Kon-Tiki (1950) Reviews

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to be a decent watch but, to be honest, I have seen better in this genre. First of all, I had the misfortune to see the international version so most parts were therefore shot in English but I would have rather watched instead the Norwegian version. A bigger issue was that, even though the six men involved in this expedition seemed to be all rather exceptional, the makers barely develop them at all, even the main character Thor Heyerdahl. For example, Knut Haugland was reduced to a guy who threw up most of the journey, enjoyed the company of some parrot and spent most of his time while trying to make the radio work. For Bengt Danielsson, it was even worse as his only contribution was apparently that he knew how to use the camera. Then, even if there was something quite spellbinding about their journey, the makers never really managed to show the psychological impact it must have had on them. Instead, they went for the usual gimmick of having one crew member freaking out but, apparently, this portrayal of Herman Watzinger was denied by his family and, indeed, the makers did admit that they made this up to add some conflicts to the story. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it was still a fascinating story and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.