In the Land of the Head Hunters

Edwin S. Curtis's primary medium was still photography; he took pictures of native peoples. This documentary about the Kwakiutls of British Columbia contains some nice images--especially those from a buoyant camera within a canoe. The animal costumes and collecting of heads is worth looking at. The story that Curtis attached to his ethnographic record is uninteresting and untrustworthy, though. The films of Robert Flaherty to the films of Michael Moore have been accused of fictionalization, but at least those narratives, true to documentary film-making or not, are entertaining. As far as making the subject interesting to me, Curtis failed. The documentary itself, however, is very old--the earliest feature-length documentary I've seen. The film itself more so than the subject has become the artifact of interest.

I really would not venture to give this silent film a score--it is not a film in the traditional sense and probably has very little value to the average viewer. However, at the same time it IS of tremendous value to anthropologists, ethnographers and the like, as it records a way of life that has long disappeared--even if the manner in which it is presented is less than satisfying.

In 1914, Edward S. Curtis released a documentary film about the Kwakiutl Indians--a tribe living near Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest. However, this film was later cut apart and pieced together in the early 1970s and music, sound effects and native dialog were clumsily added. I was not able to see the original version and I doubt if it is available (another reviewer said this is a restoration work in progress).

Style wise, the film is very old fashioned. Like only the early films, intertitle cards described (at length) what was about to happen in the following scenes instead of telling as or after the events occurred. This made viewing a tad tedious. Also, the story about Indian wars and violence seemed artificial (as it was) and I have no idea if the Kwakiutl ever hunted heads or behaved the way they do in the film--as instead of a true documentary, the end product is a romanticized version of the tribe. This damages the value of the film for professors from the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania and the like--all schools that have large and well-respected Ethnographic/Anthropological Studies departments. But, at the same time, as it DOES show native dances, costumes, animal costumes and the like, it is like gold to these same people. To the average non-academic, however, the films are probably of little lasting interest--though I know that this would disappoint many.

To me, this was mildly interesting as I am a true cinemaniac and my daughter studies this sort of stuff in college and has infused some of her enthusiasm in me....a bit. But, I certainly would not like a steady diet of this sort of film. As for me, I prefer later and better presented films like "Nanook of the North".

In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914)

** (out of 4)

Director Edward S. Curtis took his cameras to Vancouver Island where he wanted to film the Kwakiutl Indian tribe. This film isn't a documentary but an attempt to take their beliefs and turn them into a fictional film. The story centers around Motana, a man sent off to do a spiritual dance when he sees a vision of his future wife. He eventually runs into this woman but she's been offered to an evil sorcerer.

IN THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS was at one point in the 70s re-released with altered scenes, an added vocal soundtrack and other trimmings but thankfully the folks at Milestone attempted to get the movie back to its original version or at least as close to it as possible. The film is fairly hard to judge because they had two incomplete and very badly damaged prints to work with and sadly a lot of the film is still missing and has been replaced with title cards.

Overall the film isn't all that good but it's an interesting one to watch. I say this because it is fascinating to see the various Kwakiutl beliefs including the stuff dealing with the man going out to do his spiritual thing. This of course leads to how women are bought and sold. These things are rather interesting and it's really too bad that these things weren't presented in a documentary instead of a feature. As a film this thing really doesn't offer us anything fresh or original for the time. The performances aren't memorable or very good either.

If you're a silent film buff it's certainly worth watching this once but there's really not too much here.

Land of the War Canoes is a black and white silent film remastered in 1973. Mainly they added a sound track. All the dialogue is in Kwakiutl without subtitles. The film is in terrible shape. It needs modern day digital retouching to fix the wildly fluctuating exposure levels and age damage.

It is a surprisingly long film. The plot is two tribes warring over a female. It has sorcery, head hunting, whale hunting, many tipped canoes.

The best parts are the athletic dancers in clever costumes to mimic various birds, animals and insects.

Everybody looks the same, so it hard to keep track of who is fighting whom.

The main value of the film is how alien it is. None of the attitudes, dress, food, customs... is familiar. The beauty of the film comes from the many elegant war canoes.

"The plotters, anticipating Motana's death, "mourn" him as his hair, stuffed into the bodies of toads, smokes over their fire" reads one of the title cards. This is, after all, a documentary about the Kwakiutl Indians. And yet, clearly, it is a directed story film. It's an unusual sort of film these days, limited to "novel and astonishing works of unprefigured genius" like THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY, but in reality, this is how documentaries started. Flaherty "cheated" by modern standards on NANOOK OF THE NORTH. CHANG has a story line imposed on it. While unedited footage of Kwakiutl Indians carving totem poles might have been a big draw in 1896, by 1914 the sophisticated filmgoer demanded more: a story line. And so we had this, by modern standard, odd .... well, call it a "mockumentary", but not in the sense of a Christopher Guest film. We see real Kwakiutls in real Kwakiutl regalia dancing real Kwakiutl war dances aboard real Kwakiutl war canoes. It's just that it's edited together and given titles to make it a story.

Interestingly, although a story film, this movie survives because it was saved at a couple of museums. So what can we make of it?

Well, make of it what you want. A feature film from the dawn of feature films; fascinating shots of Kwakiutl Indians when they still did these things. Do you want egg in your beer?