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Rewi's Last Stand / The Last Stand
Film (Excerpts) – 1940 - 1949
Rudall Hayward made two movies inspired by the 1864 Battle of Ōrākau. The 1940 version, with sound, was later seen by a generation of Kiwi school kids. The film dramatises "a bloody, almost genocidal confrontation" (newspaper Te Iwi o Aotearoa) between colonial forces and an outnumbered group of Māori, led by Rewi Maniapoto. Hayward aimed for accuracy, and some characters were played by descendants of those who had fought. He added a romance featuring his future wife Ramai Te Miha, as a part-Māori woman who falls for a Pākehā. This fight scene is from the shorter The Last Stand, the only surviving version.
Ōrākau was a bloody, almost genocidal confrontation by Māori and European with no quarter given.– An article in Māori newspaper Te Iwi o Aotearoa, February 1990, page 19
Key Cast & Crew
See all 22 credits
Produced by
Frontier Films
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