‘Utu’ a ‘magnificent western’

Press, 28 December 1985, Page 6

‘Utu’ a ‘magnificent western’

NZPA Washington “Utu,” the film about Maori wars by Geoff Murphy, is a “magnificent western — New Zealandstyle,” according to the “Washington Post.” “In ‘Utu,’ someone is always stalking someone, and being stalked in return — the comings and goings of the characters as they tramp through forests and across mountains, creates a visual metaphor for the movie’s web of revenge,” the newspaper review

said. “What lends ‘Utu’ its particular richness is the way the director, Geoff Murphy, plays with your sympathies — you never know which side he’s on, or which side you’re supposed to be, and neither, evidently, do the characters.” The review said that Murphy loved the land and had a gift for placing men in their environment, “for majestic vistas of mountains and golden fields of grass that suggests the work of John Ford.”

The review notes, however, that although “Utu” has its resemblances to the western, it is also full of mad character touches that would not be expected of Ford. “Part of this stems from the practices of the Maoris themselves, who try to frighten their victims with bug-eyes and lolling tongues — they look like a heavy metal rock band,” it said. The reviewer said Anzac Wallace in his portrayal of the avenger, Te Wheke, gives to it a “riveting, de-

moniac presence, while Bruno Lawrence gives. an effective performance as the farmer, Jonathan Williamson. “He is clearly deranged by grief, but he never goes over the top into madman histrionics,” he said. “Utu” is one of a number of New Zealand and Australian films playing for two weeks at the Biograph cinema in Washington. It has been given an R certificate for its “considerable violence and nudity in a sexual situation.”