The 1951/1952 Pacific Films production of Broken Barrier was a pivotal moment in New Zealand film making. Not only was it the first full feature film produced in New Zealand by New Zealanders since World War II (the previous one to this being Rewi's Last Stand in 1925), but the subject matter of the film caused an outcry amongst the two dominant races of this country, Maori and Pakeha.
My thesis is that at the time of Broken Barrier, New Zealanders were finally ready to see a home made production shown on their screens,however the film upset viewersbecause of how it dealt with the issue of race relations and in particular the issue of covert racism in this country differently to how they were commonly perceived at the time, and that John O'Shea and Roger Mirams, the directors of the film, were fully aware that this would be a likely outcome before the film even hit the screens in cinemas throughout New Zealand.
Broken Barrier tells the story of an interracial relationship between Tom, a European New Zealander of Irish descent, and Rawi, a Maori from the East Coast of New Zealand. At the start of the film we see Tom, a freelance journalist traveling New Zealand and writing colorful stories about the Maori people for American publications.
On his travels he comes to a farm owned by a Maori family, where he takes up a job and eventually falls in love with the farm owner's Maori daughter Rawi, who is home for a holiday from working as a nurse in Wellington. Rawi soon returns to Wellington with Tom following closely behind, and there they resume their burgeoning relationship until Rawi finds out that the sort of stories that Tom has been writing about the Maori people are not exactly an accurate portrayal and indeed painted the Maori in rather a bad light.
Rawi leaves Tom to return to her rural home, while Tom does some soul searching, working with a Maori named Johnny in the forests around Raetihi and Waiouru in the North Island. One thing leads to another and when Johnny saves Tom's life in a forest fire at the sake of his own, Tom returns to the East Coast, where he and Rawi reunite for good.
There is no doubt that when Broken Barrier hit New Zealand screens in 1952, New Zealanders were ready to see a full feature film produced in their own country and about their own people. At the end of World War II, many New Zealanders attended the cinema regularly. In fact "New Zealanders were among the most frequent cinema attendees in the Western World, averaging 20 excursions each year." (Moran et al, 292) Also the last time New Zealanders had seen a feature film from their own country was Rewi's Last Stand in 1925, which was then re-released in 1940 during World War II, and told the tale of another interracial relationship between a Pakeha man and a Maori woman during the New Zealand land wars. However, this tale was a tragic one and ended with the woman dying in her lovers arms.
John O'Shea, one of the directors of Broken Barrier also supported the view that New Zealanders wanted to see feature films made by fellow New Zealanders, and “had a determination and drive to ensure New Zealand had its own film industry, an industry that would tell and retell the stories of New Zealand culture and identity.” (Moran et al, 328)
Following World War II, colonial countries such as New Zealand and Australia awoke with a greater sense of national identity, whose seeds were first sown on the battlefields in World War I. In World War II, New Zealand soldiers found themselves commanded by fellow New Zealanders rather than officers from the "mother country." The Maori battalion had been formed and fought with distinction on foreign soil and New Zealanders back home took pride in our soldiers' efforts overseas. Upon their return and in the years following the end of World War II, while still keeping our close ties with Britain, New Zealanders had come to accept and nurture the idea that we had our own national identity and a country that was like no other in the world.
With this new found sense of self, in stepped John O'Shea, Roger Miriams and Pacific films to give the New Zealand public something they wanted and had been lacking - a New Zealand feature film. The fact that John O'Shea was the man to fill this void was no accident, as O'Shea “saw films as essential elements of culture, a means of storytelling that moulded and reinforced notions of identity.” (Moran et al, 327) Another fact that proves that New Zealanders were ready and wanting to see a film showing a story about their country and their people, was that upon its release Broken Barrier “did surprisingly well” and “played to record audiences and was Kerridge's box-office leader for the month.” (Dennis et al, 44) If New Zealanders were not ready or did not want to see a locally produced film, then audiences would have simply stayed away.
