Featured Audience Ratings

• KJ P

  
  As far as documentaries go, "Nanook of the North" is a great one! It tells the true story of an inuit family who scavenges to find food and shelter. Having a smart father helps, when he is able to build his family an igloo. With luck, they are able to find fish, walruses,… More
  As far as documentaries go, "Nanook of the North" is a great one! It tells the true story of an inuit family who scavenges to find food and shelter. Having a smart father helps, when he is able to build his family an igloo. With luck, they are able to find fish, walruses, and seals. It is fun to watch this at times, as the children of the family have a fun old time, trying to create tobaggans to slide down the hills while their father is at work; However, the things that make this film a little hard to watch, is the fact that you are forced to watch as the starving family has no time to cook their food once it is caught, due to starvation. This film features some far out camera shots, expressing the isolation of these real-life people. It has the feel of a classic silent film and the directing is great. The only fault with this film is that it focuses too much one aspect of their journey. Otherwise, this is a terrific documentary!

• Cindy I

  
  A ground-breaking documentary on the life of a family of "Eskimos" as they try to survive in the cold of a Hudson Bay winter. Robert Flaherty gave the world an insight into the lives of a people unlike any they had seen before. This film is the grandfather of every "Day… More
  A ground-breaking documentary on the life of a family of "Eskimos" as they try to survive in the cold of a Hudson Bay winter. Robert Flaherty gave the world an insight into the lives of a people unlike any they had seen before. This film is the grandfather of every "Day in the Life" doc since. It's said that many of the scenes were staged -- some by necessity due to the limitations of filmmaking of the time -- but that doesn't take away from the impact of the film. Most parts of the family's life is on display...eating, hunting, play and sleeping all play a part in this film. Particularly fascinating is the footage on building an igloo from blocks of packed snow, including a "window" made from clear ice. They even made a tiny igloo for a litter of puppies! One humorous scene shows Nanook, the head of the family, getting out of a kayak, with his entire family -- wife Nyla, another woman (mom, sister?), three children and a dog following right behind. Funny because they all crawled out of the bottom of a boat that appeared to hold only one person. If this film has any flaws, it's that I wanted to know more about these people and their lives. What were their clothes made of? Where did they go to the bathroom? What language did they speak? Did the children go to school? One cautionary note: There are several scenes of apparent cruelty to animals, including sled dogs left out in brutally cold weather, and graphic scenes of hunting and butchering animals, and the eating of raw animal flesh. A fascinating film that hasn't lost its power even after nearly 90 years.

• Conner R

  
  I think it's a very interesting look into the life of an Eskimo, however, it has no purpose at all. For it's time i'm sure it was captivating and insightful, but when you look at it as a documentary/film it is terrible. There is no sense of pacing and it's just a… More
  I think it's a very interesting look into the life of an Eskimo, however, it has no purpose at all. For it's time i'm sure it was captivating and insightful, but when you look at it as a documentary/film it is terrible. There is no sense of pacing and it's just a complete mess. While I understand its place in film history and documentaries, I just don't think it is a good film in itself.

• Daniel H

  
  Yes, it was highly staged. But for the time period, this was perhaps the closest one could get to Cinema Verite. The clunky camera necessitated the staged aspects of the film, and the filmaker emphasizing spears over the guns that had become prevalent in Inuit culture at the time, was… More
  Yes, it was highly staged. But for the time period, this was perhaps the closest one could get to Cinema Verite. The clunky camera necessitated the staged aspects of the film, and the filmaker emphasizing spears over the guns that had become prevalent in Inuit culture at the time, was instead a move by Flaherty to capture a part of the culture that was already of the verge of being forgotten. The film lends firm authenticity to its events, and gives solid and truthful insight into its subject, even if the context is off, flawed, or contrived. A very important early work of cinema, not only for its subject matter but for being perhaps the first feature-length documentary ever made.

• Ivan D

  
  While watching "Nanook of the North", I sure can sense the fact that some of the scenes were staged. But after finding out that the film was indeed not a hundred percent spontaneous and unscripted, "Nanook of the North", for me, has still lost none of its power. So… More
  While watching "Nanook of the North", I sure can sense the fact that some of the scenes were staged. But after finding out that the film was indeed not a hundred percent spontaneous and unscripted, "Nanook of the North", for me, has still lost none of its power. So what if the film isn't particularly authentic through and through? Let's take Werner Herzog's documentaries as great cases in point. Like "Lessons of Darkness" and the even more experimental "The Wild Blue Yonder", Herzog's documentaries were filled with actual footage only made metaphysically adventurous by half-cryptic, half-poetic narrations, which forge otherworldly narratives in the process. In Robert J. Flaherty's case, his main intent has none of Herzog's maddening grandiosity. Instead, his only goal is to plainly highlight, with honest anthropological eyes, the plight and bittersweet adventures of the Eskimos in the northernmost part of America, but with an anchoring main character to cohesively hold the film together. For me, the issue of non-authenticity in "Nanook of the North" is unimportant because as long as a story compels and drags you in a world previously unseen, then that, I think, is more than enough. And what about the hardships endured by Flaherty's crew themselves during the film's extraneous shoot? Isn't that an amazing feat in its own right? I do think so. "Nanook of the North", even for that reason alone, is worthy of all the recognition that it has gotten across time. But aside from that, I do think that the film itself is also a great example of cinematic determination at its infancy, but that does not make it any smaller compared to the hardships of today's industry. Let's just say that Robert J. Flaherty, even before Werner 'The Mad German Genius' Herzog was born, was already going all "Fitzcarraldo" in the deep arctic way before it was cool (pun not intended, by the way). The film, about the titular Eskimo and their everyday Exodus towards one simple goal (food), is a bittersweet documentation of what goes on in a place where technology and civilization is all but absent and where Walrus meat are one of the very few luxuries. Nanook (Allakariallak), the patriarch, is an experienced hunter who literally goes through thick and thin just to provide food and shelter for his family, complete with an almost irremovable smile on his face. For a film that is fully bent on visually tackling the turbulent topography of the arctic, "Nanook of the North" is also filled with countless scenes of tear-inducing poignancy, candidness, and awe-inspiring naivety, some of them being scenes involving Nanook and his son. In one scene, we even see Nanook, after trading goods with the so-called 'white man' trader in exchange for meager articles (money, after all, is immaterial to them), listens, with profound wonderment, to the quasi-magical sound coming from a phonograph. After doing so, Nanook, after being handed a vinyl record by the white man, first puts it near his ear, and then his mouth. The next thing we know, he is biting on it just like how we see 'Tarzan-like' characters do so in many movies. As a viewer, one can't help but to laugh at his utter ignorance. But in a way, one can also feel how enviable people like Nanook really are, especially when their tender innocence and their advantage of not knowing much evokes a sense of pure joy commonly unseen among highly civilized and decorum-following folks. As the old adage goes, sometimes, "ignorance is bliss." But apart from "Nanook of the North's" heart-thumping poignancy, the film is also chock-full of scenes which showcase Nanook and company's excellent craftsmanship, despite of the fact that they are miles removed from actual civilization. There's a moment in the film where Nanook, after building an igloo along with his family, picks up a glassy block of ice which he then proceeds to incorporate into their make-shift shelter. As it turns out, Nanook has turned it into a glass window perfect for their igloo. After that, Nanook then puts an additional block of ice beside it; this, as it appears to be, will serve as a sunlight reflector so that the interior of their igloo will be sufficiently lighted. So with that, we will go back to the initial inquiry as to whether or not scenes like the ones mentioned above were indeed authentic or merely staged. For me, the question of whether the film really deserves to be labeled as the first documentary film in cinematographic history is highly insignificant because "Nanook of the North", scripted or not, improvisational or otherwise, is nevertheless a film that intensely channels both the spirit of adventure and the resilience of the human body amid the constant prospect of an icy death. Flaherty, in this film, may not be a documentarian in the purest sense of the word, but he has sure attained a level of cinematic humanism still untouched at the time. Personally, Flaherty's constant capturing of Nanook's smile, which automatically spreads across his face almost immediately after his close brushes with certain death, just reminds me of the fact that both happiness and contentment have no geographical limits or ends. Ironically, I never expected that it is in the chilling coldness of the deep arctic that I shall find and relish what may be the most flawless documentation of human warmth there is. Until now, I can't remove Nanook's smile off my mind; so pure, so human and so true.

• Lauren D

  
  Eh. It was boring. I'm not particularly interested in Eskimo's and I also knew that it was 'fake' so it defeated the purpose of it, sort of.

• Buddy A

  
  Flaherty's first, and likely his best. Though somewhat contrived, this documentary really demonstrates how some people continually struggle against overwhelming odds for survival, and yet are incredibly resilient because of it. The seal fishing scene really surprised me. All in… More
  Flaherty's first, and likely his best. Though somewhat contrived, this documentary really demonstrates how some people continually struggle against overwhelming odds for survival, and yet are incredibly resilient because of it. The seal fishing scene really surprised me. All in all, a fantastic experience that'll make one respect both Nanook's people and humanity in general.

• MJS M

  
  Usually considered to be the first documentary, and it?s awesome. A look at the Inuit people of northern Canada, the film focuses on a hunter named Nanook. There are said to be some inaccuracies (Nanook?s real name is Allakariallak) and a few of the events here were sort of staged,… More
  Usually considered to be the first documentary, and it?s awesome. A look at the Inuit people of northern Canada, the film focuses on a hunter named Nanook. There are said to be some inaccuracies (Nanook?s real name is Allakariallak) and a few of the events here were sort of staged, but when something is this pioneering you kind of have to hold it to a slightly different standard. There are a lot of the sequences are really enjoyable, namely the hunting footage like Nanook pulling a harpooned seal out of a hole in the ice.

• Patrick D

  
  This, to me anyway, seems like the precursor to all those Mondo Cane exploitation flicks from the 60s. It definetly had a sense of like "Hey look at the weird culture". It was enjoyable but not really my cup of tea. Mondo Cane's alot more enjoyable.

Read all 9 featured audience ratings