Film Analysis Of Whale Rider

Whale Rider is an award-winning film that takes place just off a small village in New Zealand. The movie was set between the time periods from the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s. The opening scene presents one of the Chiefs son’s accompanying his wife through labor, where she is presumed dead along with one of their twins, the boy. The only survivor is the daughter, which is named Pai. This is highly controversial, as Paikea is said to be the name of the future chief, named after the original Paikea, an ancestor who rode the whales into the village. The film takes place in a very difficult period for a woman, as it laps with the Women’s Rights Movement.
First off, the film incorporates an array of themes. Two of the more pronounced ones are love in a sacrificial manner and religious tradition. The first theme, sacrificial love, is relevant throughout the movie as Pai demonstrates she is willing to take her own life and sacrifice her place in the community for her family tradition and beliefs. She demonstrates her willingness to sacrifice her life by riding the whale into the ocean without care for her own safety, leaving the school instead of sitting in the back and leaving her fathers care to pursue her path as a leader. The second theme,

Amongst the small New Zealand village, woman are treated with less respect and not seen has to have equal potential or rights in general. Pai must overcome a vast majority of obstacles such as being rejected from her grandfather’s school of leaders, handling fighting sticks, and being told to stay away from the outboard. She perseveres through all of this, thus taking up fighting lessons from her uncle, repairing the outboard, receiving the highest award at her concert, and eventually saving the whales at the conclusion of the film. This proves to Koro that she is indeed worthy, and relates to the theme that woman do not have a handicap from