In New Zealand in the 1860s the native Maori people fought the British colonials to keep the land guaranteed to them by treaty. The warrior Te Wheke fights for the British until betrayal leads him to seek utu (revenge). The settler Williamson in turn seeks revenge after Te Wheke attacks his homestead. Meanwhile Wiremu, an officer for the British, seems to think that resistance is futile.
Utu Redux, Die letzte Schlacht der Maoris, Il massacro dei Maori, Utu - Die letzte Schlacht der Maoris, 마오리족의 복수, 乌图, Utu - Espírito de Vingança
France
Cannes Film Festival
France
USA
Germany16
France
Germany
USA
A lost masterpiece, if ever there was one.
Still infuriatingly hard to see since its release, seemingly because of rights issues, I‘m happy to say that my long overdue re-watch of Geoff Murphy‘s masterful New Zealand classic vastly exceeded my already very fond memories of it. This is a movie that achieves the seemingly impossible: A sprawling, historical epic, totally devoid of heroism, pathos and facile clichés, that’s instead highly intelligent, provocative and unconventional to boot. A scathing, incendiary critique of colonialism and racism that somehow manages to work equally well as a roaring action adventure, a dark, often shockingly funny satire, a powerful revisionist Kiwi Western, even as an unsettling horror movie.
We’re in 1870s New Zealand and the…
A warrior seeks revenge (utu) after the good ole' Brits soldiers killed his people, in this pretty violent thriller/war film that seems to be a blend of Sam Peckinpah violence with some Rambo ethos.
All performances, especially by our main character whose actor only had done some very small gigs here and there, was really great. Wallace was frightening, violent and sometimes even moving - just like the script, that does a great job blending the gore and violence (there's a cool scene at the beginning with a preacher beheaded and a speech following up) and the drama.
All in all, while its far from being perfection, this is definitely a very good ruthless fun.
Utu is a very engaging revenge tale with complex characters and quite a mad approach to the storytelling. The film is book-ended with its best scenes—some wild and intense action—and that does overshadow its more subdued, slow-moving middle section. Still, it is a delight to see such a distinctly Kiwi western. Plus there's a quadruple-barrel shotgun, a church beheading, and many, many explosions. Required viewing for New Zealanders and Aussies.
Essential viewing. Complicated and fractured, Murphy's masterful film jangles like the nerves of a culture riven by warfare and blood vengeance. Viewing the remastered Utu Redux is a revelation, & I am genuinely surprised that this has not been picked up by the likes of Criterion or Masters of Cinema, as it easily stands alongside the many well recognised classics born from colonised countries.
It is a war film with heavy flavourings of the western genre, at times going into the kind of hyperbolic violence and fetishism of the Spaghetti Western. The feeling of anarchy spills through its disjointed cracks, revealing the difficulties and impossibilities of social cohesion and identification that colonisation wrought. The audience's identification is complicated, twisted around and…
If The Dead Lands could be described as “Māori Apocalypto”, then it might be apt to describe Geoff Murphy’s Utu as anti-colonialist “Māori Ulzana's Raid” infused with ‘80s action stylings and strong echoes of Peckinpah or Corbucci. A Kiwi western, frontier war film, a seething revenge film, yet also enough of a pulpy genre film that Bruno Lawrence DIYs a quad-barrel shotgun and test-fires the hulking weapon by blowing apart a shack.
Between the opening half hour’s succession of tremendously bracing confrontations and the final act’s explosion-rocked clashes, Utu is more subdued than you might expect. A sprawling canvas of oppressors, oppressed, rebels, and homesteaders that still offers a tense and well-paced odyssey, yet seems at odds with the aggressive…
1983 In Review - August
#19
In 1870, a Maori warrior working with the British finds his village massacred, and vows revenge.
Utu is a very impressive New Zealand western style film which was actually inspired by true events. The film opens with a horrific massacre of a Maori village, which drives native soldier Te Wheke to swear a blood vendetta against the white man. Unfortunately, there is no explanation given for the massacre, and we know nothing about Te Wheke except that until then he was a soldier in the white man's army. There is a lot to like here and also unfortunately a lot that is far from perfect, the script is a little muddled and confusing but the atmosphere of the film is top notch.
(stefon from SNL voice): if you're looking for a perfect capsule of new zealand cinema, look no further. this. film. has. EVERYTHING. sweeping landscapes. karakia in the soundtrack. anticolonial themes. bruno lawrence. a white woman playing piano. amazing production design. perfectly timed jokes. filming locations you've probably been to. a man building insane bullshit in his shed. dirty horses.
Until quite recently, the film UTU was mostly unknown to French audience. To be more precise, UTU had unfairly fallen into oblivion despite a release in 1983 which, back then, made quite an impact. It was at the time the biggest audiovisual production from a still little-known country, New Zealand, whose film industry was babbling. Co-written and directed by Geoff Murphy, to whom we owe THE QUIET EARTH in 1985, the movie even had the possibility of being the first New Zealand film selected at the Cannes Film Festival. It had a big success in Murphy’s country and had an enthusiastic, worldwide reviews.
However, the movie was poorly exploited in VHS and was only restored thirty years after its initial…
Essential NZ cinema, Geoff Murphy's 'NZ Wars' revenge thriller Utu—here in it's 'reduxed' manifestation—has had a fantastic restoration, which really highlights the quality of the filmmaking (the blu ray version is well worth the extra expense). Eschewing a dry history lesson, Murphy and co-writer Aberdein opt to tell an engaging, tragic tale of the consuming madness of the vengeance cycle. Thinking of other NZ dramatic efforts of the time, Utu stands out in terms of the artfulness of its direction and camerawork as well as its colourful yet unforced performances. This is some of the best I remember of Lawrence. And Wallace, Johnson, Kaa, Elliott, and Rodgers are all on point. The ending threatens to get lost in itself—and this…
Utu begins with a priest screaming "All they that take the sword shall perish by the sword" at his parish, and then spends the rest of its runtime driving home exacty this very point. So you could say it is very much upfront.
However, it is worth the time, as it takes a perspective that is rarely shown in films (or any form of culture, for that matter), and is told in a quite engaging way.
Can't help, but think about a film like this through the lens of representation, especially when it comes to what kind of things, actions and stories underserved people get to enact in film. This one goes exceptionally hard when it comes to the rage and veracity the lead Maori warrior is driven by in his desire for revenge, but it's not the self-serious type of a film. It's far more pulpy as it clear takes inspiration from westerns, while obviously providing it's more unique angle as the driving force in the film. Watched this because of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list, which once again provided a very pleasant discovery.
Basically just a solid New Zealand western except instead of cowboys, you have the British trying to take everything.
