What is Utu about

Well I've had several years to think about this. Utu is about tikanga itself, and Geoff let Merata and the kaumatua rewrite the entire finale. The film is about what is means to have the Pākehā kill your people and take your land, but also about what retribution is consistent with tikanga. Like, the film is all about tradition, whether it be the preacher that Martyn Sanderson plays getting beheaded or the finale itself. Gaylene had lots of interesting things to say about the film. When I saw it, there was a lengthy interview with Gaylene and the DP (Graeme Cowley ... hello, I have this book called Shot In New Zealand that I grabbed when someone was moving out of a flat on my street when I was young ... that's why I'm the NZ DP). So, I saw that in the afternoon, then hours later I saw the Redux version. Honestly, I'd rather have seen the original print. This had been totally re-done: new sound, remixed music and possibly a few minor editing decisions. I'd seen the Redux at home, but at a theatrical screening it felt hollow. To be fair, this was a stereo sound setup (the major drawback of the National Library auditorium), but even then I could hear foley that was way too crisp for the 1980's. It's interesting that he chose to kill Te Wheke, and that's the decisions that he made after his brilliant stunt. His march up the mountains is what caused his iwi to come after him, in my opinion. That's an editing decision imo .. I want to see the original cut. I noted some colour grading that was inconsistent with the era as well. All that desaturation (exactly what Andre decided to do with POAK), was too slick. Winners and Losers... that was Park Road at it's finest. This isn't.