"THE SEEKERS"
Sir,--Now that some of us have seen The Seekers it may be assumed that The Listener will again accept criticism of the film. One would avoid coining a phrase but the eternal -curate’s egt comes to mind, and suggests the comment that though parts are quite good (continued on next page)
much is bad, and the worst, centres round Laya Raki, that most incongruous choice for the part of Moana. Looks, costume, manner and speech are all out of tone with the story, and the total effect is completely dissatisfying and irritating. The last-mentioned fault is so obvious to the discriminating ear as to suggest that the actress makes no attempt to speak Maori. Is her part spoken in one of her mother-tongues, or is it just what it sounds like-gibberish? It is certainly nothing like the speech of the Maori actors. (Incidentally, why does Miss Johns, whose diction and acting are fine though her role does her less than justice, call the Hongi Tepe’s wife Mo-anna, when he rightly pronounces the name as Moana-two sy)lables only with no r sound?) Enough criticism from authoritative sources in both Britain and locally has been levelled at Miss Raki’s part as interpreted by her and the director (the immodesty is repellent and as unlike the behaviour of a young Maori woman of the period as it could be) so that we can well leave her to future audiences and critics. One can see many anachronisms and incongruities apart from those mentioned. To mention only one-the basket in which the heads are offered to Wayne. It could not have been the work of a Maori craftsman, for there was no cane of the type in New Zealand. It is the kind of thing imported from Eastern Asia; certainly not from any tt of Polynesia. Did no one ever tell George Brown that all Maori ketes (icits) were of flax. either plein or processed into muka (fibre)? All this adds up to a mass of error which makes one almost deplore the effort put into production of such a film. Yet it has much of ouf country which we admire and which captures. our interest. Having said this I shall patiently await the production of a real New Zealand film, uced on the ‘same scale but by people’ who understand the material with which they deal.
M.B.
S.
(Henderson). _
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 783, 23 July 1954, Page 26
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397"THE SEEKERS" New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 783, 23 July 1954, Page 26
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