Taika Waititi

After watching Taika Waititi’s films Thor: Ragnarok (2017); What We Do in the Shadows (2014) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), I have found that Waititi makes his films with a lot of comedic touches and humor. His films also have similiarities in plot and production choices. In Corrigan’s book “Six Approaches to Writing About Film”, and he writes that “an auteur is a critical approach that it implies that the unifying vision behind what you see on the screen is the director’s and that there are certain common themes and stylistic traits that link films by the same filmmaker” (Corrigan 94). The filmmaker also has dramatic elements too that make him look like an auteur director, especially with family elements.

            A great example of a dramatic element would be in his film Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which taps into the growing sense of community and pride in New Zealand’s national cinema that has emerged in the wake of Waititi’s films (Flux, 16). What this means is in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, throughout the film with the characters at the beginning and with just Hec (Sam Neill) and Ricky(Julian Dennison). How this movie is a great example of a family film is we are first introduced to a boy named Ricky Baker. He has been moving from home to home trying to be with a family that will accept him. Ricky ends up with a couple who chose to adopt him but then his foster parents Aunt Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and Hec. His aunt passes away and he then travels through the woods to live in there. As Rick gets lost Hec finds him to go back but he breaks his ankle and they stay in the woods. Then the next couple days they travel throughout the woods finding food, water and shelter. What is noticeable in both of these films by Waititi is he always in most of his films focuses on the theme of family (Flux 19). As the film Wilderpeople takes on a perception of home where Ricky treats the woods as his home, then opposed to living with his foster parents. Also, when Ricky meets this girl, he also meets her dad and they rely on each other and live together as Ricky sees it as a family that he wants of him and Hec. What We do in the Shadows and Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi also shows a great example of family throughout these films.

            What We do in the Shadows is a mock-documentary film, examining the lives of four different vampires sharing a house in New Zealand (Ramji 1). The film starts off with us meeting a vampire named Viago (Taika Waititi) who then introduces us to his other roommate vampires Vladislav (Jemaine Clement), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) and Petyr (Ben Fransham). Once they are awakened, they go out at night exploring and try to meet others and suck their blood. This movie is a great example because the roommates are considered family for the most part, take place in a spooky mansion, but when they venture out the contrast between their home either going to nightclubs or out to dinner (Flux 19). What is said here is even though the vampires in the film venture out throughout the night they are always together and never separate as they are an actual family. Also, if they do separate they manage to go back home as soon as the night is about over with.   

              Family was also a theme of Thor: Ragnarok that Waititi shows throughout the feature.  The film starts off with Thor imprisoned by Surtur and is told that Odin is no longer on Asgar and that it will be in danger. They later encounter Hela goddess of death, she then leaves Thor in space on a garbage planet where he encounters a valkyrior and Hulk/Bruce Banner. They form a team and go back to Asgard. Hela is defeated but Asgard is destroyed. Waititi was able to depict family in this film as well because when the film first starts out Thor was all alone and was not able to defeat Hela at first, which is his sister fighting him. This relates to Ricky and Hec in Wilderpeople when Ricky is alone in the woods, he relies on Hec and vice versa Hec has to rely on Rick. Also, it relates to What We Do in the Shadows where the vampires are relying on each other. Then when Thor lands on the garbage planet Sakaar, he tries to reassemble a group of heroes to take back Asgard. He then treats them up to the end as family, once he is crowned king.

              Waititi always has some sort of bond between his characters. In What We Do in the Shadows the relationship of family was shown between the vampires living together and bonding. Hunt for the Wilderpeople between Ricky and Bella in the opening of the film. Then when Ricky gets lost in the woods him and Hec have almost family like bonding, it resembles a father son hiking trip almost. Also in Thor, there is the relationship between Thor, his sister and his brother but he has that same connection with the people of Asgard. He adds so much family elements within his films that make it seem very auteur like, also he makes many comedic touches throughout his films. Since he is still trying to get up there with many directors, he has some elements of auteur.

Works Cited

FLUX, ELIZABETH. "On the Right Trek." Metro, no. 190, Spring2016, p. 14. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.bgsu.edu:8080/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=119089798&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Ramji, Rubina. "What We Do in the Shadows." Journal of Religion & Film, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 1-2. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.bgsu.edu:8080/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f3h&AN=109128220&site=ehost-live&scope=site.