“Whale Rider” was an interesting film. I feel like I
would have understood it a lot more if I had read the book before seeing it
because there were a lot of things about the Maori culture that were important
to the story that weren’t really explained in the film. Also, I think that it
would have made more sense if they had used English subtitles during the parts
where they were chanting. That way I could have had an idea of what they were
saying instead of just hearing a jumble of sounds that, for all I knew, could
have been meaningless.
On a more positive note, I did like the overall theme
of the movie; having a girl as a hero. Koro was originally dead set on the next
leader of the tribe being a boy, like all of the leaders before him. Because of
that, he couldn’t open his eyes and see that his granddaughter, Pai, was the
true leader. He only acknowledged that she was the next leader after she rode
the whale. I appreciated that the author was trying to make a point about how,
in the modern world, more men need to adjust to the fact that women are
becoming more equal to men. They need to let go of the old ways and embrace a
new way of life.
