The Convert by Lee Tamahori has for look dazzling New Zealand landscapes and I was charmed by culture and language of Maori people. All this can get from watching National Geographic. The Convert hasn’t a memorable screenplay.
Dialogs are beautiful but that’s all. A film could be original, but it almost soon begins to bend to common standards and becomes usual eventually. Too many stereotype characters and plot elements will in final. A main hero meets woman, have sex later. He has a confrontation in beginning with a man who actually is chief of evil tribe and a person whose life will be spared is a daughter of a leader of a group of good natives. That girl will help a protagonist by doing deus ex machina. Lee Tamahori didn’t strive to stay away from hackneyed.
A director confuses. What was point of a good chief to leave his daughter in settlement of white people? I think, arrived English people shouldn’t worry if one chief will kill other tribe (because they can call army.) – a typical and, bad in this time, dramatization. A script becomes impossible when the evil chief kills arm salesman and his crew for taking rifles and his ship, which his tribe can drive (!), and it contains a single cannon (?!) from which his people can shoot (!). Read lately Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee made me to recall what Indians did with artillery weapon. Nevertheless, the evil chief doesn’t use his advantage properly while Tamahori becomes Mr. Lazy by don’t explaining how good Natives sneaked on the ship and victory in a battle was without of how the positive personages managed to do it. Nah, a Christian priest (I about protagonist.) becomes one of Maori and he together with their representatives shows place to mighty Britain in Hollywood style in the last scene. Between Maori and English people installs union by flags of both nations though the settlers, as in this movie demonstrates, are not so wishful to have contact with natives. Tamahori wasn’t in intention to answer on this if he knew about it.
Fighting are horribly staged. Nonsense does demonstration of martial arts among Maori tribes and that’s in the year 1830. Though protagonist, who was an army soldier in the past, has own style, which something of contemporary Irish fighting – his scene with using saddle for protection and beat back is the first the worst of all. The second alongside is one with the crew on the ship who expect attack from the other side while enemies appear opposite what is not thinkable, because people with any intelligence will look on place where land is. That’s desire to do an effect shot kills logic as well as the director shouldn’t show much nature in scene when two women characters came in forest. Tamahori is excellent stagemaker and didn’t deprive of how to impress in action. Nevertheless, his this film has lack of adequate fighting.