Nanook of the North

Audience Reviews

View More

Thomas V @TomVee Oct 13, 2026 I don't know exactly how to feel about this film. 100 plus years after the fact, it's impossible to judge through today's lens. Certainly, the fictionalized elements passed off as documentary are problematic, as well as the quasi-colonialist attitude towards indigenous people. That said, Flaherty's affinity and empathy for these people was clear, and I think he did humanize them and present them in a way that wasn't belittling. I definitely felt that within the limits of the early 20th century, he successfully conveyed a sense of respect for their culture and affection for his subjects, and gave us a real sense of the challenges of life in that very harsh part of the world, even if he did play with the truth a bit. There's also some lovely photography that really captured the beauty and fierceness of the environment. See more Robinson M @Robinson.actor Jun 8, 2026 Me gustó bastante. Lo sentí más como un documental, no sé si esa era l intención, creería que si, pero está muy bueno. Muestran el día a día de esta pequeña tribu que vive en zonas tan frías, sus costumbres y maneras de vivir, realmente es algo muy bello de ver. See more Simon T @MovieTart Jun 5, 2025 Robert Flaherty's celebrated documentary simply chronicles the hard life of an Inuit family, concentrating particularly on the father as he tracks and kills salmon, seal, whatever his family and huskies need to sustain them in such harsh surroundings. Flaherty introduces him to recorded sound via an early gramophone and his instinct is to bite it. Nanook builds an igloo and cuts an ice window. And throughout - despite everything - they never stop smiling. Genuinely educational. See more Nick M @RT62896014 Feb 13, 2025 While the earliest films can only really be classified as documentary in nature, Robert J. Flaherty is generally considered the "father" of the genre because of this very film. That reputation is an earned one. Despite its faults, Nanook of the North is nothing short of a triumph. It is awesome and inspirational, informative and entertaining all at once. Flaherty has been criticized for scripting many of the events seen in the film, and for artificially presenting his Inuit subjects as more primitive than they were by the early 20th century. The most egregious example of this is probably the scene, early in the film, in which the family visits a white trader. The man shows Nanook a gramophone, and we are told that this is the first time he has ever seen such a device. This was far from true, but to further drive home his "otherness" he was instructed to put a record in his mouth and bite it for the benefit of "civilized" audiences. Even the name of the man whom we follow across the icy desert has been changed: Nanook was in fact named Allakariallak, which Flaherty didn't feel was very marketable. For all of that, it is difficult to view this picture as anything but a revelation. Yes, Allakariallak hunted large prey primarily with rifles rather than the weapons of his ancestors, but that doesn't temper our amazement as we watch him successfully hunt a fully grown walrus with nothing but a harpoon. Falsely presenting the family as on the verge of starvation in order to drive home the imperative of capturing a seal does not make his struggle to pull it from the ice any less riveting. Knowing that the scenes from "inside" the igloos are actually cleverly staged outdoor shots doesn't change the fact that my mouth was agape while watching the family quickly and efficiently build one from scratch, or that I laughed incredulously as he expertly put in an ice "window" for internal illumination. With the exception of the trader scene, all of the other deceptions provide opportunities to demonstrate how the Inuit lived for millennia. Moreover, they serve to highlight the incredible talents of this man as a positive representative at a time when native peoples were still largely viewed as savage on one hand, and butts of the joke on the other. As we watch Nanook we come to two inescapable conclusions: the adaptations employed to survive in this desolate environment, harsh beyond our conception, are ingenious in the extreme; and were we tasked with surviving in similar circumstances we would not last a single day. Is this pure documentary? No, it is not. But it does manage to capture the indomitable spirit of this man and his family who, even though they are living in one of the most brutal climates on our planet, are still shown playing and enjoying one another's company. In fact, those are some of the most striking images. Story tellers are always attempting to construct fictional characters who embody the most admirable aspects of humanity. The most inspirational of these stories, where art successfully imitates life, are able to capture some shard of human truth that, if we are receptive, might illuminate a forgotten recess of our soul and remind us of who we are, and of what we are capable of. We need these stories because real life is ever so much messier and wearisome than fiction. Real life heroes exist, but perhaps only in a certain light, and usually only for a fleeting moment of time. We know that at the core of the story of Hercules there is a real man, or that it at least drew from the deeds of actual men, who grew into a mythology. The evolution of that story, however, and the feelings that it evokes, are so removed from reality that it is difficult to find ourselves within it. By contrast, Nanook immortalizes the awesome abilities of an actual person. Moreover, in some small way the deeds of Allakariallak bear witness to the craftiness and skill of our own ancestors from whom many of us, at least in Western culture, are far removed. To paraphrase Hamlet: "What a piece of work is man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable... The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals." See more ashley h @ashleyhobgood87 Jul 10, 2022 Nanook of the North is an okay documentary. I liked learning about the life in the Arctic Circle. I thought the subject matter (the Inuits) was somewhat interesting. It was okay but not a favorite. See more Jun 2, 2022 A groundbreaking film for the time. It's probably the first ever documentary and it doesn't hold much back for the time it was made. See more Read all reviews

Nanook of the North

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING