Nanook of the North Reviews

(OK) Wonderful, Flaherty knows how to reennact, takes profit, convince, follow his character and his facts; he's well above the discussion of hoy a doccumentarist or a poet he is...

The other day, I was fooling around on YouTube and I came across this movie and since it was on the list '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', I thought I might as check it out. Well, I was seriously impressed, that's for sure. First of all, I have always been interested in documentaries so it was just really neat to see this movie which is usually considered as the very first movie in this genre. Indeed, Robert Flaherty, probably not consciously, set many of the ground rules of the genre and most of the documentaries made nowadays still use these rules. Obviously, many criticised this movie because many (maybe all) of the scenes were actually staged but this criticism is rather ridiculous in my opinion. Indeed, can you imagine shooting with such 100 years old cameras in such terrible conditions without setting up first the scenes? Even nowadays, they still make up some stuff. Anyway, the bottom line is, was it faithful or not? You bet it was. Indeed, with this movie, you get a fascinating look on the life of Eskimos and even though this movie is nowadays almost 100 years old, it never felt condescending. To conclude, this movie is pretty much a milestone and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Undeniable is its importance to film industry history, even if being considered a faux documentary. Flaherty wanted a portrayal of the true Inuit ancestors in the cold arctic, so he fooled the audiences to accomplish that, by adding a bit of staging. The result is in sight. An unscrupulous depiction of a now lost kind of living.

Excellent docu-movie about life in the deep north. Considering the date of this movie it is quite amazing. Real great look at ethnicity.

Questo documentario è molto originale, sebbene sia un film muto, mostra molto bene la vita degli eschimesi e le loro abitudini


This documentary is very original, although it is a silent film, it shows very well the life of Eskimos and their habits.