation, but it still feels important. Rena Owen really shined here and made me want to dive deep into her work, and Temuera Morrison is of course both wonderful and terrifying.

• Review by Jack Bool ★★★★½

  Jango Fett would never try this sh*t on Kamino.

• Review by Matthew Noble ★★★★½

  "You think your fist is your weapon? When I have taught you, your mind will be."

  Lee Tamahori is a bewildering director. He's made a Bond film (Die Another Day), a Nicolas Cage sci-fi actioner (Next), and an underrated crime drama concerning the son of Saddam Hussein (The Devil's Double). All interesting efforts for better or worse, yet none have been genuinely brilliant.

  However, he also made Once Were Warriors: a near-masterpiece about Māori culture and the horrors of domestic violence, anchored by two excellent central turns from Rena Owen and Temuera Morrison, which hits you with all the ferocity of a barstool to the face. The results don't exactly make for easy viewing, but I still found this utterly gripping. Compulsory New Zealand cinema.

• Review by Ken B ★★★★½

  March Around the World 2022

  Film #18 of 30

  New Zealand

  My first entry of the year from Oceania and....Holy sh*t, this film is like an sledgehammer! And it's the best film I've seen this month too, unequivocally. It opens relatively innocuously, certainly in a way that prepared me for a different sort of movie. Then about 20 or 30 minutes in there is a genuinely shocking scene of domestic violence that absolutely floored me. For the rest of the movie I felt a genuine sense of unease, yet I was compelled.

  The bleakness of the world that exists in the four walls of this house and then the gang culture outside of it is sometimes interrupted by a moment…

• Review by Graham

  There’s plenty to like about the New Zealand film industry and it’s constant churn of light, bouncy movies full of sunshine and laughter. That’s what I think of when I think of NZ film, but here with Once Were Warriors, that joyful mood is quashed into a violent, misogynistic, gang-fuelled, alcoholic, wife bashing pulp.

  Beth is trying her best to raise her family in difficult times. If her husband Jake wasn’t so busy being pissed and living out his own macho lifestyle, he might see what is really happening around him, but that’s just not in hisnature.

  Beth loves him just the same.

  Once Were Warriors delivers its harsh drama under a cloak of a cultured Māori humour, and when it reveals itself boy does it sting.

  Footnote: I’ve never seen a Haka that I didn’t love.

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  March around the world 2022 - New Zealand 🇳🇿