90 Degrees South; Grass; In The Land Of The War Canoes; Tabu

These four films, released as part of Milestone's "Age Of Exploration" series, offer some of the finest documentary work of the period, 1912-1933 (or ever, for that matter). The most compelling is 90 Degrees South, Herbert G. Ponting's visual record of the ill-fated 1913 expedition of Captain Robert Scott and others to the South Pole. In 1933, Ponting added a narrative and music soundtrack to the film footage shot 20 years earlier. It is truly like stepping back through time as we watch the crew cavort on the ice, or eat their dreaded canned rations ("we sometimes indulged in regrets about second helpings refused years ago"), followed by the terrible story of Scott and his three fellow expeditioners' final and fatal assault on the Pole which, ironically, had been reached by Norway's Amundsen a month earlier. A powerful film even today. [Note: Sadly indicative of the time (1913) is the brief allusion to the ship's mascot, a black cat named "Nigger," the only sour note in this otherwise admirable film.] Grass, made by Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack (both later the creators of the landmark King Kong), and Marguerite Harrison chronicles the extraordinary annual migration of the Bakthari tribe of Persia (now Iran). Over 50,000 people and half a million animals make the 48-day trek over snow-covered mountain ranges and across the half-mile wide Karun River to reach pasture land. "Without grass, there is no life." A thrilling and often humorous adventure with sights that many of us have never laid eyes on (like camels in the snow!). Tabu, a classic in its day, has not weathered as well as 90 Degrees South and Grass primarily because its fictional narrative is basically the stuff of B-movies today (a girl promised to a neighboring king runs off with her lover). Filmwise, however, F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) and Robert Flaherty's (Nanook Of The North) effort, filmed in Tahiti, is still a visually impressive piece of work. In The Land Of The War Canoes is the least of the four, by far, in terms of both filming and story, not to mention print quality. Made by renowned photographer Edward S. Curtis, who proves here that he is a better photographer than a filmmaker (a simple two-shot just doesn't occur to him), the scratchy, faded print conveys a fairly muddled story about the Kwakiutl Indians featuring authentic tribal costume and rituals. 90 Degrees North is highly recommended and an Editor's Choice. Grass is highly recommended. Tabu is recommended. And In The Land Of The War Canoes is recommended for serious students of 19th-century Native American culture only. (Available from: Milestone Film & Video, 275 West 96th St., Suite 28C, New York, NY 10025.)[DVD/Blu-ray Review—Dec. 15, 2015—Kino, 86 min., not rated, DVD: $24.95, Blu-ray: $29.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1931's Tabu sports a fine transfer and a mono 2.0 soundtrack. Extras include behind-the-scenes “Takes & Outtakes” (26 min.), the “making-of” featurette “The Language of Shadows” by Luciano Berriatúa (15 min.), “Tabu: A Work in Progress” raw camera footage (15 min.), and the 1940 ethnographic short “Hunt in the South Seas” (11 min.). Bottom line: backed by a solid set of extras, F.W. Murnau's silent classic looks the best it ever has in its Blu-ray debut.]