Broken English

I found 'Broken English' one night at the video store when I was bored and couldn't find anything else to rent. I read the caption and that was enough to perk up interest. I have to say I thought the movie was pretty cool, although I agree that there are major gaps in what makes people like Ivan and his son Darko tick. The racism of Ivan, of course, is just ridiculous. Not that they used it in the film, but that he should have the gall to treat the Maori culture so shabbily (what is that black child doing in the family if he doesn't like black people??). After all, his family came to NZ fleeing war, not the other way around. The Maori were happily (hopefully so)going about their business long before the Croats showed up (probably the same could be said for the English, the Scots, the Irish and all the other Euro-peans arriving on boats to lord and rule for all these years). At least the film gives people, particularly American audiences, a glimpse into a little known culture like New Zealand (kiwi fruit and Russell Crowe, that's about it--and he gets tagged as Aussie most of the time). A shame is that Marton Csokas only gets to give himself to us as a straight-up meat head (a very good portrayal, but a meat head nonetheless) because he's a talented fellow. Ah, well, such is life.

Tee

I really liked this film. It was a love story like West Side Story. It has probably been 7 or 8 years since I last saw this film. I think a film is especially meaningful when it is related to some real crisis or event. In the case it was the migration of Croatian refugees to New Zealand and their conflicts with the Maori which said a lot about the issues of race, class and ethnicity.

But what has really stuck with me was the music. The recurring gypsy/tango musical interlude made the film for me. It is in my ears right now sort of like the theme for "Last Tango in Paris". I thought there was no published soundtrack made for this film. Please if you are aware of where to obtain a copy of this soundtrack, please let me know.

The plot of "Broken English" is easy to summarize:

Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl like each other. Girl's father is violent and jealous. Father hates boy. Boy must subdue father. Boy fights father and wins. (Unfortunately, boy accidently runs over father's vicious but hapless dog in the process.) Boy and girl live happily ever after.

The video jacket says "Broken English" was made by the producers of "Once Were Warriors." Many of the two movies' elements are similar (notably the primitive father in each), though this one has only about one-fifth the quantity of stomach-churning violence of the greatly overrated "Once Were Warriors." But in both movies, the father exhibits much violently stupid behavior, and midway through this one I wondered, "Why don't the police just lock the guy up?" I gave "Broken English" a rating of six.

Was drawn to this on IMDB by seeing an actor who I thought was 'Ivan' so i looked up the movie. I recall this was hauntingly beautiful, yet quite tense and violent. rmalcus-1 yes! There is a soundtrack and I used to have it. I don't know where it is now. There was one track in particular I played over and over. Loved all the music too.

There have been a lot of great culture clash stories, and culture clash love stories, over the years, but this isn't one of them. Part of the problem is we have three cultures here (New Zealand, Bosnian, and Chinese), yet we really don't explore them in depth (except perhaps the Bosnians), so there seems no apparent reason why the New Zealand and Bosnians wouldn't get along except for plot purposes. And while the sex between the two main characters is well-handled, it seems to be the only thing the relationship is based on; we don't really see them get to know each other. The two main characters are appealing, and the two actors who were in ONCE WERE WARRIORS(here playing brothers instead of father and son) are both good, but it still falls short.