Eskimo

Before he directed the star-studded Manhattan Melodrama and the suave cocktail-hour mystery The Thin Man, W.S. Van Dyke was MGM's go-to specialist for exotic adventure films shot on location in distant isolated places such as the South Sea Islands and Africa. Filmed in Northern Canada and the Arctic, Eskimo (1933) is the story of a tragic culture clash between native peoples of the far north and "civilized" traders and hunters who abuse the former's honesty and generosity. The Eskimos here are played by native Inuit people speaking their own language (making this the first movie shot in Inuit—translations are provided in silent movie-style intertitles), while the traders and RCMP officers speak English. Based on books by Danish explorer and anthropologist Peter Freuchen (who also stars as the ship captain), the film mixes together documentary footage of hunts and village life (some likely staged for the camera, just like Nanook of the North), fictional scenes filmed on location, and recreations shot on studio sets against rear projection. Eskimo is also remarkably frank for 1933 about the sexual mores in the Inuit culture and the film includes the rape of an Inuit wife by a visiting trader. The film is both respectful and patronizing in its presentation of native peoples and the performances here are stiff and simplistic (on the part of white and Inuit actors alike), but the location scenes are impressive and the representation of the culture, while oversimplified, is still better than Hollywood's usual stereotypes of native life. Interesting as an anthropological artifact, an example of Hollywood adventure cinema, and a piece of cultural history, Eskimo is a strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)