Kon-Tiki

The tweedy professor-types thought they had it all figured out. Today's peoples who inhabit Polynesia descended from migratory Asians, intrepidly moving from the Far East, island to island, eastward into Tahiti and all the other exotic tropic isles of the South Pacific over thousands of years. But the established thinking just didn't sit well with young Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl. If that explanation were true, how come some folks born and bred in those islands have traditions, artwork, and physical features resembling not those from Asia, but South America? How can the vegetation of Ecuador, Peru and Chile look so much like what you'd find on the island several thousand miles away? Is it just a coincidence that the Islanders point out to sea in the direction of South America and say that is where their ancestors came from, led by Tiki, their equivalent of Adam? Meanwhile, how is it Norwegians speak of Scandanavian forerunners who were chased from the South American continent they had colonized, and, together with some of the native peoples they befriended, set off over the sea -- heading WEST? It's all too much to be a coincidence to Heyerdahl. With an amazing amount of moxie, a handful of crewmen, and the local know-how for traditional raft-building, an expedition begins. It's as much a trip into the human imagination as it is a pseudo-scientific demonstration that such a journey is possible with only the very basics of tools and seamanship. The Oscar-winning documentary may be dated in its tone and Anglo-ethnocentric approach, but it soars with a spirit of adventure besting even the space program that launched a decade later, as men are willing to risk it all to test a theory they think is true. Wonderful. Do yourself a favor and read the book first. It is an amazing page-turner and the perfect setup for the newsreel-style movie.

I did not know that expedition until I saw the "Kon-Tiki" movie of 2012 and then I discovered an watched the documentary of "Kon-Tiki" and I think that documentary is better than the movie. In this documentary we can watch and observe how this crew survived all that time and how they spent their time.

"Kon-Tiki" is a documentary that shows us how Thor Heyerdahl proved that was possible South Americans to settle in Polynesia before Columbus did that. In these 80 minutes of the life of these crew we can watch how difficult task they had and what feelings Thor Heyerdahl had in all of that journey.

Finally I want to say that I liked very much this documentary because it was different from all the other documentaries which I have seen, not only because of its age, but for how realistic it was.

Although the 2012 Dramatization of this event was very good (see my review), the documentary is even more fascinating. There is nothing like real-life documentation to involve you emotionally to be vested in a good film. And this documentary deserved its Academy Award for Best Documentary of 1950. Nothing was even close to this film.

Thor Heyerdahl made the best sea adventure documentary of all time with this piece. The trip itself makes Columbus and Leif Erikson look like sissies compared to this adventure. Heyerdahl made the trip exactly as Tiki, the ancient Peruvian did, over 1500 years ago. A fascinating piece.

The movie was fascinating as was Heyerdahl's book. The problem is the "extra" material - an interview with Thor Heyerdahl and extra film clips of the Ra I, RaII and Tigris expeditions. Any first year film student could have done better. There were almost no captions or identifiers, the interview was chopped up and interspersed with clips with no explanation or relevance. The whole looked like a hasty mishmash that should never have been released. The extra color footage was fine. The extra on the "crew" could have benefited from a bit more than the name. As Heyerdahl died in 2002, that would also have been useful information. The photos -- with captions from the book -- were fine, if only the "interview" extra had been done half as well.

I got a copy of the book, "Kon-Tiki" when I was ten years old (1962). I still remember the story. I didn't know abut this film until now. It's an amazing story of how a man's belief and conviction can truly change how we think of the world around us. If you like this film you must also read the book.