The Savage Innocents

This movie presents an intriguing picture of two widely dissimilar cultures coming together. The Eskimos are simple and innocent, but ideally suited and armed with the knowledge to survive one of the harshest places that people inhabit. One my favorite moments occurs when the officer says he can subdue the main character by himself, to which the main character replies, "You are that strong?", showing the absence of boastfulness in the Eskimo culture, which stems from the cooperative nature necessary to survival. The stark and uncluttered settings give space to concentrate on the dialog. Definitely worth watching

One of the stupidest most inaccurate movies I have ever seen! From a real live "raw meat eater". We didn't kill female babies, females are just as important as a male babies. And the part about sharing wives is such BS, culture had some wife swapping and to the Inuit people sex was something that happens not a taboo, people have sex that's how babies are made even we savages knew that.

It's a MYTH that the elderly were left on ice flows or in a snow drift. In the Atomic age even us savages knew what a gun was and golly gee we even saw those metal birds a flyin over head. Ugh.

Someone wrote "far northern natives that lived almost exclusively on the arctic ice". How stupid. Do you suppose we all lived in kayaks and Umiaks during the spring thaw and summer months? We hunted on the ice sometimes when we weren't hunting caribou deer and moose we are MEAT EATERS. No hunter would kill a dog to warm someones' hands', he would have never let the trooper get that bad to start with. A live dog would have warmed a person as well as pull you to a place you could get help. Or we would have eaten the animal should the need arise. Hunt a polar bear alone, ridiculous!

And giving the dead seal a drink of fresh water. Unbelievable! Yes we would surely have given thanks to the animal spirits. Sea mammals don't drink fresh water, they get all the liquid they need from the foods they eat. Look it up. The clothes were authentic for sure but from different cultures of Inuit.

All in all the reviews praising this movie for "culturally authentic" are from people who have no idea what they are talking about and believe all the things that they see in movies. It's a movie not a documentary. Par for the times they didn't hire real Inuit or even American Indians to play the parts Anthony Quinn and Japanese Chinese played as Inuit's is funny. Too that nobody would bother to hire on a real Inuit as a consultant was standard for the times.

Entertaining maybe, insulting to THE MEN absolutely.

I saw this movie many years ago. My recollection of it is that is a documentary comment on the interface of two widely different cultures. I also just finished reading Kabloona a book written by a white Frenchman in the later 1930s about the Eskimo Culture. The points made in the book confirm those points made in the movie. The Eskimo apparently is a guileless innocent whose life consists primarily of staying alive and fed. The innocence of these people was highlighted in the scene where Anthony Quinn came back to his igloo and found that his wife had given birth. He asked her the baby's name and when she told him, he responded in amazement, "How did you know?" As far as the scene where a man's hands were stuffed into a recently killed dog is concerned, the speed with which freezing occurs at 50 below zero is not to be believed. That scene demonstrates the fact that the Eskimo regards his dogs as livestock and useful. Shocking, but apparently realistic.

This is an extremely powerful and stunning movie portraying Innuit Eskimos and the way their living habits clash with our sensitive Western "civilisation". It is extremely annoying not to be able to find it in either VHS or DVD format. Hopefully this will be put right soon. A must for Anthony Quinn fans!

This is a co-production by various countries : Italy (Magic films) , England (Play-Art) , France(Pathe) and distributed by Rank Productions , being firstly exhibited circa 1960 . Based on Hans Ruesch novel , being adapted by Franco Solinas . Although novelist Hans Ruesch never saw an Eskimo , but based his story on the film Eskimo . Nicholas Ray wrote the script and controlled completely the film , he always considered his best work . Ray investigated about Eskimos life , filming in documentary style and developed a lyric clash among two civilizations : The primitive , naive of the native Eskimos and the civilized Anglo-Xaxon . The ways of life confrontation originated loneliness , getaway and exclusion .

The picture was shot in Ottawa 1959 , March . Ray traveled to the Bay of Hudson and Churchill (Manitoba) for exterior location . Besides , for interior scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios (London)and Cinecitta (Rome) , during thirteen weeks in a studio work including quite a few transparency . Spectacular and colorful cinematography in Technirama 70 by Aldo Tonti and Henessy with marvelous landscapes from Arctic where we watch all type of animals : White bears , seals , walrus , oxes , whales , reindeer , Arctic fox.. Sensitive and evocative music by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino . Anthony Quinn gives an exceptional acting along with the newcomer and remarkable Yoko Tani . The veteran actress from silent cinema , Anna My Wong , plays splendidly as grandmother . In a secondary role shows up Peter O'Toole (though dubbed) , he plays a patrolman who pursues to Anthony Quinn accused for killing accidentally a missionary . However , Peter O'Toole demanded that his name be removed from the film's opening and closing credits because his voice was dubbed by another actor . The great and stylish filmmaker Nicholas Ray working at the peak of his powers . Well worth watching for the brooding script and wonderful location . Rating : Better than average.