Twenty minutes into this movie, Jake Heke hits his wife in the face. It's not a slap, but the full power of a clenched fist delivered into her jaw. She smashes backwards into a wall and collapses, cursing at him. Jake then picks her up and beats her some more, dragging her bloodied form all across the house and utterly mauling her, destroying lots of the furniture, trashing the living room and breaking glass over the poor woman's frail body. Their friends quickly scatter and retreat out the front, while upstairs the children huddle together in tears, 13 year old Grace Heke more than likely thinking of her earlier remark that "people show their true feelings while drunk." In terms of grabbing the viewer's attention, this entire sequence has more effect than being punched in the gut.
Set in an un-named New Zealand city, Once Were Warriors tells the story of the Heke family. Jake (Temeura Morrison) is a handsome, muscular powerhouse who exudes natural charisma, while his wife Beth (Rena Owen) is descended from a Maori tribe. And while on the surface Jake seems like a loving father and husband, he is a man racked with paranoia and insecurity who is prone to terrifying outbursts of violence, to which he rarely shows any regret. And his behaviour is having an adverse effect on the rest of the family to say the least.
With one son taken away and sent to a Maori reform school and another joining a violent street gang, Beth struggles to keep her family together and the end result is very grim, but nothing less than satisfying. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to turn away from the screen as you get sucked into the characters lives, despite the rather depressing nature of the subject matter.
For while Jake is an absolute monster of a human being, he is still very clearly human. Temeura Morrison's performance is nothing short of exemplary, as he manages to turn Jake into a highly complex character. One moment he seems like the perfect friend, singing a duet alongside Beth at a party with smiles plastered across their faces, the next he is pounding his fist into her face with such ferocity it is almost like he has been replaced with somebody else. It is testament to Morrison's acting skills that while everyone is urging Beth to leave with the children, we can see why she doesn't.
This is a dark film and not especially pleasant viewing. However, it is also a riveting experience and far from a portrait of one man's self-destruction, as the rest of the family also have their own characters fleshed out and fully realised. One brief review like this cannot adequately portray what a terrific film this is, highly recommended.
Set in an un-named New Zealand city, Once Were Warriors tells the story of the Heke family. Jake (Temeura Morrison) is a handsome, muscular powerhouse who exudes natural charisma, while his wife Beth (Rena Owen) is descended from a Maori tribe. And while on the surface Jake seems like a loving father and husband, he is a man racked with paranoia and insecurity who is prone to terrifying outbursts of violence, to which he rarely shows any regret. And his behaviour is having an adverse effect on the rest of the family to say the least.
With one son taken away and sent to a Maori reform school and another joining a violent street gang, Beth struggles to keep her family together and the end result is very grim, but nothing less than satisfying. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to turn away from the screen as you get sucked into the characters lives, despite the rather depressing nature of the subject matter.
For while Jake is an absolute monster of a human being, he is still very clearly human. Temeura Morrison's performance is nothing short of exemplary, as he manages to turn Jake into a highly complex character. One moment he seems like the perfect friend, singing a duet alongside Beth at a party with smiles plastered across their faces, the next he is pounding his fist into her face with such ferocity it is almost like he has been replaced with somebody else. It is testament to Morrison's acting skills that while everyone is urging Beth to leave with the children, we can see why she doesn't.
This is a dark film and not especially pleasant viewing. However, it is also a riveting experience and far from a portrait of one man's self-destruction, as the rest of the family also have their own characters fleshed out and fully realised. One brief review like this cannot adequately portray what a terrific film this is, highly recommended.