The Convert
Lee Tamahori returns to New Zealand to make a deeply personal period drama exploring the correlation between faith and colonialism.
Guy Pearce
Image courtesy of Vertigo Releasing.
On his father’s side the New Zealand filmmaker Lee Tamahori has Māori blood and that fact is very relevant to the feature that made his name, 1994’s Once Were Warriors. That can be said too of this latest film of his. But, whereas that 1994 debut was an intimate, contemporary urban drama set in Auckland and featured a Māori family, The Convert is a period piece dealing with Māori tribal life in New Zealand in 1830. As is very apparent from the end credits a great deal of trouble was taken to portray the period and lifestyle accurately and particularly in its representation of the Māori characters. However, the central figure in the story is an Englishman, a minister named Thomas Munro (Gary Pearce), who arrives in the town of Epworth and takes over a church there.
Written by Tamahori himself in collaboration with Shane Danielsen, The Convert has its origins in a novel by Hamish Clayton, that being Wulf published in 2011. The story starts with Munro's arrival by sea and quickly establishes the fact that there are two rival tribes in the area and that their belief in revenge is a spur to violence between them. Indeed, the tribe led by Akatarewa (Lawrence Makoare) are first encountered brutally killing a prisoner and injuring his young wife, Rangimai (Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne from 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople) who is rescued by Munro and taken by him to Epworth. She proves to be the daughter of the other chief, Maianui (Antonio Te Maioha), and Munro seeks to protect her. As a minister he is very much a man of peace although he has come to be that due to his disgust over his previous experiences as a soldier when he was ordered to kill women and children.
It is natural enough in the circumstances that when a further killing occurs that could provoke more violence he does his best to persuade both chiefs that the concept of blood for blood can only lead to endless warfare and must be resisted. But if Munro's background might seem to link him with the British settlers, he soon realises that most of them are unscrupulous and uncaring with complete distain for the Māori people save in so far as they can trade with them by selling newly arrived muskets to both tribes while also conspiring against other settlers in a fight for power.
Tamahori’s film shot in wide screen by Gin Loane is a handsome work with a good sense of period and one which plays out as something of a large-scale action movie. At the same time the way in which war is deplored as Munro seeks to express a doctrine of peace suggests a more serious underlying aim and, since the film reaches us now, it is easy to feel that this 19th century tale of chiefs reluctant to negotiate or to compromise has a disturbing contemporary relevance even if that was not exactly intended. It is in any case in keeping with a wish to make a film that is beyond an adventure tale that Tamahori adopts a somewhat unhurried pace to give time for the atmosphere to be felt and for the customs of the Māori to be part of the picture. Equally fitting is the controlled portrait of Munro offered by Guy Pearce while in a role that could have been more central Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne displays a striking presence. Indeed, the acting in general is very sound and one feels that this is filmmaking of quality with its critical portrait of colonialism firmly conveyed.
If for all its qualities The Convert eventually seems to fall short, it is on account of weaknesses in the writing. The rapport that develops between Munro and a widow named Charlotte (Jacqueline McKenzie), a victim of transportation from Botany Bay, is well enough handled but elsewhere an ill-fated romance between a white girl and a Māori youth and a plot to get rid of an unwanted Catholic store owner both receive a rather cursory treatment. Similarly, Munro's arguments for peace over war although given more prominence are so crucial to the film that they really need more weight and the film’s epilogue which explains its title again feels a trifle glib rather than fully owned. It's a consequence of these elements being less than fully realised that one comes to wonder if ironically the audience who will most relish The Convert might be those who enjoy the well-staged and violent battle scene which provides its climax. But, that said, Tamahori’s desire to make a film authentically featuring Māori life about two hundred years ago and to rely on experts to get the details right wins through even if some aspects of the project fall short of full achievement.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Guy Pearce, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Antonio Te Maioha, Jacqueline McKenzie, Lawrence Makoare, Dean O’Gorman, Renee Lyons, Madeleine McCarthy, Duane Evans Jr., Ariki Salvation-Turner, Whit Tomika, Will Wallace, Jared Turner, Jack Barry.
Dir Lee Tamahori, Pro Robin Scholes, Te Kohe Tuhaka, Andrew Mason and Troy Lum, Screenplay Shane Danielsen and Lee Tamahori from a screen story by Michael Bennett based on the novel Wulf by Hamish Clayton, Ph Gin Loane, Pro Des Nick Williams, Ed Luke Haigh, Music Matteo Zingales, Costumes Liz McGregor.
Brouhaha Entertainment/Jump Film and Television/MBK Productions/New Zealand Film Commission-Vertigo Releasing.
119 mins. UK/Australia/New Zealand. 2023. US Rel: 12 July 2024. UK Rel: 14 October 2024. Available on digital download. Cert. 15.
