"Nanuk of the North" is said to be the ancestor of documentaries and ethnographic films. At first glance, it seems to be lackluster, but the more I watch it, the more I realize the taste of it. This film not only has a shocking spectacle (killing walruses and seals), poetic images and editing, but more importantly, its authenticity.
This kind of truth is of course not just the truth on the surface - in fact it may not be realistic on the surface, because it is said that there is a lot of posing in this film - but the kind that pierces the screen and hides in every moment of the picture. the truth. It at least tells us how false the imaginary noble barbarians and hunter heroes of romance films are. We saw how poor and embarrassed the hero Nanuk was in life; saw his unhurried, dashing movements and postures when he hunted; saw their dog training methods that could be called clumsy and ridiculous . We just knew that this was the real power, and it was stronger than any fictional romantic hero.
This truth leads us to think about what the cinematic picture doesn't let us see. We didn't see how the hunters slaughtered the walrus. At first we thought it was the director's taboo to show too cruel scenes, but in the latter part of the film there was a bloody scene of slaughtering seals. What is this trade-off for? Maybe it's for the pacing of the film, maybe it's all the issues that may arise during the shooting process, including the director's honesty, which is how many of these shots are staged. We also didn't see exactly how the arctic fox, fish and seal took the bait, which led us to suspect that these were all ready animals for posing.
Nor do we see a richer life for Nanook. The film made Nanook a star, but he is said to starve to death the following year. This legendary event made the film a myth (or scandal). How did Nanouk die? Did he die in the next year or the next year, and did his death have anything to do with the filming? This series of questions has become a series of Rashomon, and greatly expands the space for our thinking brought by those things that are not present in this film.
Maybe that's why the film is still worth seeing today: like reality, it doesn't give us answers, it just gives us endless questions. One of the time-honored questions that every film lover should ponder is: what is the realism of film.
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