Delayed Reaction: Nanook of the North

Premise: A documentary about an Eskimo* family in Canada.

*The term Eskimo has fallen out of favor. That's the word he uses in the movie. I'm not sure if it's more offensive or inaccurate. Either way, I'll avoid using it now.

When it comes to this movie, it's not the story in it that's incredible. What's insane is that it's a 100-year old documentary shot in one of the most remote places on Earth. It would be hard to get that footage now with compact cameras and digital film that doesn't catch fire with the slightest irritation. The film literally begins with the filmmaker saying this was his second attempt at this movie because the first film was lost in a fire. I honestly don't know how Robert J. Flaherty did it.

This movie is also a great reminder that I don't know how people survived for most of human history. Nanook and his family survive ridiculously hard conditions and often do it with a smile of their faces. I get cranky when I can't get my apartment warmed to 70 during the winter. Nanook doesn't regularly wear gloves in subzero temperatures. There's a difference between our conditions.

The film is also interesting in that it's one of the first feature-length documentaries that tried to string together a narrative. Before that, most "documentaries" were short, slice-of-life recordings, like people leaving a factory. Longer pictures were scripted works. It's true that a lot of Nanook or the North was staged and exaggerated. The staging should be obvious when you watch it. There's no easy way to get any of these shots with the equipment of the time. Where the exaggeration is less forgivable is where Flaherty played up Nanook's lack of sophistication. After 100 years though, it seems like less of a big deal whether he's portraying Inuits of 1910 or 1810. I'm not watching Nanook of the North for a strictly contemporary account. The fact that anyone lived like this ever is impressive.

For all its controversies and fabrications, this still feels like a more important cultural artifact than The Birth of a Nation which is just plain hateful.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend