“Captured by a savage Maori tribe in New Zealand, Phillip Wayne, an English seaman, expects death or torture. Instead he is adopted as a blood brother by Hongi Tepe, the noble, intelligent chief of the tribe. But the obstacles are tremendous, in spite of Hongi Tepe’s help and approval. From the blood and horror of battle a new spirit emerges. Hongi Tepe adopts Wayne’s orphaned son as his own and teaches him to love the country and respect its people and customs. As the boy grows up, more and more white people pour in to carry on the work started by his parents, those early seekers after a brave new world.” - (The Seekers souvenir programme)
“THE SEEKERS is a very large and solemn film, in the ‘Western’ style, taking for its subject early nineteenth- century British colonisation - a field largely unexplored by film-makers, and full of promise. The promise is not fulfilled. The grandeur which is found even in mediocre American Westerns is lacking. The plot is melodramatic and the scripting stilted and gauche [...] The theme of the noble savage (also a Western characteristic) succeeds better, thanks largely to a performance of great dignity by Inia Te Wiata. The glimpses of Maori life and customs are interesting, and are fairly new cinema material; again, however, the rather self- conscious introduction, almost as ‘numbers’, of singing and dancing, and the evident cosmopolitanism of the Maori tribe, emphasise rather than suspend disbelief.” - (Monthly Film Bulletin, No.247, vol.21, August 1954, p.117)
“Considerable care and imagination have been lavished on this epic tale of Empire building in New Zealand, with hundreds of Maori providing authentic background. It is a powerful story of pioneering days in the last century, marred by man’s weakness and betrayal. But its interpretation falls short of the author’s conception, the camerawork and native players providing better value than the stars.” - (Variety, July 7, 1954)
“G” classification came with the proviso that parts of the film may be unsuitable for young or nervous children.
THE SEEKERS was released in the United States as LAND OF FURY.