Once Were Warriors Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a serious issue nationally and internationally. People need to be aware of the signs and dynamics to understand what domestic violence is. The Once Were Warriors movie, directed by Lee Tamahori in 1994, depicted in a realistic manner the family dynamics and the consequences of domestic violence. Each character has to deal with the violence in different ways, but each one, even the abuser, has his or her hidden pain to overcome.

In the world, 1 in 3 women have experienced domestic violence, at some point, in their lives. Domestic violence became a public issue, in the United States, after the second wave of the Feminist Movement. According to the Department of Justice, domestic violence, also called Intimate Partner Violence

Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.” Domestic violence can happen to anyone regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender. Domestic violence affects those who are abused, but also family members, friends, co-workers, and the community at large. Children are among those seriously affected by this crime, especially when they have grown up witnessing the violence like the children in the Once Were Warriors movie. In overall, the violence occurs repetitively, like a Cycle. This cycle of violence has three major phases. First, the tension building phase is the period of blaming the victim. The batter is unsatisfied with little things, while the victim may try to please the abuser to avoid future violence. Then, the phase two is the actual battering, when the tension reaches its high, the abuser explodes into

The scenes are meaningfully violent to show the reality of victims of intimate partner violence. Everyone suffers from the violence, and had to go through a process of denial, accepting, and healing. The camera’s angles are well chosen to show the power of the husband. The close-up scenes are brutal, and the spectator could see his facial expression during the violent scene. The movie did not over-dramatized to be more compelling, instead, the violent scenes seemed to be a little restrained because the scenes had stopped at some point, the camera could have shown further violent scenes. The violence seemed to be, intentionally, minimized in order to avoid the spectators being in total shock. Nevertheless, the pivotal violence scene was Grace’s rape scene. The silence of this scene, which was combined with close-up shots, was powerful in demonstrating the fear and frustration of the character. The spectators are struck, and besides having empathy, they could feel the pain and suffering of the child. The story took place in New-Zealand, so the spectators who did not know about their culture were a little disoriented in the beginning. The movie presents the family dynamics in their region quite clearly, but it did not have a broader view of the society in New-Zealand. It may mean that this issue of intimate partner violence may occur in any region or country, and not, particularly, in