Review of Whale Rider (2003) by Olivia H — 15 Sep 2012

The Whale Rider is a movie about a young girl who is determined to show her grandfather that she is not a mistake. Her grandfather believes that the leader of the tribe will be a boy and is, therefore, upset when the first born grandson dies unexpectedly shortly after he is born and the girl baby, which is a twin to the boy, lives. The grandfather opens a school to the young boys of the tribe to teach them the old ways and find the next leader. His granddaughter tries to learn the old ways, but is turned away by her grandfather many times. When no one can past the test to retrieve the whale tooth from the bottom of the ocean, the grandfather is heartbroken. He believes that he has failed to find the leader of the tribe, but he soon finds that the chosen leader was before his vary eyes the whole time. His granddaughter succeeds in retrieving the whale tooth from the bottom of the ocean, but the grandfather is still not convinced that she is to be the leader. When all the whales wash up on shore and no one can move them, the granddaughter climbs on top of the biggest one and rides him back into the ocean; therefore, convincing her grandfather that she is the chosen one. She is the whale rider and the leader of the Maori tribe. She is not a mistake, but the chosen one.

This movie relates to the indigenous sacred ways in a lot of aspects. First of all, the sacred ways are not written down on paper, but are taught orally to the next generation. This is seen in the fact that the grandfather builds a school to teach the boys the old ways, which they have to learn oral speeches and fighting. Second of all, the youth have to go through test to become the leader of the tribe, which is the same in the indigenous religion where the youth have to pass a test to become men and women. Lastly, the indigenous religion has some creation story of where they come from. In the whale rider movie the tribe is connected to the great whale. The whale is the link between the old and new world for the Maori tribe.

This is a great movie!