At first sight, it might seem strange to include Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994) in a book on coming-of-age films when it so clearly belongs to the genres of the family melodrama and the social problem film in its graphic portrayal of domestic violence in a context of poverty and social abjection. Although the fact is seldom mentioned, however, there are three coming-of-age narratives interwoven into the main story that play a crucial role in generating the film's meaning, and for that reason I have chosen to examine those elements here.

THE NATIONAL IMPORTANCE OF ONCE WERE WARRIORS

When Once Were Warriors exploded onto the nation's screens in 1994, it attracted audiences on a scale that had never before been seen in New Zealand. With an estimated 1,054,100 admissions, attendance at this film surpassed that for all foreign films released during the previous year, including American blockbusters like Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, which until then had been the most successful film shown in New Zealand. Even though the box office take for Once Were Warriors ($6,795,000) has since been exceeded by those for Taika Waititi's two smash hits, Boy (2010) with $9,322,000, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) with $11,809,372, when these figures are related to the cost of a ticket at the time (in 1993, a ticket cost $8.76), the number of admissions remains commensurate. What these figures show is that all three films were national phenomena, which prompts one to speculate on why this was so.

In the case of Once Were Warriors, one does not need to look far for the answer; as Rena Owen, who played Beth in the movie, puts it, the film ‘had the courage to explore things that no other movie has had the courage to explore.’ Lee Tamahori, the film's director, ventures his own explanation for the film's success: