Review Of The Themes Of The Movie Once Were Warriors By Alan Duff
Submitted by jonathan20nz on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
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Review Of The Themes Of The Movie Once Were Warriors By Alan Duff
An old Maori proverb states, “What is the greatest thing in the world? It is people, it is people” Once Were Warriors has some very poignant messages to say to society about society, but ultimately I believe we, as people, have the power and “greatness” to be able to solve problems as great the ones presented by the movie. These problematic themes are interwoven with each other, making them very complex. They address teenage crime, substance abuse, apathy, domestic violence, the importance of self worth, and the effects of a culture lost. Despite being set in New Zealand, it is a universal story, relevant to societies around the world. These thematic issues equate to a breakdown of society, but perhaps more importantly portray themselves as symptoms of a far greater problem. In this speech, I will discuss the issues I have already mentioned, present a possible cause, then suggest some solutions to these problems.
The movie opens addressing the issue of teenage crime. The viewer sees Grace smoking drugs with Toot, and then flips to Mark’s (Boogey’s) arrest for car theft. Obviously this is not the first time Mark has been involved in breaking the law, so one has to ask why he persists. Could he be just demonstrating his true nature as a delinquent child? Not likely as Beth later demonstrates Mark’s true innocent nature when talking to him about the incident, “when you’re a kid, you wouldn’t even take a piece of fruit without asking”. However it appears Mark has no other satiable means of occupying his time –in his mind he has nothing better to do. Here, Once Were Warriors uses Mark as a medium for presenting the problem that is crime in young teenagers today.
Mark’s elder brother Nig represents the post teenage group –perhaps a futuristic version of who Mark might turn out to be. Nig seeks a place and family he feels he wants to belong to, and the “Nga Toa” gang (the name itself a distortion of the Maori word for...
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