Nanook Of The North

Year: 1922

Grade: A-

Country: UK

Director: Flaherty

Review

the perfect companion piece to ‘dersu uzala.’ i don’t know whether it was intentional or not, but kurosawa borrowed heavily from this 1922 documentary. the lead characters are very similar types of “happy-go-lucky” people who live off the land. both are discovered by white men, both of their stories are told knowing that they die in the end (that is, both movies begin by telling the audience that the protagonist dies later on), both dersu and nanook are nicknamed “bear,” nanook has an epic battle with a walrus  (aka “tiger of the north”) and dersu has a pivotal run in with an actual tiger, nanook and his family take refuge in an abandoned igloo while dersu takes refuge in an abandoned shack…those are the things i noticed in one viewing, i’m sure there are more. all that aside, this documentary is just plain good. the score is great. the subjects are unusual and unusually good people. well worth the 80 minutes.