Shadow of the Wolf

The Far North in 1935 is the setting for this dull film. An Eskimo man falls out with his father, the tribal leader, over which of them gets "the woman". He and the woman must flee to parts unknown after he kills a man in self defense. Soon a mountie is on his trail which forces him to brave the frozen tundra alone while being stalked by a white wolf. All this sounds like it made for a good adventure tale, but it was just plain boring. And who was the moron who cast Jennifer Tilly as an eskimo? She looks about as much like an eskimo as the Reverend Jesse Jackson. This was a been there, done that, lame film from the very outset. Avoid!

How often do you get to travel to the arctic and live with the indigenous people there who have been living pretty nearly the life of their distant and technologically primitive ancestors? Excellent cinematography, excellent musical score. Very enjoyable experience.

A fairly interesting, if flawed, movie. Toshiro Mifune was great, and could pass for an Eskimo. Lou Diamond Phillips is awfully tall and lean, though. And Jennifer Tilly, well she is beautiful, and she acted very well, but just does not even come close to seeming Eskimo. In a way this is the old story of Europeans interacting with indigenous peoples. As one character out it, "You need us! you no longer can survive without our rifles and our metal knives!" And the chieftain admits "we will die" Should we have left these people in their Stone Age condition? I don't think so. But it did mean the end of their ways of life. The Innuit only escaped the reservation system due to the remoteness of their homelands.But back to the movie, it is worth checking out if only for the photography.

The plot to "Shadow of the Wolf" is nearly identical at times to the 1933 film "Eskimo" as well as 1960's "The Savage Innocents"....so much so that I am surprised that IMDB doesn't list these in the connections section. All the films are about an innocent Inuit man being chased by Canadian Mounties for a murder.

The story begins with Agaguk (Lou Diamond Phillips) killing a polar bear with a knife! Despite this heroic deed, this father (Toshiro Mifune) is a bit of a jerk and they argue. Later, Agaguk learns that his father sold the polar bear pelt to a trader...even though it was not his to sell and the trader knew this. Agaguk feels annoyed...but before he can do more, the stupid trader tries to murder him...but is killed in the process. Clearly it's a case of self-defense...though soon he is chased by a Mountie (Donald Sutherland) and this makes up the rest of the film. But on his way to look for the killer, the Mountie stops by Agaguk to investigate...and Agaguk's father takes things into his own hands.

Like too many films, the natives in the film are all played by non-native actors (Phillips and Jennifer Tilly have a little native American blood...just a wee bit...and Mifune is Japanese). I am not sure if this is a bad thing or not, as I have no idea if there were any Inuit/First Nations/Eskimo (whatever term you use) actors who could have played these roles. It simply could have been done for marketability (putting stars in the leads) or there weren't native actors able to play these roles. I have no idea.

So is the film any good? Well, the filmmakers get the look of the film right and manage to make a compelling tale. It is interesting and kept my interest throughout. It's well worth seeing...and is better than its current score of 5.8. However, if you can find it, "Eskimo" is even better...and the two films are different enough it merits seeing them both.

It was a France-Canada co-production to expose the life of Inuit natives settlement in far off Canadian northern nearby North Pole, as American movies dealing with their natives as white man's dependency on supplying gun fires, steel traps, alcohol, medicine and mainly trading those valuable furs addressed to American market and Europe as well as displayed in the movie, they bring the famous actors to play the main characters as the Philippine Lou Diamond Philips, the Japanese Toshirô Mifune, Jennifer Tilly, all them has somehow Mongol ancestry, upon this small detail their fit perfect as Inuit people otherwise the British Donald Sutherland as policeman.

Such coexistence at some moment they would enter in clash due inserting the poisoned booze on settlement worsening the things, whereby it gonna happen by a bear's fur got by Agaguk (Diamond Philips) sold by a nasty white trader Brown by his father Chief-shaman boozer Kromaak (Toshiro Mifune) it triggers a natural acrimony between them, Agaguk went to kill Brown for refused get back the fur, all this allied a bad relationship with his lewd father he went away with his girl Igiyook (Jennifer Tilly) whereof the couple tried survived by themselves on ice landscape, therefore it doesn't take too long appears a white policeman asking for Brown's death.

Shadow of the Wolf aside the clashes between natives and white people is underpinned in Iniut's spiritual background where someone empowered with views of future arise at leadership among bravery and others strengths, they also suppose when somebody faces the death and survives becomes in another man itself as exposed on picture, aside some natural mismatches as those artificial sets, the movie doesn't disappoint as the low ratings trie assure, it bring the way of life of this people that ought adjust on a new environment which includes the white man domain, even bad or not!!

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First watch: 1996 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5.