Hunt for the Wilder people – Taika Waititi – Fiction

Date watched – 23rd April 2020

P1: Taika wapiti’s Hunt for the Wilder People is a movie about a child called Ricky baker who was a city bogan who had troubles growing up and behavioural issues and is referred to as “a real bad egg”. he went through the child welfare system and ended up living with His aunty Bella and Uncle Hec who lived on a farm next to the rugged bush. After His aunty Bella died, Ricky and Uncle Hec escape into the forrest to escape society. A man hunt begins as Ricky refuses to return to the child welfare system so they both run away. They spend months in the bush living off of their raw skills and survival instincts all the while being hunted by the police and the welfare system. They end up getting caught at the end of the story after months of being hunted and they give up knowing there was no other way.

P2: A character I found interesting was Uncle Hec as he is some of the few remaining wild New Zealanders who prefer the simpler things in life like hunting and going into the bush. He as a character shows what it is like to be wild and live off nothing but the bush. I picked him because not only is he wild, but also cares for Ricky although we may not see it in the beginning. Hec made the book better by showing us something different that we all weren’t really used to which was his personality and how he was as a person and his home. We are all more or less like Ricky where we all come from suburban areas and town/cities and so seeing some place so far away from anyone else and so close to the wild makes us more interested. I think we had the same reaction to Hec as he is the person we would think of to live somewhere like that.

P3: A message I took from the movie Hunt for the Wilder People was how the author highlighted the broken nature of the social welfare system in New Zealand and its implied racism. He did this by having the main protagonist Ricky, comment often in his thoughts about his previous experiences especially in comparison to his situation in the bush. Early in theRicky introduces himself and talks about his frequent visits to social welfare and comments that Ricky quickly connects this with his earlier experiences at school where he commented about how they shifted him around while, “trying to work out where fat Maori boys who can’t pay rugby or learn simple stuff fitted in.” Ricky comes to the realisation that his treatment by authority is seemingly based on the colour of his skin to a degree. I think that by presenting Ricky like this the author Barry Crump is attempting to shine light onto the racism that is occurring in todays society and how others are being treated differently because of their skin colour.

P4: Aunty Bellas death was a major loss for Ricky and Hec. It impacted Hec a lot as he had been with her for many years and also did not have many friends to socialise with. She had always been there for Hec, helping him on the farm, hunting, etc so she was very important to him. although Ricky had not known her for as long, he and her developed a close relationship like a mother and son. The loss impacted Ricky very hard as be had been moving from many different places and had finally found a spot to settle down after the child welfare system placed him there. He felt like she was the only person to care for him and for that he liked her a lot. I feel like this was a big part of the story as after these events, Hec and Ricky decided to go into the bush together to get away from society, which caused the man hunt. If her death did not take place, I feel the story would have been very different and many things that did happen might not have happened at all. The loss of a loved one is one of the hardest things of all and can completely change a person if it impacts enough.

P5: The title “Hunt for the Wilder People” is a good title because in the film, while they are in the bush, they come across a group of hunters who try to capture them and take them back to the council. It doesn’t go as panned and Uncle Hec and Ricky get away. But just as they are leaving, Ricky says to them “If they ask who did this, say it was the Wilder people”. Also they are in the bush for majority of the movie so are technically wilder people.

P6: I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves a New Zealand film and just genuinely enjoys a good movie. This movie was not only an interesting film, but also has many hidden meanings and links to real life problems. all this adds up to present others how the New Zealand society works and how corrupt it actually is. I believe this book represents New Zealand identity very well and it contains all the key characteristics and language within it. Although New Zealanders would understand the jokes that are placed throughout the movie more than readers from other countries, I am sure everyone could have a laugh while watching this.