Toronto – When I first received the screener for this dvd, I thought I was going to watch some documentary about some sort of Maori warriors or something, instead I got a screener about retired hippies who worked for Greenpeace when it first started getting popular in the 80s. The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island takes a look at the original crew of the ship the Rainbow Warrior a trawler purchased by Greenpeace and launched as a protest ship against nuclear testing and whaling among other things. The crew as you would expect, is a bunch of rag tag hippies looking to do something about the planet. This documentary interviews a fair amount of the crew, who seem to have all retired to the same island in New Zealand, where they still live in the peaceful community based lifestyle.
Watching this documentary, I was constantly reminded of this Peep Show scene. Other then that, I can’t say this documentary did much for me, it was interesting to see how the downfall of the Rainbow Warrior inadvertently led to the rise of Greenpeace to the levels its at now. Some of the footage of them on the Rainbow Warrior was somewhat interesting, but all in all, to me, this documentary lacked some kind of fire that you like to see in documentaries. The crew all seemed to have moved on from their days so while they fondly remember their times there, you get a sense of detachment from those days as well.
So watch this documentary if you want to see how Greenpeace become the powerful company it is today, and don’t expect some Maori Warriors to show up, just because the title has ‘warriors’ and is associated with New Zealand.
The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island plays at 1:30 pm TODAY, at the Rom Theatre