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The majority of the cast of "Eskimo," made in 1934, is Native, and there is no demonizing of any of the indigenous characters or culture.Poster art courtesy of the Internet Movie Data Base, imdb.com

Classic 'Eskimo' Film Appears on Screen Again

By Annie Greenberg

The black-and-white classic "Eskimo" made a rare appearance outside the dusty film archives last week, beautifully chronicling a Native Alaskan's struggle to survive after unfortunate dealings with a crooked white trader.

Most of the movie rings authentic — almost all of the dialogue is in Inupiaq with English intertitles, like an old silent movie; the majority of the cast is Native; and there is no demonizing of any of the indigenous characters or culture. The movie was directed by W. S. Van Dyke in 1934 and based on the observations and book by Peter Freuchen, a Danish explorer and writer who also had a part in the film. It was filmed in Teller, Alaska.

In the opening scene we are introduced to hunting skills of the great Mala, who spears a fish swimming beside his canoe with a single thrust, only to then take down a bird flying above him with the same prowess. We later see him felling a pod of walruses, a herd of caribou and a polar bear with relative ease, bringing back the spoils to an appreciative village and wife and mother bursting with pride.

Mala is Hollywood's — and almost all of Western society's at this time — perfect representation of the Noble Savage: handsome but not polished, generous but not wealthy, skillful but not smart in the ways of the world. So it's only natural in this scenario that tragedy should strike when he comes into contact with the White Devil.

SPOILER ALERT

If you haven't seen the movie and don't want the plot ruined, don't read past this paragraph. You've been warned.

After someone from the village comes back from trading with a white captain loaded with goodies — sewing needles, a knife and a gun — Mala's wife, Aba, becomes a bit envious. So, Mala and his family make the grueling 500-mile trek on snow sled to the ship, where Mala's bevy of furs and attractive wife make quite an impression on the captain.

The captain, played by Freuchen, cheats Mala and forces Aba to spend the night with him against both her and her husband's will. While he makes an agreement with Mala never to do it again, the next day, while Mala is out hunting, the captain forces Aba to drink and then rapes her. She runs away, but in all her fur clothing is confused for an animal by a crew member who shoots her dead.

While the first mate, who pulled the trigger, does feel guilty, the captain is without remorse. A devastated Mala retaliates by killing the captain with a harpoon. He escapes with his children before anyone discovers the body.

The rest of the movie chronicles Mala's new life — dealing with the lingering grief from Aba's death; his adoption of the new name of Kripik to avoid being haunted by the captain; a gift from a friend of two new wives, including one Mala truly loves, Iva.

Mala's past does catch up with him, in the form of Canadian Mounties who set out to arrest him for the captain's murder. But he saved their lives, pulling them from a snowdrift and befriending them before they realized who he was. So when Mala escapes, they eventually let him go.

My only compaint with the film is this: While Mala certainly is an admirable hero and the captain a scurvy villain, Mala's initial helplessness and then brutality in dealing with him are ways of sanctioning the belief that Native people are just not able to function effectively in the real world.

By the time filming started, the first boarding school for Native children had already been established in Alaska, possibly affecting the families of some of the cast. I can't help but wonder if it were a Native behind the camera, whether that demeanor supposedly unique to the Eskimo, preventing him from functioning effectively in the dirty world of the white man — the demeanor that the federal government felt needed fixing — would have been so romanticized.

But overall, "Eskimo" is a rare glimpse into a world long gone, full of language, landscapes and the nose-on-nose action for which a people were made famous. It is a treat worth savoring.

This article was reported and written in Columbia, Mo.

Annie Greenberg, Eskimo, is a journalism student at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She worked as a reporter at the Navajo Times for one year and interned as a reporter at the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

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