Verdict
Summary
A startlingly original and starkly gorgeous piece of cinema, The White Dawn still makes a vivid impression 50 years after it was made. I saw this movie projected in 35mm film maybe 15-20 years ago, and I remember how it affected me then, and it still has a strange magic today.
Plot:
Three whalers are rescued by Eskimos and live among them for a period of time.
Review:
In the late 1800’s, a whaling expedition in the Arctic experiences catastrophe, leaving three whalers stranded and barely alive in the Arctic wilderness. The whalers (played by Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms, and Lou Gossett Jr.) are rescued by a tribe of Eskimos who nurse them all back to health, despite warnings by their shaman that these “sons of dogs” will bring them calamity and misfortune. The chief finds the foreigners amusing, and because the three of them all carry with them interesting tools like knives and have skills that the tribe might benefit from, the chief allows them men to stay and live amongst them. Over a period of months, the three men adapt: They learn to hunt, to eat as their hosts do, and because they’re useful they even get to share the chief’s wives and the daughters of other men, becoming – essentially – Eskimos themselves for a time. But in time, the shaman’s prediction that these three men will bring misfortune comes to pass as the men teach the Eskimos how to distill liquor from berries, causing misfortune when a drunken party results in the death of one of the members of the tribe. How the Eskimos deal with that will determine the fate of the three foreigners, who realize too late that they’re no longer wanted.
A startlingly original and starkly gorgeous piece of cinema, The White Dawn still makes a vivid impression 50 years after it was made. I saw this movie projected in 35mm film maybe 15-20 years ago, and I remember how it affected me then, and it still has a strange magic today. Director Philip Kaufman puts his camera in the midst of a group of people we ordinarily would never see or even imagine in the way this movie presents them, and it’s a real wakeup call for anyone who thinks they belong just anywhere they find themselves. Integrating with people you share nothing in common with other than your humanity is simply not a task to be taken lightly. This movie is almost a fable in the way it presents itself, and it’s a really gorgeous film with stunning cinematography. Henry Mancini did the score. Highly recommended.
Kino Lorber’s brand new Blu-ray edition of The White Dawn comes in a new HD master from a 4K scan of the 35mm camera negative, and it’s never looked or sounded better. It comes with archival features that were on the DVD edition from over a decade ago, including an audio commentary by Kaufman, an intro by Kaufman, and two features about the making of the film. There’s also a slipcover.
