Customer Reviews

River Queen

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This historical drama, set in 1860s New Zealand, focuses on the Whanganui River valley
and an Irish settler's seven year effort in trying to find her son, kidnapped by his Maori grandfather.
All this while colonials and Maori are engaged in guerrilla-style warfare. This is probably Vincent Ward's
best film to date and probably the best Maori themed film yet made. The settings and photography
alone are worth viewing, even though the film is not perfect. I was left with the feeling that some further
improvements were needed with editing. But given the many production problems, there may have been
some filming needs that were not fulfilled. Very much worth experiencing.

This historical drama, set in 1860s New Zealand, focuses on the beautiful Whanganui River valley and a widowed Irish settler's seven year effort in trying to find her half-caste son, kidnapped by his Maori grandfather. All the while, colonials and Maori are engaged in guerrilla-style warfare. This is probably Ward's best film to date and probably the best Maori themed film yet made. The settings and photography alone are worth the viewing, even though the film is not perfect. I was left with the feeling that some further improvements were needed with editing. But given the production problems, there may have been some filming needs that were not fulfilled. Very much worth seeing.

"A word for you. Cease traveling on the roads. Stop forever the going on the roads lest you be left there as food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field; or for me. Because I have eaten the European as beef. He was cooked in a pot and the women and children partook of the food. I have begun to eat human flesh. My throat is constantly open for the flesh of man. I shall not die. I shall not die. When death itself is dead I shall be alive."

Temuera Morrison delivers his lines with the equanimity and menace he uniquely combines as Te Kai Po, a rebellious Maori chief. For its U.S. release 'River Queen' was stuck with a B-movie cover that camouflages the Grade A story within. Pitched as a Kiefer Sutherland vehicle by the jacket, it is easy to miss many of New Zealand's heaviest hitters beneath: Cliff Curtis, Temuera Morrison, and director Vincent Ward. Samantha Morton is a strong lead, backed up by Stephen Rea and a creditable Irish accent by Sutherland, who plays Private Doyle.

The story revolves around a mother (Morton) searching for her kidnapped child amidst the Maori warring against settlers during the 1860s. The fern-choked muddiness of 'River Queen' evokes 'The Piano' but it is a story that goes down a river; a meandering, primeval tract of green reminiscent of 'Apocalypse Now' where Sarah meets her own Kurtz. Cunning battle tactics developed by the outnumbered Maori are well depicted, and enemy musket shots are often little more than flashes lost amid the verdant undergrowth.
Cultural references throughout the movie are globally relevant today; the moko form of tattoo and tikis are abundant, and there are several excellent hakas, the war dances that are now becoming popular with West Coast college football teams. Maori spoken throughout is mostly translated, but sometimes input is demanded from the audience, such as a phrase made obvious by a hand gesture that goes untranslated. The London Philharmonic provides a strong musical backdrop over which to tell the tale, and the only negative is a subtle current of unease that runs through 'River Queen', a vague sense of the production problems that always seem to plague visionary directors like Terry Gilliam, or in this case, Vincent Ward.

The troubled production of this film is far more interesting than the end product. Director Vincent Ward was temporarily fired and the cinematographer Alun Bollinger filled in. Star Samantha Morton was ill for much of the time, which accounts for the extensive use of voice-over narration.

The action takes place in 19th century New Zealand where Maori (the indigenous people) and the colonial English are engaged in conflict around a river. Director Ward has tried to create an epic in the mold of Herzog's "river" films but his terrible script leaves the actors nothing to work with. A notorious flop in New Zealand.

Director Vincent Ward used to be the next up-and-coming thing in New Zealand, but it will be interesting to see if his career ever recovers from this bomb, reputed to have cost over 20 million to make but which only earned about 800,000 USD at the box office.

It's not hard to see why it failed so miserably:

1. Ward, trained as a painter, does not have a worthy command of character. His characters make decisions that he never upon or explored. Morton's final decision in the movie seems unnecessary and almost spur-of-the moment.

2. The film is a downer throughout. You don't feel satisfaction when the woman finds her son, when the war finishes, or when she makes her final decision.

3. Ward's view of the whites in New Zealand is absurdly one-sided. They are utterly without any redeeming qualities, embodying greed, evil, rapaciousness, etc. This is a little ridiculous. After all, it was the eventual hegemony of the whites that put an end to the senseless, aeons-old fighting among the Maori tribes. Not to mention much improved medical care and those awesome top hats! In the end, the movie gives you every reason to hate white culture but no reasons to honor the Maori, other than the fact that they live is some very picturesque forests.

4. Morton -- an actress whose bona fides are beyond question -- delivers a terrible performance in this film, her worst, at least that I've seen. They say she was sick for weeks during the production, and it shows. Pity that, but still . . .

5. I don't think they did such a great job on casting. A lot of the Maoris had potbellies. In the 1860's, they would have been a lot more wiry.

Vincent Ward's films, though too often suffering under lousy scripts, have always been a feast for the eyes, and 'River Queen' is no exception. I always appreciate a good looking movie and they don't come much better looking than this. If location scouts received academy awards, this would be a shoe-in. It's gorgeous at every turn. Not a shot is wasted and the color palette is beautiful. Some have complained that the colors are over-saturated, and that may be true, but it didn't bother me in the least.

Here's the scoop. New Zealand in the 1860s. The British are squeezing out the local Maori Indians. A young, British woman has a brief affair with a Maori and bares a child. Dad dies shortly afterward and a few years later granddad kidnaps the child and raises him as a Maori. Mom never gives up the search for him and when she finds him it brings light to a sticky situation involving loyalties both familial and social.

This is a very good movie. Samantha Morton does a fine job as mom. Her face is great. She has to do the job without makeup and she has a childlike quality in her looks that allows her to pull it off. Kiefer Sutherland has a comparatively small roll and he does a decent job. Some complain about his having a lousy Irish accent but it didn't bother me. Cliff Curtis and Temeura Morrison turn in their usual good performances. The music is good though, at times, a bit reminiscent of Ennio Morricone. It's a good storyline. You feel the pull of loyalties between blood and society. Some of the Maroi want to fight. Some feel they need to make peace with whitey because he's a force to be dealt with. The son has been estranged from mom for enough time to feel more loyalty toward his people than to her . There is no easy way out of this. The costuming is also terrific. I always thought it bizarre how the Maori picked up on the western clothing and incorporated it with their own. They really push that point here.

This is an epic. Maybe not as huge and sprawling as some but still of that ilk and worth your while. At 114 minutes I thought it was long enough. It didn't ware out it's welcome with me.

If you're at all predisposed toward this type of film you will probably have a good time with it.

I saw both the good reviews and the bad. After viewing "River Queen" for myself, I cannot share the negativie comments encountered in many reviews, nor did I find reason for the praises of Samantha's Morton's performance.

Largely a fault of the script, I fail to see what Cliff Curtis' Wiremu sees in her Sarah in the first place. Samantha/Sarah comes across as a moody, shallow, whiny, self-centered, sometimes even hysterical girl, who was supposedly such a great surgeon/healer, yet does not try to assist a dying Old Rangi, nor does she ever bother to check what could be done for Wiremu's little son, Timoti, and never inquires from Wiremu about his health after he chops off his finger in exchange for Boy's life. Even once hidden in the cave she is more concerned about herself "belonging with Boy's family" by asking Boy to put a moko on her chin - a cultural faux pas to say the least - than checking on Wiremu's wellbeing. That in my mind would have proven more to Wiremu that she truly cared for him than a moko. Also, when Wiremu risks his life to see her by bribing the guards, there was no real purpose in her rebuke; she says "everything is changed - Doyle is dead," so apparently it was quite acceptable for her to be intimate with Wiremu while she deemed Doyle alive, but unacceptable to be with Wiremu once Doyle was dead. It was very unfair of her to get Wiremu's hopes up (how he ever found her in her "hide-away" is beyond me), and reject him precisely when the time to flee the hatefulness and racism of a Major Baines was best. She would always have been under Baines' scrutiny and viewed as suspicious, and as she says, "she has no man to wed." (She must mean no white man, as at this point it is quite clear that Wiremu loves her). That scene when Baines sadistically drags her from the surgery bed to show her how a European woman is mistreated for "fraternizing with the enemy" should have told her enough, that she could never be true to herself living under that society's bias. Then there are the nonsensical wardrobe changes while she is fleeing from the British. She jumps into the river in her greenish-blue dress, yet emerges from the river cave in something that looks a lot like that wedding dress she wore earlier. And when she is shot while admiring her moko, she is clearly not carrying any additional clothing with her as she floats downriver, yet we see her years later hoeing sweet potatoes in that same greenish-blue dress that she presumably left behind in the cave far away from her new home.

On the other hand, I truly enjoyed Cliff Curtis' portrayal of Wiremu. This under-appreciated actor had such a presence - and a welcome change from playing drug smugglers and kingpins. He truly embodied Wiremu. The most touching scene in my opinion was when she spends the night with her son's extended family in the long house, and Wiremu is trying to touch her arm, as it were, trying to move his own arm past Boy, and is stopped by Boy's shifting around. There was so much unspoken expression in this, something that Samantha Morton never was able to communicate. The script fails Cliff too: it is totally unclear how Cliff/Wiremu manages to be upriver, and then again downriver, seemingly within moments, while the boat that took a blindfolded Samantha upriver needed several days to get there. Some things about Cliff's character really would have benefited from being fleshed out more. The viewer is left with more questions than answers.

Temuera Morrison was a delight as the wily chief, of course the fact that he wore contact lenses that concealed the whites of his eyes greatly added to this image. He did show himself to be a man of character by appreciating that she had healed him and not going back on his word. And his personal liberties his character takes with others' wives appear somehow acceptable as "the chief's right."

Why Kiefer Sutherland was chosen to be on the cover of the DVD is beyond me; his part is minor and seems to be only window-dressing, plus it was totally senseless to have us view his bare backside. His performance is less than memorable; he could have benefited from some "real" Irish language lessons, not that fake stuff Hollywood seems to enjoy ("the English language should always be clear, but the others - make it up as you go along, and when in doubt, mumble," seems to be the voice coaches' advice). Any real Irish actor could have played this part and possibly have become a true counterpart to Wiremu. I think there was simply no contest between the two. Again, in a lack of script continuity, Kiefer/Doyle immediately recognizes Boy's identity in the battlefield, while dizzy Samantha/Sarah only recognizes her son after feeling the scar on his knee, and oh wonder, never ever by the birthmark on his face.

Stephen Rea was somewhat believable, as he is a decent actor, but even he cannot rise above the script. The part where his character is leaving one of his daughters behind seemed to have warranted a bit more context. His character definitely had a great intolerance for Maoris in general and their customs in particular. As indifferent as the script says his character is toward issues such as violating the Maori grave site, it does not make sense for the old Maori woman to then reveal to him that Old Rangi took his grandson. And if she was more loyal to the settlers rather than her own people, could she then not have aided Sarah in finding her boy?

Major Baines, on the other hand, was so despicably good, you just would love to hate him. In fact he did remind me of quite a few real-life hypocrites I have met in my own life, obsessed with the idea of "putting white women in their place".

In light of the above gaffes and inconsistencies, I got to the point that I loudly wished I could been there, looking over the scripters' shoulders with some constructive criticism. Because this film has some truly great features: the awesome scenery, exquisite music scores, excellent Maori actors playing Maori characters, attempts (but sadly also some missed opportunities) to depict particularities in Maori culture, etc. I believe some of the problems stemmed from external issues, such as weather, illness, accidents and the probably unwarranted firing of Ward, so they probably pushed just to finish the shoot. Nevertheless, Cliff Curtis was the leading man and by far overshadowed the other male actors; thus he should have gotten top billing. Samantha Morton was not at "flawless" as Screenjabber makes her out to be, and I do not necessarily consider her the "star".

Even though the script continuity suffered from too much and inconsistent cutting, I did appreciate how the end flowed into the scenes at the very beginning. I like the fact that love was allowed to prevail, and that Wiremu, Boy and Sarah were allowed to live. In an American setting, the telling of an interracial love story still typically would ensure that one of the characters, usually the non-white male, perishes in the end, to seemingly indicate that such liaisons are considered aberrations rather than simply occurrences of love between two persons.

This is probably the greatest message in the film, that love, even in the most adverse of circumstances, survives war, hatred and adversity. Despite its shortcomings (as I am a stickler for continuity), I sincerely recommend this film, if at least for its visual beauty.

"River Queen" was a film I enjoyed despite the fact that it seemed to be pulling in several different directions that didn't always hang together. The scenery of the boats winding up pristine rivers was breathtakingly beautiful. However, these pastoral aspects were juxtaposed to the violent racial conflict between the Maori people and the White settlers. Layered on top of this was a story about romance, motherhood, and family attachment and betrayal. Vincent Ward directed. Stephen Rea from "Tara Road" and "V is for Vendetta" plays the Irish father. His strong-willed daughter Sarah played by Samatha Morton has a romance with a Maori who dies from illness. She gives birth to Boy. The boy's paternal grandfather steals the half-caste from her. Morton has two Oscar nominations from "In America" & "Sweet & Lowdown." She brings a strong quality performance to screen. Cliff Curtis who is of Maori heritage plays the strong Wiremu who finds himself attracted to Sarah seven years later. Kiefer Sutherland does a decent Irish accent as the soldier Doyle who has both heart and conscience. The war scenes have a gritty realism as the viewer is torn between the two groups who fight. Although the film didn't totally gel for me, I appreciated having seen it. The scenery and the tale of racial conflict give it substance. Enjoy!

I am happy to have found a movie that was done out of the USA and available at a good price. It came fast and in great condition.