A Sombra do Lobo

Lou Diamond Phillips deserves a lot of credit for even tackling this subject. A well photographed movie about the lives of the Inuit, this just isn't a commercial item. The fact alone that it was shot on location must have cost a fortune. This film shows a lot of loving tender care in the making and the cast is great throughout. Too bad that it just wasn't commercial enough.

I happen to meet Lou in my town when he was appearing as King Arthur in a production of Camelot. I told him how much I liked the film and it was unfortunate that it went straight to video. I also asked him how he liked working with Toshiro Mifune.

He replied that it was a great experience, that Toshiro Mifune was a great actor and very good to work with and it was an honor to play his son in the film.

It must have been one rugged location, those films set at either of the Earth's poles usually are. The performances by Lou as the young Inuit outcast, Toshiro Mifune as his father the medicine man of the tribe and Donald Sutherland as a Mountie are uniformly excellent.

Don't miss this very neglected item.

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!

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.

This interesting film results to be a special remake of ¨The savage innocents ¨ the classic film starred by Anthony Quinn and Peter O'Toole and directed by Nicholas Ray . Stars a sensational Lou Diamond Phillips as ingenious Eskimos on the breathtaking and overwhelming Arctic outdoors . This is a co-production by two countries, Canada and France and distributed by Columbia TriStar . Based on the best-selling Canadian novel titled Agaguk and well adapted by Jacques Dorfmann . Dorfmann wrote the adaptation and controlled completely the film , he always considered his best work . Dorfmann investigated about Eskimos life with documentary style and developed a lyric clash among two civilizations : The primitive ,naive of the natives Eskimos and the Anglo-Xaxon civilized . The confrontation between different ways of life originated loneliness, flight and exclusion .

This overwrought picture was shot in Montreal , Quebec and Northwest territories , Canada . The technician team traveled looking for the wonderful locations of the Arctic exteriors . Spectacular and colorful cinematography in Technicolor 35 mm by Billy Williams , winner Academy Award for ¨Gandhi ¨ , showing marvelous landscapes from Arctic where wee see all type of animals : White bear , seals ,walrus , oxes , whales ,Arctic fox , among others . Sensible, evocative musical score by the great Maurice Jarre , author of soundtracks as Lawrence of Arabia and Dr Zivago . Lou Diamond Phillips gives an exceptional acting along with the remarkable Jennifer Tilly . The veteran actress from Japanese classic cinema , Toshiro Mifune plays splendidly as the tough father . In a secondary role Donald Sutherland plays a patrolman who pursues to Lou Diamond accused for killing a salesman . The great and stylish producer and filmmaker Jacques Dorfman working at the peak of his powers . The motion picture is professionally written , produced and directed directed by Jacques Dorfmann . He's a good writer and especially producer as ¨Quest of fire ¨ , ¨Bethune¨, ¨ Shock treatment ¨ , ¨ Army of Shadows ¨, and occasionally director as ¨Vercingetorix¨ and this one . Well worth watching for the brooding script and wonderful location . Rating : Acceptable and passable .

I found this film to a little dull but what makes this one accurate is the fact that the way the Inuit are portrayed in it. They are depicted quite well for a Hollywood made flick. I'm very surprised how many actors of actual Inuit background were in this film. I know for a fact that they weren't just actors of other ethnic backgrounds pretending to be Inuit since their last names are actually Inuit names. All the other villagers were truly Inuit except for Lou Diamond Phillips and Jennifer Tilly. I love ANY film that deals with Native North Americans just as long as its not a typical Hollywood made movie that views them as "savages" or "heathens" who like to attack wagon trains!! I personally don't appreciate negative stereotypes like that.

But ........... however........ anyways........... this is the reason why I gave this film a 6 out of 10.