Once Were Warriors (1994)
★★★★★ — Once Were Warriors (1994)
There are films you enjoy. There are films you admire. And then there are films that get inside you and refuse to leave. Once Were Warriors belongs to that third category, and it belongs there completely. I'm not going to pretend this is an easy watch, because it isn't. There were moments I had to look away. But I will tell you, without hesitation, that it's one of the greatest films I've ever seen.
Set in the working-class Māori community of urban New Zealand, it follows the Heke family through poverty, addiction, and violence. That description alone might make it sound like a grim social document, something you'd watch out of duty rather than desire. But Once Were Warriors is so much more than that. It's raw and unflinching and devastating in its honesty, and it grabs you from the opening frames and never once lets go.
Rena Owen plays Beth Heke with a towering combination of strength and sorrow that I genuinely struggle to put into words. Her journey from quiet endurance to fierce, hard-won resilience is one of the great screen performances, full stop. She carries the film's emotional weight on her shoulders and never buckles under it, even when everything around her is collapsing. It's a career-defining turn in every sense.
And then there's Temuera Morrison as Jake "the Muss" Heke. Terrifying is the right word, but what makes the performance so extraordinary is that Jake never quite becomes a monster. He's a broken man. An addict. Someone whose rage is rooted in shame and in a loss of identity he can't even fully articulate. That complexity is what makes the horror hit so much harder. A straightforward villain would be easier to dismiss. Jake Heke is not easy to dismiss. The young actors, particularly the actress playing Grace, who I understand barely appeared on screen before or since, bring the same heartbreaking authenticity to their roles. There's nothing performed about any of it.
This was Lee Tamahori's directorial debut, which is almost impossible to believe. He doesn't flinch once. The violence is brutal, the language harsh, the despair at times almost overwhelming. But it never feels exploitative, and that distinction matters enormously. Every difficult scene earns its place. This is a film rooted in truth, born from lived experience, and it confronts the devastation of colonisation and systemic neglect with an unrelenting clarity that demands you pay attention.
What stops it from being purely unbearable is what flickers through the darkness: the rediscovery of Māori culture, the concept of whānau, of family in the deepest sense, and Beth's final act of defiance, which I won't spoil but which lands like something close to a release valve after everything that's come before. It's not a happy ending. But it's a true one, and that feels more important.
For my A-Z World Movie Tour, New Zealand threw up some interesting contrasts. I've reviewed What We Do in the Shadows, which shows an entirely different side of what New Zealand filmmaking can do, and the gap between those two films is a reminder of just how wide a national cinema can stretch. But if Once Were Warriors is one of the things New Zealand gave to world cinema, that's a genuinely extraordinary contribution.
The film broke box office records in New Zealand on its release, sparked real national conversation, and changed the landscape of what stories could be told and how. None of that surprises me. A film this honest about pain, identity, and survival was always going to shake something loose.
Five stars. Not because it's enjoyable, but because it's necessary. Because it's true. Because it's the kind of film that reminds you what the medium is actually capable of when it's working at full power. Not to be missed. Not easily forgotten.
Rating: ★★★★★ | Year: 1994 | Watched: 2025-08-01
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Film Movement Plus · BFI Player Amazon Channel · Film Movement Plus Amazon Channel
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from New Zealand: What We Do in the Shadows (2014) · Mortal Engines (2018) · King Kong (2005) · 'Aho'eitu (2015)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
