Product Details

• Actors: Allakariallak, Nyla, Cunayou, Allee, Allegoo
• Directors: Robert J. Flaherty
• Writers: Robert J. Flaherty, Frances H. Flaherty
• Producers: Robert J. Flaherty, John Révillon
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Home Vision
• VHS Release Date: December 20, 1993
• Run Time: 79 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302969239
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,584 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

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Robert J. Flaherty, who wrote, directed, produced, shot, and edited this landmark picture, will forever be remembered as the godfather of documentary filmmaking. While this landmark 1922 production, shot on the northeastern shore of Hudson Bay, isn't a true documentary by contemporary conventions, it remains the first great nonfiction film. With the help of Nanook and his friends and family, Flaherty undertook the mission of re-creating an Eskimo culture that no longer existed in a series of staged scenes. Nanook ice fishes, harpoons a walrus, catches a seal, traps, builds an igloo, and trades pelts at a trading post, all captured by Flaherty's inquisitive camera. Though he presents a "happy" culture bordering on primitive innocence (Nanook and his family were in reality quite westernized), his loving portrait is anything but condescending. Ultimately Flaherty shares his tremendous respect and awe for a culture that has learned to not just survive but thrive in such an inhospitable environment. On a purely visual level the film is a beautiful work of cinema, an understated drama in an austere, unblemished landscape of snow and ice. With unerring simplicity and directness, Flaherty re-creates the details and rhythms of a culture long gone and gives the world a glimpse. David Shepard's restoration, which is offered by Kino, shows a cleaner, brighter image than has ever been available on video and restores scenes missing for decades, and he has commissioned a new score by Timothy Brock, which incorporates and expands upon elements of the original score. A short interview with Flaherty's widow concludes the tape. --Sean Axmaker

Product Description

In 1922, Robert J. Flaherty (Man of Aran, Louisiana Story), changed the course of filmmaking with this, the first documentary. Nanook of the North follows the Eskimo Nanook as he braves the elements in the vast and inhospitable Arctic. Mesmerizing landscape photography illuminates the beauty and danger of life in the far north, while close-ups of Nanook, his wife, and their two small sons reveal the warmth of family life. Widely regarded as the best documentary ever made, this early masterpiece showcases Flaherty's genius at capturing the rhythms of the natural world and its inhabitants. Flaherty, who is known as the "father of the documentary," recorded a way of life that has now vanished.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic of ethnographic film, October 21, 2000

By	Alexander M. Moir "Lt. Moir" (Vero Beach, FL and Huntington, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nanook of the North (Criterion Collection Spine #33) (DVD)

Robert Flaherty's "Nanook of the North" is a true classic of ethnographic film. The principle behind anthropological film in the early days of its existence was to capture traditional societies in time, a sort of "salvage ethnography." In doing so, filmmakers like Flaherty and others particularly focused on Amerindian cultures, which were seen as a dying remnant of early America. In creating his silent masterpiece, Flaherty used actors of Inuit extraction, who still knew the traditional ways, and who could reproduce their culture for posterity through film. Though his methods have been criticized as contrived and retrogressive, post-modernist rhetoric has not succeeded in ruining this film in the popular or anthropological circles. "Nanook" remains a warm account of traditional Inuit/Eskimo life, despite their frigid setting. The DVD collectable edition contains some photo galleries and useful material about Flaherty and his subjects.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great film about Inuits (Eskimos), April 6, 2004

By	Ted "Ted" (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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This review is from: Nanook of the North (Criterion Collection Spine #33) (DVD)

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This film is credited with being one of the first documentary films. When first released it became known worldwide. Although the film was staged it is partially accurate. At the time of the film was being made, Inuit society was beginning to modernize and the film was made to portray traditional life for the Inuits.

To this day the film remains one of the most famous documentaries ever made.

The film is well photographed and is the first silent film the Criterion Collection has released on DVD. The new musical score is excellent and often appropriate for the particular scenes. This film is generally appropriate for all ages but near the end of the film there is a scene of brief female nudity.

The Criterion Collection has resotred the film to its original frame rate and the special features include photographs of the region where the movie was filmed and also inclused a rare interview with the director's widow.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The beginning of Documentary Film, One of The Greatest Films, May 1, 2002

By	S. Sharp (N. California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nanook of the North (Criterion Collection Spine #33) (DVD)

Most of what I could say has already been said. It is an important historical document of a vanished way of life. It is a unique tribute to one man & his stand agianst the elements. Flaherty invented documentary as we now know it in this film. The filmmaker displays almost as much tenacity & courage in recording the material as Nanook does in his everyday life. A measure of the film's greatness is the profound effect it had on Orson Welles. After seeing the film Welles is said to have abandoned the editing of his 'Magnificent Ambersons' & taken on a journey to South America to shoot in documentary style.