Review of Whale Rider (2003) by Kaley S — 05 Sep 2009

Whale Rider.

Whale rider was an interesting movie. Whale rider was about a tribe who believed they originated from whales. At the beginning of the movie, a lady gave birth to a boy and a girl. After she gave birth, she passed away and so did her son. The girl did live though. Throughout her primary years, her grandparents took care of her. Even though she was a not a boy which grandfather wanted, her grandfather still loved her and took care of her. If the family has a boy, the chief passes down his power to the boy.

The girl name is pai. Pai?s father went off to Germany for an art expedition. In Germany, pai?s father met a woman named Anna and she is pregnant. Throughout the movie, pai struggles to fit in with the kids in her town. Since pai could not inherit being a chief, her grandfather had to pick a boy from the community. Pai?s grandfather started a school to train the boys to be a warrior. Whoever succeeds at diving for the whale tooth will take the place of the chief. The girl practices to become a warrior behind her grandfather?s back.

The boys go out on a boat to dive and retrieve the whale tooth, but not one of them could retrieve it. The girl with the rest of the family goes out on a boat, and the girl retrieves the whale tooth. At the end, the girl calls for the whales to help out her grandfather who is the chief. The whales did come up on shore, but not the reason she wanted them too. The whales started to die off since they were not in the ocean. Pai decided to take the leader of the whale pack and try to ride it out into to sea. She succeeded and woke up in the hospital since she had been underwater for so long. At the end of the movie, all of the men in the tribe including pai road off in a boat out into the ocean. This symbolized pai becoming the chief of the tribe.

The movie relates to world religion in many different ways. Culture has a lot to do with religion. In the tribe, they believe that their ancestry originated from the whale. They believe that men are the only ones who can become chief. They had a school for boys to become warriors and learn how to fight. In different areas of the world, there are different practices and religious ways. They believe that the whale is a sacred animal, because of the fact that everyone is and has been descended from whales.

K.Shields.