Rotten Tomatoes

Movies / TV

    Celebrity

      No Results Found

       View All       Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

      Eskimo

      Released Jan 10, 1934 1h 57m Adventure List
      Reviews 89% Audience Score 100+ Ratings An ancient way of living clashes with 20th-century civilization when an enterprising Eskimo hunter (Mala) decides to trade furs with a white captain (Peter Freuchen). While the outsider is eager to barter with the native, he is also intent on bedding the Eskimo's wife, resulting in a violent encounter. Before long, the Canadian authorities, led by Inspector White (W. S. Van Dyke), are involved, and both the Eskimo's freedom and traditions are jeopardized. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (4) Critics Reviews
      Paul Rotha Cinema Quarterly Better than the usual run of adapted plays. Feb 3, 2021 Full Review Helen Brown Norden Vanity Fair A pictorial version of the book by Peter Freuchen. If you are interested in the love-life of the Eskimo-with sidelights on his habits at home-this will fascinate you. There is also some magnificent photography. Jun 6, 2019 Full Review Pare Lorentz Vanity Fair Shrewd editing and two handsome Eskimos put this in the first flight of Nature melodramas. Jun 6, 2019 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Looks like a documentary. Rated: B Feb 2, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

      View All (6) audience reviews
      Audience Member Give it a viewing. Well done. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member The remarkable location-filmed Eskimo was adapted from two books: Die Flucht Ins Wiesse Land and Der Eskimo, both written by naturalist Peter Freuchen. Director Woody Van Dyke, in the tradition of his White Shadows on the South Seas and Trader Horn, took his cast and crew on location to the Arctic, arriving by whaling schooner at the topmost settlement in Alaska with author Freuchen as his guide. Van Dyke, Freuchen, and cinematographer Ray Wise also played prominent on-screen roles in the film. Eskimo Ray Mala (billed only by his last name) essays the title role, speaking in the tongue of his ancestors (even though his English was excellent). Rather than use superimposed titles, Van Dyke resorted to old-fashioned silent-movie subtitles in several dialogue sequences. The story concentrates on the more exotic aspects of Eskimo life, notably the race's (alleged) casual approach to sex. Though tribal leader Mala has, by his own admission, slept with 20 women without benefit of clergy, woe betide anyone who tries to steal his current sweetheart -- as a rapacious trader discovers when he's harpooned to death by the cuckolded hero. Mala is ultimately undone by the Canadian Mounties, whose efforts to civilize the Eskimo community result in a sudden and tragic shift of the balance of power. Editor Conrad A. Nervig won an Oscar for his Herculean efforts to bring cohesiveness to the story. Performing respectably at the box office, Eskimo inspired another location jaunt in 1935: Last of the Pagans, which also starred Ray Mala. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member looks like a doc gr8 location shooting 4 1933 Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Melodrama interspersed with documentary-style footage equals a unique, fascinating motion picture experience. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Impressive film directed by WS Van Dyke about, well, Eskimos. The film stars real Eskimos and is pretty much all subtitled while they speak their language. It's cool watching them hunt and fish and stuff, because it's most likely them doing all of that stuff themselves, including hunting seals and whales. This also was the first film to win Best Editing and it is actually very well done. The actual story is pretty predictable (it reminded me a film that was made a couple years before it, White Shadows of the South Seas), but that doesn't really matter. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Filmed in a style half of a Documentary and scripted Hollywood. The film makes you see how Eskimos lived before the white man arrived. Once the white man arrives the joy the Eskimo people know is taken away. Ruining the life of the main character Mala. Well filmed for the period incorporating documentary like footage with scripted footage. The film made before animal cruelty laws, you actually see a; Seal, Polar Bear, Whale, Caribou, and Dog killed on film. A great film that shows a world that is no more Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Show Less Cast & Crew Show More Cast & Crew

      Photos

      View All Eskimo photos

      Eskimo

      Eskimo (1933) Eskimo (1933) Eskimo (1933) Eskimo (1933) Eskimo (1933) Eskimo (1933) View more photos

      Movie Info

      Synopsis An ancient way of living clashes with 20th-century civilization when an enterprising Eskimo hunter (Mala) decides to trade furs with a white captain (Peter Freuchen). While the outsider is eager to barter with the native, he is also intent on bedding the Eskimo's wife, resulting in a violent encounter. Before long, the Canadian authorities, led by Inspector White (W. S. Van Dyke), are involved, and both the Eskimo's freedom and traditions are jeopardized.
      Director
      W. S. Van Dyke II
      Screenwriter
      Peter Freuchen, John Lee Mahin
      Distributor
      Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
      Production Co
      Metro Goldwyn Mayer
      Genre
      Adventure
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Jan 10, 1934, Wide
      Runtime
      1h 57m