The film opens with Will Bastion leaving the New Zealand Army to go home to attend the funeral of his father. Will finds himself at odds with the Maori tradition of the eldest taking up the patu, the symbol of authority, believing that he does not want the responsibility, nor the potential for violence the patu may bring. His younger brother Kahu is more than happy to take up the patu as a way of increasing his power in the local community.

Kahu leads a large group of people who believe his stories about how the whiteman had seized the Maori lands after the Treaty of Waitangi and who long to wreak vengeance. The community Kahu leads is a major player in the supply of cannabis to the big cities through their association with some of the organised crime figures. At the time Kahu takes up the patu his group are on the verge of completing their biggest ever deal and they are used to intimidating all and sundry and run the local village pretty much as they like.

Will joins his daughter Ripeka at the funeral and takes up the role of father he has largely avoided for most of Ripeka?s life. As Will struggles to come to grips with the changed society and community, he also struggles to come to grips with the responsibilities of parenthood. Ripeka is intent on experiencing a bit more of life than Dad wants her to and her blossoming romance with one of Kahu?s group increases the tension between father and daughter.

The major struggle for Will is whether he will do anything to end the dominance of Kahu and his followers in the local community. As a trained SAS soldier Will is seen by the local Police as someone who could help infiltrate and destroy Kahu?s mob. As Will grapples with his dilemma the slide in morals in the community becomes more evident and his attempts to take up the farming life of his parents becomes more difficult.

Finally Kahu and his group decide to make a stand against a deal with the government for access for a Japanese wood-chipping company to a large forest. Kahu believes that the community is being sold out again and decides to make a significant statement to the world by taking over a key post where the loggers. Will eventually decides that enough is enough and goes on a one-man rampage, with some help from Ripeka, to ruin the drug deal and to break Kahu?s group. In the final confrontation it is brother against brother, with Will winning after shooting his sibling. The film close with Will advising Ripeka of her being the next in line for the patu and all the responsibility this brings.

The film brings together a series of major themes: the Maori sense of injustice over the Treaty of Waitangi, drugs in modern society, the manipulation of people by charismatic and/or violent leaders, communities struggling with major changes in society, anti-wood-chipping sentiments, the struggle of the loner who can but doesn?t want to take responsibility, brother versus brother and the whiteman leading the Police versus the close-knit Maori community. I would have thought that more could have been made of the mix. To me the film comes across as another bleak view of current day New Zealand and one that would hardly attract any tourists if this were to be seen as some true representation of the country.

It is almost inevitable that the disciplined Will Bastion will have to take up the cudgels; it is almost inevitable that the brothers will clash but that the good one, Will, has to win in the end; it is almost inevitable that Ripeka will stray from the straight and narrow but return to her father?s way in the end; and it is almost inevitable that the bad guy drug dealers will get theirs in the end. The film is just a bit too predictable, despite Morrison?s strong performance, some great action scenes and the clear painting of the characters. The film almost tries to do too much in too short a time and never quite makes it as Once Were Warriors clearly did. I thought the movie was a little disappointing in the end.

THE EXTRAS

There were none on the sample disc I received as this was a rental release (Feb 9 2005). Presumably there will be some when it is a sell through in June 2005.

CONCLUSION

Will Bastion must make some key decisions after walking away from his life in the New Zealand Army. Can he go back to the simple farming life bequeathed him by his father or will he be forced into battle with his violent brother Kahu, leader of the local gang? Can he make a relationship with Ripeka, the daughter he has had little to do with as she grew up? And can he restore some pride and respect to the local community cowering before Kahu?s drug-growing thugs?