AUDIO: NZ moviegoers enthused over epic Polynesian tale

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AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch): For the first time after its premiere at the New Zealand International Film Festival, Aucklanders had the chance to experience the classic Norwegian adventure drama Kon Tiki this week.

The film chronicles famed explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s 1914-2002 efforts to reach Polynesia, setting out from Peru on a basic, pre-historic balsawood raft.

Together with his crew, Heyerdahl reached Raroia atoll in the Tuamotu chain in French Polynesia after travelling for 101 days on a 7000 km crossing of the Pacific Ocean.

Pacific Media Watch was present at the screening of Kon Tiki in Auckland this week where the audience generally was positive about the film.

Faye Brea, whose Norwegian grandfather immigrated to New Zealand, enjoyed the film:

“I thought it was amazing. […] And it just gives you so much spirit, you know it just gives you… You walk out of there and you want to walk on air. You want to actually do something. That guy followed his dreams, I thought it was amazing,” Brea said.

Brea is not the only who approves. Daniel Powick, another moviegoer, used big words to describe Kon Tiki:

Cinema triumph
“It was a triumph of cinema. […] I think it was a great tale of a period of exploration that doesn’t really happen anymore in this period of time. The era of, the whole going out and, great explorers trying to prove their theories by going out and putting their lives on the line. I think it was a great tale. A little bit of sad towards the end, but I thought it was a great and enjoyable film”, Powick said.

The reviews of Kon Tiki have been mostly good.

Some critics have said that is a glossy production, and that the characters in the movie lack depth. Other critics describe the movie as "breathtaking" and "heartpoundingly visceral".

The recognised review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes has counted 39 Kon Tiki reviews and given it an average rating of 77 percent.

Rotten Tomatoes says Kon Tiki is a “well-crafted retelling of an epic true story, Kon Tiki is a throwback to old-school adventure filmmaking that’s exciting and entertaining in spite of its by-the-book plotting”.

Heyerdahl’s theory
Thor Heyerdahl believed that Polynesia was settled primarily from the east (South America), and not from the west (Southeast Asia) as commonly thought.

Together with his wife Liv, Heyerdahl stayed on the island of Fatu Hiva on the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia in 1937 and 1938, where he studied the local populace and developed his theory.

The Norwegian referred to the legend of the Incan sun god Kon Tiki. Kon-Tiki and his closest companions had to flee Peru in South America after a battle at Lake Titicaca, and eventually fled westward out to sea.

Heyerdahl asserted that when Spaniards reached South America, Incas told them of a race of ‘white gods’ who had lived there before the Incas became rulers, and had been skilful builders.

He also said that when Europeans first arrived in Polynesia, they were astonished when they found some natives to have relatively light skins and beards. Moreover, stone statues found on Pitcairn and Rapa Nui, and pyramids on Samoa and Tahiti, closely resembled structures in ancient Peru.

These findings, and several others, led Heyerdahl to believe that all of Polynesia – including New Zealand in the south, Hawai'i in the north, and Rapa Nui in the west – had been settled by people from South America.

Heyerdahl argued that South Americans used currents in the Pacific as highways. Thus, to prove his theory he and a crew of five men set off from Peru on a basic balsa wood raft.

When they succeeded in reaching Raroia atoll, Heyerdahl showed it was possible that Polynesians could have come from South America.

Heyerdahl wrong?
Unfortunately for Heyerdahl, his theory has been rebuffed by most researchers.

One of them, anthropologist Wade Davis, said Heyerdahl ignored “the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating he was patently wrong”.

Furthermore, recent DNA tests show that Polynesians are more similar to people from Southeast Asia than South America.

However, new research seems to prove Heyerdahl’s theory at least partly right.

Professor Erik Thorsby at the University of Oslo collected blood samples from the populace of Rapa Nui who had not interbred with Europeans, and found that a few of them had genes found in indigenous South American populations.

As this means that the South American genes must have been around for some time, Professor Thorsby therefore concludes that it is likely Rapa Nui was reached by South Americans before Europeans arrived at the island in 1722.

“Heyerdahl was wrong but not completely”, Thorsby said, according to the BBC.

Screening times
Kon Tiki will be screening at selected cinemas in New Zealand the coming weeks. The Bridgeway Cinema in Auckland will be screening it three times daily (two on Sunday) starting Thursday, May 16.

An audio report with reactions from the audience at the screening in Auckland earlier this week is featured on this page:.

Here is a transcript:

Faye Brea: I thought it was amazing. I really did. I had no preconceived ideas when I came here, but the adventurous spirit and what went on, I really learned a lot about it. And as far as the crew that Thor got, no, I was so impressed by the movie. And as I said, my background is Norwegian, because my grandfather was Norwegian, and he came out here, oh gosh, early 1900’s, and that’s why it gave me the interest to come. But I though the filming was amazing, I thought the adventure part of it, and it just gives you so much spirit. You know it just gives you…you walk out of there and you wanna walk on air. You wanna actually do something. That a guy follows his dreams, I thought was amazing. So no, I just thought the movie, first night I think in Auckland [after the premiere at Civic Theatre on April 20] a wonderful experience, so thank you very much for asking me what I thought about it.

DD: Excellent! What was your highlight?

Faye Brea: My highlight I think was seeing the comradeship of the men. The way that I would’ve thought there would have been a lot more attention […], but I thought that the way Thor followed his dreams, I thought that was really great. The way he could combine the people and calm them down, so to think that men could be in that situation of, you know, of fear and danger, and to be able to be comrade and to be able to work their issues through. And I thought that every man there was amazing in their own way for what they contributed, and just being away, and the fact that a guy who believed in something and researched it actually had the gumption to be able to go and do it, and the experience of it.

Albert Brea: I’m a photographer, and I enjoy thoroughly the photography. I think the underwater scenes are fantastic, and the photographs on video taken from satellite are superb photography. I haven’t seen any photography like that so realistic. It’s nothing like Hollywood. It’s fantastic. It’s very well done. I went to Norway many years ago, and I have friends from Norway. I’ve sailed with Norwegians and I know how they are, how strong in their mind, how good navigators [they] are, so I believe it’s very excellent film. Rebecca Jury: The story was quite sad. I’m so glad that I got told that they make it in the end, because I think I would’ve been a ball of tears well before then, by midway through. Just the desperation was quite moving.

Daniel Powick: It was a triumph of cinema! Haven’t really watched any many Norwegian films, and I don’t really know that much about Kon-Tiki before this, before I saw the film. But I think it was a great tale of a period of exploration that doesn’t really happen anymore in this period of time. The era of, the whole going out and, great explorers trying to prove their theories by going out and putting their lives on the line. I think it was a great tale. A little bit of sad towards the end, but I thought it was a great and enjoyable film”, Powick said.

Hwang Myeong-Jin: Yeah, it was a really, really nice movie. I recommend this movie [to] people who are now travelling. It was really, really a huge adventure movie, and if you are a man you have to watch this movie. Yeah, you have to see this movie.

DD: Sorry?

Hwang Myeong-Jin: If you are a real man, you have to see this movie.

DD: Why do you say that?

Hwang Myeong-Jin: Because every man have a strong heart with adventure or travelling, so that’s why I recommend this movie [to] every man or people who are travelling. You can see the many adventures in the ocean especially.

Two unnamed women: It was amazing! It was amazing!

Woman 1: I read the story many years ago. I didn’t really remember it, but we were just amazed how…we were just interested in the locations and the massive undertaking it was. No, it’s really amazing. I thought it was foolhardy and perhaps crazy, but it’s something, a theory, that I was always interested in. Yeah… It’s probably many years since I read the story, but I remember feeling very inspiring, so modern day Vikings really.

DD: Yes, and what did you think of the movie?

Woman 2: Oh, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was extremely well created. I really liked the fact that it had, you know, such a dramatic ending with the reef, which I know the reefs do look like that round that part of the world. So no, altogether it was quite dramatic.

DD: And what do you think people here in New Zealand will think of this movie?

Woman 2: Well, I think we’re pretty much adventurous generally, and like that sort of thing that…

Woman 1: We like the sea. We like the sea.

Woman 2: Yes, so we like when, you know, man overcomes those sorts of challenges. So I think it’ll be, you know, pretty enjoyable to most people.