July 26, 2013
Country now ready for Utu
Utu director Geoff Murphy says the country wasn’t ready for his hard-hitting film of bloody retribution and land war violence when it was released 30 years ago.
A remastered and recut version, Utu Redux, premieres at the Auckland International Film Festival on Sunday, and many of the surviving cast and crew will be present.
Murphy says the team at Sir Peter Jackson’s Miramar post-production studios have done a great job of restoring the print, and it looks a different and much better film.
He expects a better reception this time round.
"In 30 years I think New Zealand attitudes have changed enormously and I think mainly the Pakeha side of the audience. Māori never had any problems with it, even when it first opened, it had a fantastic response, but the Pākehā's weren't that keen on it. The box office fell off as you went south so it did tremendous business in North Auckland and Auckland and Hamilton and all around there but if fell off as you went south so by the time it got to Dunedin it wasn’t doing that well. It was a Pākehā thing," Murphy says.
Utu Redux shows at Auckland’s Civic Theatre on Sunday evening, and there will be a question and answer session with Geoff Murphy and actor Anzac Wallace after the screening.
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