Whale Watching Trips

My name is not bruce asked:


Hey, so i had to watch the movie whale rider for a class and now have to write a short paper. Basically one film critic said the movie ****** because it was unreal. The tribe in the movie doesnt exists….
The paper i ahve to write basically is more from a film perspective …does it really matter if its real or not….were there deeper messages…..
Basically was the movie about Maori people or could it have been done in a different country with different people and get across the same messages?

But i figured it’d be helpful to see the exact things this critic doesn’t agree with and all i’ve managed to find was Maori people saying they find this movie to be a good representation of their life and enjoy it greatly.

So any help would be appreciated.

I’ve seen once were warriors too. Think thats what the guy is getting at. I of course not taking it to be a generalized representation of the people…but that the average maori is not what is portrayed in Whale Rider??
Here is the snippet from the critic that i have to write this paper based on.

Seán Damer, a New Zealand-based screenwriter and professor, criticizes WHALE RIDER on the grounds that it is not realistic. “The whole film,” writes Damer, “is a paeon to Maori myth and tradition as expressed in [Witi Ihimaera's novel, on which the film is based].”

And this is precisely where my problems with it start…Put at its simplest, Ihimaeri’s Maori community never existed. It is an imaginary, idealized, Arcadian community; a romantic invention.
Basically my paper, i have 2 options…

1. I agree with this guy….doesn’t matter what hte movie offers….it has to be something that possibly exists…the setting has to be accurate with modern day Maori people.

2. Guy is wrong….movie wasn’t about the Maori people…. there were deeper meanings and they used the Maori people as their vector.

I’m going wiht #2…. i’ve seen many movies where maybe the setting isn’t realistic….like a movie takes place in new york city, but in the movie it really isn’t too new york like…..

I just can’t tell if its just this guy…..or there was something horribly wrong with the movie that you can’t look past it.

BRADFORD