MovieChat Forums > Once Were Warriors (1995) Discussion > Do non-Maori watch this film to feel bet...

Do non-Maori watch this film to feel better about themselves?


I'm of Samoan descent, and I've found that a lot of my cousins and a lot of my white friends who watch this film get a good laugh out of it. Is this a common behaviour among non-Maori?

"Don't cry, it is to be. In time, I'll take away your miseries and make 'em mine...D'Evils."

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Not sure, not in my experience. My wife and I are both American Indian, and we watch it and find it quite...realistic to Rez/Indian life, especially the role of Jake/Rena Owen, how alcohol and bad decisions can tear apart a family. The differing levels of thought in this movie are very similar to American Indian life.

I don't find this movie very funny, it has always been sad, and very emotional for me, but it shows a good reflection of how life can work out.

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[deleted]

I don't see how I could get a good laugh out of this movie, I would think your cousins and friends are in a minority of people finding this movie funny.

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I agree, I'm of Hawaiian/Caucasian descent and I saw the film for the first time about 15 years ago and was moved emotionally by this story which according to the director happens a lot in the Maori culture as it does in the other Polynesian cultures. It's sad and needs to end.

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I know of people having a laugh at this film. It's not to make them feel better, and it's not just those who are not Maori. When I was at high school this would occasionally be shown and people would watch it, enjoy it for what it is, but would love some of the lines Jake the Muss would say, and would repeat them with laughter and all that sort of stuff, wasn't just the white kids, it was everyone. I personally don't find it a funny movie, but I think it's just that Jake the Muss is so iconic here in New Zealand that there is quite a lot of famous lines in this film.

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Do you think its really a "good laugh" and not some other kind of nervous expression? because if its not disturbing, then what is? You should ask them what they find funny in the movie.

Maori's dont own dysfunctional families or violent spousal abuse. These are dramas that transcend all races.

"Death, has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war." Donald Rumsfeld

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Not in the slightest. I don't find it the least bit funny.

Perhaps they couldn't comprehend the violence, and starkness of it so in turn made light of it and laughed.

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i agree with colt89 here. it's definitely not a funny movie but jake the muss has become a bit of an icon here, it's definitely his lines. the guys in my flat tell me to cook them some *beep* eggs all the time to which i would reply cook your own *beep* eggs. all in good nature, they're not about to heinously attack me.

it's also one of the rules of a popular drinking game here called circle of death, or vessel. the jake the muss rule, but it's too much to elaborate here haha

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Recently watched this film in a film-class in university and there were times when everyone was laughing and I couldn't understand it. I'm white but there weren't any real points that I laughed in the film but many around me did and I found they did so at inappropriate times.

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Absolutely not. I have enough experiences of a certain type in my past to have found this movie very disturbing and nearly unwatchable (despite thinking it was also very good and accurate in how it treated the subject) because it just dredged up too much negative nostalgia.

Then again, if some of my ancestors had made certain decisions differently, I might have grown up on a reservation or reserve, too. I have little doubt some of their stories weren't terribly different from this film, just from an earlier time and another continent (still haven't been able to bring myself to watch Rabbit-Proof Fence).

Maybe I'm just not quite "white" enough to find the subject matter amusing. And I really can't imagine why anyone would find anything to emulate in Jake Heke. That shows a *major* disconnect with the story.

Anyhoo, this wasn't what I came to this board for, so....


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[deleted]

Sounds like its just your friends. Maybe they're cowards laughing at a man beating a woman.
Or to cowardly to do that to a real Maori.

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