River Queen

2005
5.9| 1h54m| R| en
Details

An intimate story set during the 1860s in which a young Irish woman Sarah and her family find themselves on both sides of the turbulent wars between British and Maori during the British colonization of New Zealand.

Director

Producted By

New Zealand Film Commission

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Reviews

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
jonas-lindstrom26 Nothing short of a masterpiece when it comes to scenery and photo. Not so much the film it self. The editing is really poor, and the script is copied from the movie "Braveheart" But the photo..! Filminglocation is "LOTR-country" in daytime-mode, which is quit proper for this movie. It makes it easy to get those magnificent scenes. Maori-conflicts whit intruding westerners are not rare in films, but this one has an unique touch to it. It takes place in the 19'th century, and feels genuine at first glance. Troubles comes first in editing, and I cant help thinking this movie deserves a better editing some day. This movie on 1080-upscaling is a wet dream for those who rate a movie by its appearance. Those of us who doesn't can still appreciate it thanks to just that.
Michael O'Keefe Set in the mid 1800's when the British is clearing New Zealand outback wilderness to establish colonies. The daughter of a British army surgeon, Sarah(Samantha Morton), falls in love with the son of one of the Maori leaders. The Maori is an indigenous tribe and a dangerous people for the Europeans to deal with. By the time Sarah's child, which she calls "Boy", is born, his father is dead. By the age of six, "Boy" is kidnapped by his father's family and Sarah will begin her search for him with a man(Kiefer Sutherland),who is deeply in love with her.Two-time Oscar nominee Morton is definitely the star of this movie. Sutherland is a total waste. Also starring are: Cliff Curtis, Stephen Rea, Temuera Morrison and David Rawiri Pene. This movie is rated R for some sexual content and violent battle scenes. I find the title RIVER QUEEN very misleading and the DVD cover with Sutherland only and making you believe he is the leading star should be a crime.
Mo Jones I was really looking forward to this movie but sadly it didn't live up to expectation.A good movie has the audience identifying/empathising/sympathising with the main actor. Unfortunately this was very hard to do with Samantha Morton.The storyline seemed very disjointed and didn't flow as it should/could have done.Keifer Sutherland appeared to be little more than window dressing and made me wonder why he agreed to play what appeared to be a bit part. Beautiful scenery and the acting of Tem Morrison and Cliff Curtis was about the only plus.Maybe by being a kiwi I set the bar higher for locally made films. Maybe the change of director/ supposedly hard to work with main actor has biased my opinion.Maybe I'm just trying to make excuses for a movie which could have been great.A lot of maybes which still does not explain why this movie just lacked anything special.It could have been great, it wasn't.
ezyjamma River Queen's sound recordist should have been fired, in this day and age there is no excuse for poor recording on the set. Mumbling voices was the end result, and the cinematography was average to fair at best. The story had potential and I feel sorry for the overseas actors who must have known they were on a turkey shoot while they were filming. Its obvious that the movie was suffering from el cheapo budget syndrome, and the scene where Temuera is procreating inside the house while a battle rages outside is just too stupid for words. I noticed a few shortcuts taken on the Maori protocol side of things, but this was probably due to movie length time restraints etc. All in all I wasn't impressed with this movie, the Whanganui river has many beautiful spots but this movie gives us a cold, drab and claustrophobic image, with none of the beauty. The movie needed more sunshine and better camera angles, less on screen confusion, better sound recording, and more thought needed to be put into what the movie goers would be seeing on the big screen. Hats off to all involved though for completing what must have been a very difficult shoo. I have the utmost appreciation for anyone who can make a feature film, sadly I did not enjoy this one.