There's a lot to admire about this movie, but very little to enjoy. Crusty old Warren Oates really sinks his teeth into the role of a crusty old whaler, shipwrecked among the Eskimos. The native actors are brilliant. The authentic arctic scenery is beautiful, the native culture is intriguing, the ending is powerful and tragic.
The problem is that everything that happens is so damned predictable. The story is told in such a portentous, pretentious way, like the film makers think they're saying something incredibly profound about the failures of the white man's civilization. But there's nothing said here that wasn't said much better in books like TYPEE by Herman Melville, or even earlier movies like A MAN CALLED HORSE starring Richard Harris.
I mean, sure, the drunken whalers behave like pigs. And sure, you can see why the Eskimos reach their breaking point and start fighting back. But the dated Sixties bias of the film makers is so pitifully obvious. The preaching drags the drama down time and again. You really expect Oates' character to start shouting "Grease 'em all! Torch this place!" like he's Sergeant Barnes in Platoon. And you really expect the young, blonde sailor to start crooning "make love, not war," while he's balling the hot young Eskimo chick.
This isn't a movie about real Eskimos and real whalers -- it's a hippie film maker's fantasy about demonized whites and idealized natives.
The White Dawn
1974
Adventure / Drama / History
The White Dawn
1974
Adventure / Drama / History
Plot summary
In 1896, three survivors of a whaling ship-wreck in the Canadian Arctic are saved and adopted by an Eskimo tribe but frictions arise when the three start misbehaving.
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September 03, 2024 at 01:43 AM
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Drunken Whalers Go Wild -- Gentle Eskimos Fight Back!
Interesting trip up north--WAY up north.
This little-known film of Philip Kaufman's is a look at a culture not seen much in films, that of the Innuit, or Eskimo people of Arctic Canada. Three whalers (Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms and Louis Gosset Jr.) are stranded among them after a shipwreck. The year is 1896 but it could just as well be 1996 or 1796 as far as we can tell in this simple world where survival against nature is always the biggest concern. Surprisingly to me, the culture clash does not seem to be that great through most of the movie, and when it comes, it does so rather quickly. I think this makes for a less strong film but it's still an interesting one that really fascinates at times.
Cinematographer Michael Chapman ('Raging Bull') provides some great shots of the Great White North and Henry Mancini's score is very nice also. Martin Ransohoff is usually known as a producer but co-wrote the script here with Thomas Rickman.
It's along way from civilisation.
It's May 1896. Three whale hunters Billy, Daggett and Portagee crash their small fishing boat into an ice flow off the coast of Baffin Island in the Arctic Circle and are the only three survivors when a tribe of Eskimos come to their rescue. These Eskimos have never seen creatures like this and welcome (what they refer to as 'dog children') to their isolated community. They share everything important to them, but supposedly their arrival is a bad omen and western pleasures have found their way in. Which disrupts the Eskimos' spiritual lifestyle greatly.
What an enthralling pleasure and rather moving (and as well bleak) behavioural portrait of traditional customs and the survival of a 'primitive' race through the naive eyes of 'civilised' western men. Based on a true account. This Hollywood adventure exercise is beautifully implemented from James Huston's novel, which he also penned the thoughtfully sensitive screenplay. It's not really trying to force any sort ecological message onto the viewer, but creating a narrative that shows sometimes people take the simple things in life for granted. Instead of accepting what they got, they disrespect a way of life that they'll never understand and this will cause their own downfall. After obliging them, after one selfish act after another. Eventually both sides are at bitter odds with each other towards the end and the final straw leaves good old reasoning between the two ethnics behind close doors. It all comes down to survival in the end and removing the bad seeds. The dog children learn it the hard way.
While the three guests (played by Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms and Lou Gossett Jr.) are rather simple in their backgrounds, but their emotional bonds and interactions with each other and their surrogate guardians show just who they really are. We even get an informative look into the Intuits' way of life. The austerely imitating nature of the film is made more possible by its genuinely alienating and vastly eerie (but pristine) locations that are spaciously shot with great finesse by photographer Michael Chapman. You can feel the cold discomfort in the air. Harry Mancini's wistful music score has such an ominous howl that blends well with its gleeful side. Philip Kaufman direction is sturdily done and totally convicted to the story he wants to show. He demonstrates some disturbing scenes of cunningly swift, but also brutal violence (especially towards animals with the latter). Look out those easily offended by that. The pacing is deliberately slow to show the simple, no fuss routine of a culture being formed and to build up to its stirringly tragic conclusion. The performances from the Intuits are naturally quite good and they are subtitled for the occasion. Well, its better then being dubbed
now that wouldn't work at all. An excellent Warren Oates makes for one scuffed-up, self-seeking old sea dog, named Billy. At times his crusty performance very much reminded of Captain Haddock. A character form Herge's comic stories of "The Adventures of TinTin". Timothy Bottoms is outstanding in the most spiritually aware and humane role of the three, as Daggett. Finally rounding it off, is a sterling turn by Louis Gossett Jr. as the happy-go-lucky, Portagee.
Simply put, this remarkably haunting and significantly logical film still proves a point as much now, as it did when released. Recommended.