Utu is translated (by the Maori people) not as revenge, but as balanced exchange or reciprocity.
Anzac Wallace, who plays the role of the Maori militant, was previously a trade union leader and had never acted before
Re-released in 2013 as Utu Redux after cinematographer Graeme Cowley saw a copy of the film on Maori Television and was dismayed at how much the film had deteriorated. When he discovered there were no existing prints of the film in good condition he worked with the original director Geoff Murphy and editor Michael Horton to recreate the film from original disparate negatives, fine-tuning the cut in the process, but otherwise recreating the film in its original glory. The refurbished version premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival in Wellington's Embassy Theatre on 26 July 2013.
Colonel Elliot tells Williamson the plants he thinks are moving is matagouri, not manuka, whereupon someone says there is no matagouri in the North Island. Whether or not that was true in 1870, matagouri exists in modern times along the eastern South Island, the Chathams, and up in the North Island south of the Waikato River mouth, but more along the coast.