Something to watch tonight: Thursday 5 February
Utu Redux (Murphy, 1984/2013)
Tomorrow is a public holiday here in Aotearoa New Zealand — Waitangi Day — so there won’t be a newsletter sent out.
I thought this weekend would be a good time for people to revisit a Kiwi classic.
Geoff Murphy’s Utu was first released in cinemas in 1984 and it got an excellent restoration/reconfiguration is 2013. Three years later, I wrote about the eventual home video release for RNZ:
In 2013, largely as a result of Utu cinematographer Graeme Cowley’s tireless search for the original materials as well as the funding to reassemble them, film festival audiences got to see a new version of Murphy’s Kiwi classic (now known as Utu Redux and destined to be the only version our children and grandchildren will know). Murphy (with Cowley, original editor Mike “Chopper” Horton and young gun Jonno Woodford-Robinson) spent weeks reassembling the film, correcting a few original choices he since regretted, reversing Blakeney’s interventions and generally giving the whole thing a bit of 21st century spit and polish.
The result was a revelation and received a justified standing ovation at the Embassy Theatre unveiling. Murphy’s vision of colonial New Zealand may have made emotional rather than historical sense but with the benefit of hindsight audiences can see that Utu says almost as much about New Zealand in the 1980s as the 1860s.
The recent handsome home video release of this new version – through the new Aro Video imprint – confirms what I thought at the time: Utu Redux is that rare thing – an utterly essential New Zealand film. Some of us may have other favourites (you could argue that Goodbye Pork Pie is more fun) but Utu justifies ownership because of the richness of its cross-cultural combat as well as the flamboyance of its handmade filmmaking.
My initial thought for today’s newsletter was Hugh Macdonald’s ground-breaking three-screen 21-minute epic This Is New Zealand from the 1970 Osaka World Expo but my first search only revealed this:
All is not lost, however, as Archives New Zealand has a 720p version of the 2007 restoration (paid for by Peter Jackson, as I recall) up on YouTube.
I have a beautiful Blu-ray copy bought direct from Hugh Macdonald himself and I discover today — from NZ On Screen — that Hugh passed away in May 2024 at the age of 80.
Where to watch Utu Redux
Aotearoa: Digital rental from AroVision or NZ Film On Demand
Rest of the world: Not currently available online