Extended Essay: The Whale Rider & The Legend of Paikea

I've chosen to compare Niki Caro's The Whale Rider with the famous legend of Paikea. After all, this film is based off of this legend and the culture of the Maori people, who strongly believe in the legend of Paikea. The Whale Rider is about a village of Maori people who strive to keep the Maori culture alive. Paikea, the little girl in the film, survived an emergency birth that her twin brother and mother did not. This was devastating to her grandfather because he had been longing for the first born boy of the family. In the Maori culture, the first born son becomes the leader or chief of the tribe and this tradition has been passed down for many, many years. Because the first born died in a traumatic birth, Paikea's grandfather has resented her because she survived, and her brother did not. Throughout the film, Paikea tries to prove that she can become a leader. Her grandfather looks completely past her ability simply because she is female. He spends a lot of time and effort training the young boys in the village to have them compete to see who will be the next leader. Paikea continues to try, she watches from afar, and trains behind her grandfather's back. Towards the end of the film, the whales wash up onto shore, very sick and near death. Paikea saves the whales and becomes a whale rider. In the legend of Paikea,  Paikea is saved by a whale and this is where he got his name from. In the film, this is similar. Paikea the character, saves the whale but she is also saved from the inequality of males and females. There are mixed interpretations of the ending of the film, but Paikea is finally respected by her grandfather and becomes the leader of the village. She lives on as the whale rider, similar to the legend of Paikea.

 

The Whale Rider does a great job incorporating this legend. Without it, I'm not sure how the film would even be created because it's so heavily based on the legend of Paikea. Niki Caro was smart by naming the main character of the film Paikea, because that is such an important name in the Maori culture. Caro plays a twist on this legend by having a girl be Paikea. In the legend, Paikea is a man who is rescued by the whale. In Caro's film, Paikea rescues the whales. The whales wash up on shore and the whole village is doing everything they can to save these whales. It is Paikea who ultimately saves one of the whales and she rides the whale deep into the ocean. Many would say the whales rescued her as well. They have rescued her from inequality and from the resentment of her grandfather. This is the turning point in the film; Paikea has made the ultimate sacrifice and lives on as the new leader of the tribe. She is finally respected by her grandfather as well as everyone else in the village.

 

 

 

The film does a great job of incorporating a ton of Maori culture and traditions as well. Caro included famous legends, language, dress, and religious practices. She included 'Marae' in the film, which are meeting grounds for the members of the tribe. This is a really important part of the Maori culture. The dress and the dancing at the end of the film also reflected the Maori culture. The chants, face paint, etc. was all very reflective of this culture. In the Maori culture, the tribe is supportive of each of its members. At the end of the film, the entire village came together to build the boat and all of the men worked together to row the boat out into the ocean.

 

 

The film also creatively uses music. The chosen music really reflects the mood of the current scene. The music is also correlated with the use of color. In happy scenes, the music is upbeat. In darker, bluer scenes, the music is also dark, depressing, and slow. There is one instance when the music and the colors don't exactly match. When Paikea decides to go be with her dad, the music is sad but the colors are bright. My interpretation of this is that the family is sad to see Paikea go, but it's a happy time for her dad because he will get to be with his daughter now. Caro also made sure to incorporate chants that are popular in Maori culture.

 

This short clip provides an example of some of the Maori traditions. It includes dress, chants, and language. This is the final scene in the film and I thought it really captured the essence of what the Maori people believe in and the traditions they continue to practice.

 

 

 

Personally, I believe what made Niki Caro's film so successful is that she incorporated so much of the Maori culture in her film. She also kept it realistic and up to date as well. She was able to create a story that was also very educational for people who aren't as familiar with the Maori culture. The legend of Paikea was really the base of this film. As I mentioned before, I don't think Caro would have had much of a story without the legend of Paikea incorporated into this film. This legend is a famous story for the Maori people, who are from the New Zealand area. Caro is from New Zealand so I think it may have 'hit home' a bit for her to learn and be involved with people that date back to many years ago. Based on research and watching this film, the legend of Paikea seems to be very important to the Maori culture and is something that they really truly believe in and hold close to their hearts. Incorporating this story into the film made it really interesting to its viewers (well, for me at least). Learning about different cultures is really intriguing. Caro incorporated a lot of the Maori culture in this film and it allowed me to learn about their practices and traditions. Prior to this film, I never knew this culture existed and after watching, I learned a lot about them and their beliefs.



Paikea: The Right Fit

The legend of Paikea is about a whale rider. In the Maori culture, there is a belief that Paikea was a famous whale rider. Because of this, the name Paikea often refers to humpback whales. Paikea received this name from the whale that rescued him. Paikea was carried by the whale along the coast of New Zealand.

This version of Paikea best fits the film, The Whale Rider. In the film, the child was named Paikea when her mother was in an emergency birth. The way that a whale rescued Paikea can be related to how the character Paikea was also rescued. She somehow managed to survive the emergency birth while her twin brother and mother did not. She was also rescued by a whale from the societal and cultural norms of female inferiority. It's fitting that the character was named Paikea because she becomes a whale rider at the end of the movie.

This description of the legend of Paikea fits very well with the film. It's a simple version, yet the film is able to portray this famous legend.



Information from: http://whales.fieldmuseum.org/behind/people/maori-whale-riders

Water: Cultural Perspective with Symbolism

 

 

One way that water is portrayed in the film is that it washes away sins. There are many scenes where characters are washing themselves. In one particular scene, a woman bumps into a widow and says that she needs to bathe herself again simply because she bumped into the widow. This culture portrays widows as dirty and full of sin, simply because their husband passed away. Widows are inferior to the rest of society and are not treated with any respect. This is part of the religion of the Indian culture.

 

Another example of water in the film is that the river is Holy water. Religion is very important to this culture and obeying the rules and beliefs is expected. When one of the older widows becomes sick, they send Chuyia to the river to get Holy water. However, Chuyia didn't make it back quick enough and the older widow passed away. It's inferred that the Holy water would have maybe saved the widow or it would have washed away her sins and she would have a forgiven life as she transitioned to the afterlife.

 

Water seems to be a very important part of this film and the Indian culture. Water is involved in a lot of their everyday rituals and is very meaningful to the people of India.

Music: Pitch Perfect

 

 

Pitch Perfect is one of my favorites for so many reasons. To start, I love movies that are like musicals. It makes it so much more fun and really gets me into the scenes. This movie in particular includes a lot of songs that I knew prior to the movie so I was that much more engaged when I watched. When I bought this movie on dvd, I watched this scene 11 times in a row because I enjoyed it THAT much. I love this scene because Beca sings a song that is really meaningful to Jesse (her crush). She includes the song that is at the end of The Breakfast Club and that is the movie that Jesse tried to get her to watch but she thought it was stupid. Once Jesse heard Beca singing this song at the competition, he knew that she watched the movie and that really meant a lot to him. He raised his arm in the air while in the audience and that made the movie come full circle. At that point, you knew that Beca and Jesse were together. I always love a little love story in a movie as well. Overall, I think this performance in the movie is incredible. I think it's awesome that it involves so many different songs and so many different types of music as well. 

Mythic Associations: Paikea & The Whale Rider

 

 

 

 

The Whale Rider is a film based off the legend of Paikea. The film uses this subtext to portray the story of Paikea. The name Paikea is almost always associated with whales. According to the legend, Paikea was a famous whale rider. The name came from the whale that rescued him when he almost died due to an internal family conflict. As told by the legend, the whale took Paikea to the east coast of New Zealand where he became the founder of a Maori tribe. It is believed that Paikea is buried on a small island on the east coast of New Zealand.

 

*information about the legend of Paikea obtained from http://whales.fieldmuseum.org/behind/people/maori-whale-riders

 

 

The film itself does a really good job of incorporating the story of Paikea as well as different aspects of the Maori culture. It captures this story of Paikea because the character in the film is facing a lot of family conflict; she is a girl so she is less worthy compared to the boys in the family. She fights to prove herself and eventually becomes rescued by the whale that she rides. She is rescued from the inequality and the societal norms that are part of the Maori culture, simply because she is a girl. Her spirit lives on as she becomes the whale rider in her "new" life. It's also quite fitting that the director of the film named the character Paikea because this fits the legend perfectly.

 



Special Effects

 

 

 

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/7083603

 

 

This link includes a scene that involves special effects from the film Divergent. This clip is really interesting because not only does it show the scene, but it also shows the making of the scene. I chose this clip because a) Divergent is one of my favorite movies and b) I think it's really interesting to see how special effects work behind the scenes.

Tsotsi: Sound and Music

 

 

In the film Tsotsi, there was a lot of different music, some at appropriate times and some at inappropriate times. One example of inappropriate music was during a scene near the beginning of the film. It was storming out and Tsotsi was running away from a fight. The music that was played in the background was upbeat party music. In my opinion, this just didn't reflect the mood of the scene. Usually during a storm, music is usually more dark and eery. I also associate upbeat music with fun and happy scenes and fleeing a fight isn't the happiest scene. An example of appropriate music was at the opening of the film. The music was upbeat as Tsotsi and his friends were 'heading out' for the night. At this point, as the viewer, I was unaware what their definition of a 'night out' meant and I found this upbeat music to be appropriate. Another instance of appropriate music was towards the end of the film when Tsotsi and the 'mother figure' woman were reflecting on events that had happened. The music was not upbeat; it was a slower type of music that seemed to match their reflections.

 

 

As a side note, I chose this picture because I thought it was a really good representation of the film. For the most part, we saw the film through Tsotsi's eyes . We were able to understand his behavior through flashbacks of his life.