rgcustomer The version I saw was 161 minutes.My review is also a charge of low expectations against those who awarded this film things like "Best Editing" and "Best Picture". This is political correctness run amok.Let's not mistake an important film for a good one. Being the first, and perhaps still the only film in Inuktitut, this is an important film. It's also important for bringing to the world an ancient story most of us would never have heard of otherwise.Let's also not mistake a hard-to-make film for a good one. 1995's Waterworld was hard to make too, and about as entertaining as this one.However, a film is supposed to do a few things.1. Tell a Story.Halfway through this film, I was lost. Now, for that to happen in such a slow-paced film is saying something. Then, when I read a plot synopsis, it appears that not only was I lost, but the parts of the film that I thought I knew, I apparently didn't know at all. For a film to be good, it shouldn't require prior knowledge of an obscure culture, or a secondary source to follow along with.2. Entertain.The editing of this film was such that the story tension and character detail were both sacrificed to the priority of documenting a past Inuit way of life. This is the same mistake that science fiction and fantasy films make when they try to dazzle you with their special effects, as if a CG dinosaur is impressive just because it is on screen for the first time (Jurassic Park). It's not. The past and current Inuit way of life is well worth documenting in film. But it belongs in a documentary, not a drama. If cut in half, it could be a better film.3. Yes, Entertain.While there were some truly beautiful shots, much of the cinematography was little better than you'd expect from any schoolboy with a hand-held camera. I found myself imagining what the same on-screen action would have looked like if a competent team had been permitted to film it. It could have been given the weight that a story that is this important to its people deserves, and could have drawn in other viewers to this story. That didn't happen.Some final random thoughts: I have never seen so much urination in a movie that was not pornographic. Also, it was not good to be a dog in the old Arctic. It was even worse to be any other non-human animal. Last, apparently the word translated as "forgive" doesn't mean forgive, at least as most people understand the concept. Forgiveness doesn't include punishment.

Samiam3 Here is one for the history books, Atanarjuat is the first Inuit made motion picture. While it looks primitive, there is something truly haunting and almost prehistoric about it. Atanarjuat, takes us into a world that most of us have never truly understood, expect for the illustrations on ice cream 'eskimo' bars. Visually, Atanarjuat could be considered a mirror to Kurosawa, but in terms of plot coherency, the film is not so strong. The only part which is strait forward is that we know who the hero is and what some of his character motives are. Aside from that, the plot of Atanarjuat, is very loose, unfocused, and features too many characters which from a non-Inuit perspective, all look and dress alike. This makes things confusing for the first half hour, until we start to recognize who different people are. What I like about the story is the cultural anthropology lesson I get from it. It's educational. Every now and then comes a scene of little importance to the plot but shows us something neat. For example, the methods used to design drums, tenderize meat, and kindle fire, are something I haven't seen specifically in any other movie. The music is also something worth noting, very strange very beautiful and hard to place. Sometimes, the score sounds like a mix of Buddist chanting, Australia digeridoo, and African drums.If you can handle a slow movie, Atanarjuat is a film to see, although I can't say I loved it. Not emotionally captivating, but intellectually intriguing.

Terrell-4 "Evil came to us like death and we just had to live with it," says the legend teller. The Fast Runner is a powerful, fascinating film about an Inuit community of less than two dozen people, living their lives above the Arctic Circle anywhere from a thousand to a couple hundred years ago. Their world is made up of vast frozen tundra and endless snow combined with the claustrophobia of living together in such close quarters that there are no secrets. Their survival and happiness depend on everyone living together in harmony. When the leadership of this group is assumed under questionable circumstances, when a rival is humiliated and when power is worked unfairly, evil descends on the group. The feelings of envy, ambition and lust which lead to murder may be familiar to anyone in any culture; how this plays out in such a small group of people and in such cold, severe conditions turns this movie into a unique and engrossing experience. Saari is the leader of the group. He has a son, Oki (Peter-Henry Amatsiaq), and a daughter, Puja (Lucy Tulugarjuk). Tulmaq, now dead, had been a rival for leadership long ago, but had been humiliated until his spirit was broken. He had two sons, Amaqjuaq, who was called the Strong One, and Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq), who was called the Fast Runner. Oki has grown to be a bully. As a child he and Ayuat (Sylvia Ivalu) were promised to each other, but now she and Atanarjuat have fallen in love. Oki and Atanarjuat settle the issue in a brutal fight. In front of the group, they stand facing each other. Then they take turns deliberately hitting each other on the side of the head as powerfully as they can. The one who fails to get up loses, and that is Oki. From then on we see how Oki's resentments and envy, and his sister's own trouble-making, lead to murder. By the time this small community casts out evil, Amaqjuaq is dead and Atanarjuat has barely escape with his life, running naked over ice fields and through pools of icy water, pursued by three killers, Oki in the lead. If nothing else does, this race against death will stay with you. Atanarjuat survives and finally returns to the group, where justice is meted out. This film puts us in the middle of this tiny community. We see how they live, how they hunt, how they survive, they way they build an igloo, what they butcher and how they eat, how they dress. More powerfully, we see how they must adjust and accommodate. This is a community so small that resentments must be settled early, where humor can be direct, where intimacy is a part of the life; and where jealousy, envy, trouble-making, love and passion are the same as everywhere else. "I can only sing this song to someone who understands it," the legend teller says at the beginning of the movie. The story is long (172 minutes), the language, Inukitut, is strange, the environment is frigid and unforgiving. But the people come from the same pool of humanity as we do. Give this film half a chance and you'll find you understand the song.

tom_75252 After realizing the first hour was unnecessarily included in this film, I took a break from the utter boredom and read some reviews here in hopes of finding something that would convince me to watch the next hour. And I found plenty, but mostly from people who were intrigued by the Inuit culture. I had never heard of this culture but I figured what the heck. So I went ahead and watched the next hour, and while the one-at-a-time fight scenes were a bit intriguing, I remained pretty much bored. I understand the culture is a bit savage, but that still didn't hold my attention. It took a while before I found the energy to watch the final hour of this movie. It turned out interesting, but not super interesting.This movie was not meant to be a documentary, but the camera work reminds me of one. I think it would have been better if it were done as a documentary. I see lots of interesting documentaries about strange cultures on the Discovery channel, but this pseudo-doc bored me to sleep several times. They could've used a good editor to prevent spontaneous audience narcolepsy. I've seen better one hour documentaries about a cheetah catching a whatever-it-wants-to-eat dinner.One person who rated this more than 7 stars said "The actors are astonishing, and it must have been so terribly cold up there, that you know this was a labor of love for the production team. The scenery is astonishing."A few other people made similar comments.But the truth is, the acting is border-line. Most of it is similar to cheesy Latino daytime soap operas. The scenery is hardly astonishing; it is mostly a blend of blue sky, snow, and boring small rocks. There is much better scenery in a documentary like "Touch a Void".With some better editing, this film could be re-released, remove the boring stuff, and hit the nail on the head. Kinda like that scene where the two adjuncts hit each other on the head for a challenge.The subtitles could also use a bit of work too. Most of the captions are yellow on a white background. Not very easy to read. And they often linger for a brief moment, not giving you enough time to read them. And there is too much dialogue that doesn't even include captions. This could have been a very good documovie with better editing. Where are the next two thumbs up going to land?