--- title: "Utu" year: 1983 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/utu" fi1m_id: "utu" imdb_id: "tt0086497" tmdb_id: 42123 wikidata_id: "Q7903467" fi1m_score: 74 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-09-26T01:11:44.303446+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T01:11:50.689245+00:00" region: "CA" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Utu (1983) Directed by Geoff Murphy · 1h 58m · War, Adventure, Drama, History ## Identity Utu - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/utu - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** utu - **IMDb ID:** tt0086497 - **TMDB ID:** 42123 - **Wikidata ID:** Q7903467 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086497/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/42123, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7903467 **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Everyone has a grievance, nobody has dry boots, and a man builds a four-barrelled shotgun because two would not have been enough > Geoff Murphy’s account of the New Zealand Land Wars is rough, bloody and unusually fair to everyone in it, with a remarkable Anzac Wallace at its centre. It cannot always hold its tone, but it is a war film that knows what the war was about. ## Synopsis New Zealand in the 1870s, during the Land Wars. Te Wheke (Anzac Wallace), a Māori scout with the colonial army, comes home to find his village burnt and its people killed by the soldiers he rides with. He takes the facial tattoo of a warrior, swears utu, a debt of blood, and gathers a band that includes Puni (Tom Poata) and Kura (Tania Bristowe). He walks into a settlers’ church during a service led by the vicar (Martyn Sanderson), and he raids the farm of Williamson (Bruno Lawrence) and his wife Emily (Ilona Rodgers). Williamson takes up a homemade four-barrelled shotgun. Colonel Elliot (Tim Eliott) sends Lieutenant Scott (Kelly Johnson) into the bush after Te Wheke, with the Māori corporal Wiremu (Wi Kuki Kaa) beside him. ## Review Geoff Murphy has taken the shape of a western, the wronged man, the posse, the country nobody owns for long, and set it in the New Zealand bush of the 1870s. Te Wheke, a Māori scout with the colonial army, comes back to a village the army has burnt. He tattoos his face, swears utu and goes to war. What follows for 118 minutes is a revenge film that keeps refusing to pick a side, and that is its achievement and, now and then, its problem. It is worth your evening. Anzac Wallace carries it. He plays Te Wheke with almost no fuss: a slow walk, a level stare, a voice that stays quiet when everyone around him is shouting. Early on he interrupts a settlers’ church service, takes the pulpit and preaches, in the vicar’s own cadence, about what the Bible says on payment for wrongs. Martyn Sanderson’s vicar is so polite about it, and Wallace so gentle, that we sat waiting for the film to let us off. It did not. We were horrified, and it was the calm that did it; the violence, when it comes, is brief and almost matter of fact. Around him the film gives everyone a reason. Bruno Lawrence’s Williamson, a settler who loses his farm to Te Wheke’s raid, builds himself a shotgun with four barrels and becomes a bearded, muttering ghost in the hills, and Lawrence plays him without asking for our sympathy or refusing it. Kelly Johnson’s Lieutenant Scott is a young officer who half understands what his army has done and is hunting Te Wheke anyway. Best of all is Wi Kuki Kaa as Wiremu, a Māori corporal in the government’s uniform who answers to nobody about why he wears it. His scenes opposite Wallace, two men who know exactly what the other has chosen, are where the film’s argument lives, and it is made in faces rather than speeches. The bush is shot in flat grey light, rain and mist, the soldiers’ blue tunics small against the green, and the film has the sense to leave the landscape alone rather than admire it. Ron Highfield’s production design gives the army a redoubt of raw timber and packed earth that looks thrown up last week, and the Williamson homestead a piano and lace curtains that look carried across an ocean, which they were. Michael Kane dresses Te Wheke in a mix of army coat and cloak, so that he is always half in the uniform he has deserted. John Charles’s score is sparing and mostly stays out of the pursuit, which is right. The trouble is tone. Murphy came to this from *Goodbye Pork Pie*, a car-chase comedy, and he cannot resist a joke. Tim Eliott’s colonel is a wheezing farce, John Bach’s Belcher is a soldier written for laughs, and the film will cut from a slaughter to a pratfall without warning. Sometimes the whiplash is the point; often it just knocks the wind out of a scene. Michael J. Horton and Ian John cut the film to begin near its end and loop back, and the long middle stretch of pursuit loses its shape, with scenes that stop rather than finish. Scott’s attachment to Kura (Tania Bristowe), one of Te Wheke’s band, is meant to carry weight and has barely a page of writing behind it. The natural comparison is Robert Aldrich’s *Ulzana’s Raid* (1972), another film about a small army chasing a man across land they have stolen. Aldrich kept his Apache a shape on the horizon. Murphy puts Te Wheke in the middle of the frame, gives him the best lines and lets us read every thought. That is a braver choice and the film is better for it, even when the rest cannot keep up. See it for Wallace, for Kaa, for the church, and for a war most of us were never taught about. Forgive the colonel. The film is lumpy and it is alive, and there are not many of those. *Fi1m score 74, published 26 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Utu worth watching?** *Utu* is worth watching for anyone with a taste for westerns and for wars they were never taught about, and we scored it 74. Anzac Wallace and Wi Kuki Kaa are the reasons to stay; the film's habit of cutting from slaughter to farce, and a saggy middle stretch of pursuit, are the reasons it falls short of more. **How long is Utu, and what is it rated?** *Utu* runs 1h 58m. It is a war and adventure film. **Where can I watch Utu in Canada?** *Utu* is not on any streaming or rental service in Canada at the moment. It is available in 1 other country; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Utu, and is it suitable for children?** *Utu* has no certificate in the UK or the US, and it is a war film with a village burnt, a church service interrupted and a raid on a farm, so it is not for children. The violence is brief and matter of fact rather than dwelt upon, but the calm around it is what horrified us, and younger teenagers would need an adult beside them. **How does Utu compare to The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith?** *Utu* is the gentler and more even-handed of the two, giving every side a reason, where [*The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith*](https://film.one/film/the-chant-of-jimmie-blacksmith) is angrier and harder to sit through. Both lose their grip during a long manhunt, but Murphy keeps interrupting himself with jokes and Schepisi does not. Choose *Utu* for its performances and its fairness; choose Schepisi's film if you want to be shaken. ### Reviews we read (3) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (80/100, inferred): Variety finds the film a fast-moving, powerful tale of passion and action. It singles out the strong performances, especially Anzac Wallace’s, and praises the action sequences and rugged New Zealand locations. [Read](https://variety.com/1982/film/reviews/utu-1200425344/) - **Time Out**, NR (65/100, inferred): The available description suggests a serious, politically pointed treatment of New Zealand’s Land Wars. It compares the film’s approach to Ulzana’s Raid, but the full verdict is unavailable. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/utu-1) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (64/100, inferred): The URL identifies a New York Times review, but the article text is inaccessible here. Its verdict and specific praise or criticism cannot be verified. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/13/movies/film-utu-new-zealand-western.html) ## Details - **Director:** Geoff Murphy - **Director:** Geoff Murphy - **Writer:** Keith Aberdein, Geoff Murphy - **Editor:** Michael J. Horton, Ian John - **Music:** John Charles - **Production design:** Ron Highfield - **Costume design:** Michael Kane - **Producer:** Don Blakeney, Geoff Murphy - **Cast:** Anzac Wallace as Te Wheke; Bruno Lawrence as Williamson; Tim Eliott as Col. Elliot; Kelly Johnson as Lt. Scott; Wi Kuki Kaa as Wiremu; Ilona Rodgers as Emily; Merata Mita as Matu; Faenza Reuben as Hersare - **Runtime:** 1h 58m - **First release (New Zealand):** 31 January 1983 - **Genres:** War, Adventure, Drama, History ## Where to watch in Canada Not streaming, renting or buying in Canada at the last check. Also available in: FR. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Ulzana's Raid* (1972): Aldrich’s brutal cavalry pursuit, the film Utu is arguing with across the Pacific - *The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith* (1978), Fi1m 80: Australia’s own colonial revenge story, angrier and even harder to watch — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-chant-of-jimmie-blacksmith.md) - *Smash Palace* (1981): Bruno Lawrence coming apart in a wrecking yard; New Zealand at its bleakest - *The Tracker* (2002): Rolf de Heer’s outback chase with a guide who sees more than his masters - *Bacurau* (2019): A Brazilian village learns what outsiders have planned and decides on payment in kind --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/utu