Whale Rider | | Cast : | Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis | | Director : | Niki Caro | | Studio : | Columbia Tristar Hom | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | July 04, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | June 07, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | On the verge of spiritual | Content
 | I came across this movie on the PBS channel was unable to turn the channel from the first moments. It is a touching and deep movie whose impact will stay with me for a long time to come. I am a big fan of people breaking the borders and this is the epitome of that struggle. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 18, 2005 | | Summary | I had NO desire to see it... thank goodness I DID! | Content
| I never liked and still do not care for the cover art of this movie. Even the title turned me off... it looked like "Free Willy" or some kid/animal movie which I had no interest in.
Somehow this movie made it to my DVD player, and it has become one of my top 10 movies of all time, and I'll tell you why.
Powerful Drama.
Incredible Story.
Stunning Performances.
Cultural Experience.
It's that simple, really. Without getting into the plot and all that has already been written, understand that Whale Rider is a deep, powerful story (I'd say for ages 12 and up) and is NOT a "kid's movie"; it just happens to center around a child. Whale Rider is about familial relationships, trust, respect and honor. As composer Lisa Gerrard put so well, "A sometimes dark but self effacing world of young Pai's (the main character) beautiful and difficult relationship with her grandfather that is heart rendingly defined by her awareness of her own identity, the depth of which we so often underestimate in our own children."
The cinematography is incredible... beautifully shot, and CGI-free. Lisa Gerrard's score is not just an added layer or an underscore, but it becomes an integral part of the movie's power.
Take a journey into this magical adventure you'll never forget. Congrats to Niki Caro on taking a story I had never heard of, and bringing this fascinating cultural history to life. Thanks also to all the people involved in the movie (the majority of the cast were the actual people from New Zealand with no acting experience). Hats off to Keisha Castle-Hughes, the new young actress who truly made the picture believable.
The DVD has an informative behind-the-scenes documentary worth seeing as well.
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| Rating | | | Date | June 10, 2005 | | Summary | We'd all be better off if we had more movies like this | Content
| When you go to the video store looking for films with positive role models for kids (and adults!), with an inspirational message that you can accomplish something if you put your mind to it, you typically will find almost nothing. Worse, even movies with a fraction of a positive message will be so silly or idiotic that watching them as an adult is torture. With "Whale Rider" you get a movie that adults and teens (and many pre-teens) can both watch and enjoy.
As Roger Ebert pointed out in his review of "Whale Rider," something is horribly wrong with a ratings system that gives a movie like this a PG-13 rating. Just watch this next to a movie like "Dodgeball" with its objectification of women, toilet humor and sexual innuendo. Both movies have the same rating! Don't be fooled. The average 12 year old _should_ be watching "Whale Rider" while "Dodgeball" shouldn't be viewed even by 14 year olds. All of this has me wondering about about the sanity and intelligence of the ratings board.
As many have pointed out, Keisha Castle-Hughes puts in a superb performance. Ditto for the rest of the cast.
Perhaps even better than the performances are the positive roles played by most characters. The kids are intelligent, confident and curious. The adults are generally supportive and wise. While the males in the movie have obvious faults, this movie is about them as it is about "girl power." There's a scene where Keisha's character is riding a bike with her grandfather and a loving glance passes between them. How rare it is to see such imagery - a father figure bonding with a child - in movies or TV! "Whale Rider" isn't just about celebrating a girl's empowerment. It's also about showing the love between male parental figures and their own personal growth as their children mature.
One caveat: "Whale Rider" is not typical Hollywood popcorn fare. Viewers with short attention spans or those who hate all foreign film style films will likely not like this movie. Still, "Whale Rider" is an excellent start to open the eyes of a youth (or an adult) to ideas outside of what the studies usually throw at us.
Bottom line: We'd all be better off if we had more movies like this. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 28, 2005 | | Summary | A leadership fable and still more! | Content
| This picture is a sublime ode to the sea nature and it exemplifies as any other else, the nature's purposes may be far beyond of the tradition or established principles conceived beforehand.
According the dynasty of ancient ancestors, Paikea must be a male leader, but there 's a twist of fate when two twins are born and one of them dies: the male. So this female survivor is never seen with any drop of tenderness of sympathy by her grandfather. She intends by all her means to win the trust and respect but she does not get it. But slowly there will be a curious events chain and slender facts that will convince him to this honorable but narrowed mind master he is wrong.
The film elapses between rituals and touching but effective anecdotes. She never gives up in her courage to reach her place. She will break the rules and her character will face the authority more than once.
The midnight sequence in which we watch the whales in the sand is visually poetic and extremely haunting.
Niki Caro threw once more her hat to ring with this admirable film, plenty of metaphors and mythological learning in which the nature is present ominously, through the greenness, the wind and the sea: the symbol of the life, according the mythical gaze.
Few times the cinema has been under the nature's service as in this case. There are other notable films as Flaherty's Nanook of the North, Herzog's Fata Morgana or Roeg's Walkabout for instance, but this film shines with resplendent brilliancy.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 20, 2005 | | Summary | Survival through renewal | Content
| This wonderful film was based on a novel by Witi Ihimaera, and directed by Nikki Caro. Shot in New Zealand, the film is about a girl who must fulfill her destiny as the leader of a Maori tribe in spite of the strong opposition she faces from her grandfather, a man with inflexible beliefs about the traditional roles of women in his society. Love and rejection are the main topics of the film, as the girl struggles to convince her grandfather that she is the one destined to ride the whales, the spiritual guardians of the tribe. The acting in Whale Rider is excellent, and the music, photography and sets are simply superb.
Keisha Castle-Hughes provides a very strong performance as the determined girl. You can see her next in Star Wars Revenge of the Sith. |
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