Terrific Looking Film, Especially During This Era

Terrific looking film, especially during this era

Nanook of the North is one of the first documentaries made in the early nineteen hundreds. Robert J. Flaherty's helps establish the film by successful adapting to his environment by filming extraordinary hunting and fishing scenes consisting largely of medium shots. At times, this film resembles a home made film, concentrating on Nanook's family personalities, rather than the everyday tasks they take on. This film gets somewhat intimate, primarily through the use of close-ups and filming private moments, such as the family waking up. The viewers find themselves smiling at times because the way young Allegoo is always smiling at the camera.

The soundtrack for Nanook did not really match up to what was going on. The music was so intense when the family went to bed, it would be music better suited if the characters were going hunting, and trying to make a kill for the family to eat. The music matched perfectly when they caught the sea otter. The otter was captured on the shore and tried to escape while for people tugged on the rope so that their food would not escape. This went on until the otter was too weak to swim, soon after the otter was pulled to shore where they killed the otter and started eating the raw meat of the otter right on the spot. They harvested the meat of the otter back to the family where they ate and skinned the otter for its tusks, and skin.

Flaherty seems to display a fondness for the Hudson Bay landscape; he does this by utilizing it in a clever way. He films the Eskimo's building the igloo, which took more than a day to build because it fell apart many times because the weather was to warm for the ice to bond. They also did not find a bear. The film crew and the Eskimo almost die by going on this long trip with no food and water. So they have to find a way to make heat, so the film makers on the way back used film to kindle a fire. The Igloo scene became the most significant in the film because it symbolized life and death. They were trapped inside the igloo during the winter blizzards. Flaherty was in the igloo where he could not communicate with others because no one spoke English so they were to communicate by hand signals.

The film was put off for about a year. In March and April of 1921, all available hands were recruited. Flaherty pointed out in his paper "How I filmed Nanook