Lee Tamahori, the acclaimed New Zealand filmmaker who brought fierce energy to both art-house and blockbuster cinema, has died after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 75.
Though Tamahori often slipped under the radar for much of his career, his filmography is worth talking about. He first rose to prominence with “Once Were Warriors” (1994), a searing and deeply human portrayal of urban Māori life that remains one of the most underrated films of the ’90s. The film announced Tamahori as a director with both vision and courage.
Hollywood soon called, and Tamahori answered. He directed “The Edge” (1997), written by David Mamet, a taut survival thriller starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin that pitted man against bear. Then came “Die Another Day” (2002) — yes, that one — the fourth, last, and — don’t shoot the messenger — best of the Pierce Brosnan Bond films. No, really. It’s full of wild stunts that may be no substitute for Connery cool, but they’ll do when all you want is a blast of pure escapism. Tamahori’s direction gave the whole thing a crackling energy. Just disregard Madonna’s cringe cameo.
In 2011, Tamahori returned with “The Devil’s Double,” a wild and audacious film that cast Dominic Cooper in the dual roles of Uday Hussein — Saddam’s sadistic son — and his body double. An exuberantly eccentric film that somehow slipped under the radar.
For every gem, there was a clunker — but even his misfires carried the stamp of a director who swung big, rarely played it safe, and never stopped chasing the next great story. He bounced between genres with results that ranged from inspired to uneven.
“Mulholland Falls” (1996) was a stylish but uneven L.A. noir; “Along Came a Spider” (2001) saw him try his hand at a glossy Hollywood thriller with mixed results. He floundered with “xXx: State of the Union” (2005) and the Nicolas Cage sci-fi oddity “Next” (2007). Later, he returned to his New Zealand roots with “Mahana” (2016), a warmly received drama about Māori family rivalries, and “The Convert” (2023), a historical epic starring Guy Pearce that showed a mature filmmaker revisiting the themes that defined his early work.
I come back to “Once Were Warriors.” For all his Hollywood swings, nothing matched the raw power of that film. It’s the one that endures — the one that shook New Zealand cinema awake and made audiences everywhere pay attention. It’s messy, brutal, and utterly alive. In the end, it remains Tamahori’s best film, the kind that outlives even its maker.
Over his decades-long career, Tamahori remained low-key, barely talked about, yet consistently delivered enough worthy films to make his legacy lasting.