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 Nanook of the North (Criterion Collection Spine #33)Sales Rank:38828List Price: $29.95 Lowest New Price: $20.88 Lowest Used Price: $16.62 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 Total Reviews: 21 Customer Reviews:Rating: 5 Great Documentary, Maybe of all Time! A great documentary of the Inuit or Eskimo people as they were called by Robert Flaherty. He actually had to make it twice. The film used then was highly flammable and caught fire as he was editing it while smoking. People smoked anywhere they wanted in the 20s too! Flaherty suffered burns in many parts of his body and had to recover before going back north. He had made copious notes of his previous film and was able to recreate most scenes again. Not your typical documentary now, but was at this time. Filmmakers were quite aware of having to make the film entertaining and interesting to watch. Not unlike today! The 20s was the heyday of anthropology and of documentary film so they went together nicely. Flaherty has made a spine-tingling film where the cold can be felt as well as seen. The lives of Nanook and his people is interesting and stunning. Rating: 4 A flawed, but invaluable film. If you have any interest in documentary filmmaking, indigenous film, ethnography, or a related field, you should absolutely see 'Nanook.' Having said that, I'm always shocked at how little context the average viewer has before they take this film in. Sure, maybe a first viewing of a film that sets so many precedents should be undertaken unprejudiced, but any meaningful understanding of this film can only take shape with some basic knowledge of the debates and discourses that surround it. The movie, as I'm sure many reviewers before me have explained, is ostensibly an ethnographic document of an Inuit hunter named Nanook's struggle to survive with his family in the area around Hudson Bay. The film documents a number of activities that, depending on your level of cynicism, either represent the Inuit lifestyle at a particular period in time, or are selected for their potential novelty to members of the film's eventual audience. Either before or after your first viewing of the film, know this: the wildly inaccurate intertitles aren't the most misleading thing about this film. Rather than be exhaustive about the film's inaccuracies, I'll let you seek out your own information. I will mention that by the time Flaherty was making this film, Inuit hunters were using rifles. Also, Nanook's family aren't exactly his family. They're really just the most photogenic Inuit that Flaherty could find to fill the roles. Flaherty argued that he was trying to document a set of Inuit cultural practices that were in danger of slipping into the ether. Whether this is entirely sincere or not, who knows. But beyond deciding whether or not you like the movie (which is a more basic and personal consideration), you need to know this so you can try to understand what Flaherty's getting at here and see the cinematic world he presents in its own, highly specialized and hybrid context. The film itself is a delightful watch. It continues to be entertaining, regardless of whether or not you're into silent film. Criterion's print looks fantastic and the music they've put it to is appropriate. That's all bonus, though, because the movie will always be the foundation upon which so much important work was built, so as soon as you know it exists and is relevant to your interest, you should watch it. Just be sure to dip into the discourse surrounding it at some point during the window of time when the film is occupying your thoughts. You'll see the film and its many, diverse successors more clearly for having done so. Rating: 4 Opinion An interesting film that tries to capture the Inuit Culture, while today it would be hailed as a Mockumentary given the information latered learned about "Nanook" being more modern than presented it is still informative and interesting. Rating: 5 The great view of arctic life Nanook of the North provides not only an extremely accurate view of Inuit life but makes one wonder why sub arctic families cannot live and love together. It is a world modern man could not survive which should make us envious. Rating: 5 Pleased with this purchase This film lives up to all I have read about it. For me as a documentary filmmaker it is important to make these kinds of connections with the pioneers of this format. Nanook of the North is a must-have for anyone who is serious about the documentary format. |