Rewi's Last Stand

1925 film

Charles Alexis
Nola Casselli
Wightman McCombe

Release date

1925 (1925)

CountryNew ZealandLanguageEnglish

Rewi's Last Stand is the title of two feature films written and directed by pioneering New Zealand filmmaker Rudall Hayward: a 1925 silent movie, and a 1940 remake with sound. They are historical dramas, based on the last stand of Rewi Maniapoto at the Battle of Ōrākau.^[1]

Hayward believed that New Zealand's history offered material as dramatic as any Hollywood western. He set out to make films involving conflicts between Māori and Pākehā "while there were still people alive" who remembered the period accurately.^[2]

1940 Remake

Rewi's Last Stand
Directed by	Rudall Hayward
Written by	Rudall Hayward
Starring	Ramai Te Miha Leo Pilcher Stanley Knight
Distributed by	Frontier Films Ltd
Release date	1940 (1940)
Running time	64 min
Country	New Zealand
Language	English

In 1940 Rudall Hayward remade his second feature on a more ambitious scale, this time with sound. He cast his future wife Ramai Hayward in the romantic lead.

The 1940 remake was released in a shortened version in the United Kingdom, as The Last Stand. The shortened version is the only one surviving.^[3]

References

^ The Battle of Orakau at New Zealand History
^ L. R. Shelton. 'Hayward, Rudall Charles Victor - Biography', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1-Sep-10 accessed 22 November 2012
^ THE LAST STAND at ARCHIVING PRACTICE, FILM, NZ HISTORY accessed 5 August 2016