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6.9/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.9/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Eskimo remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have ninety minutes to spare and want to see some insane real-life Arctic footage from almost a century ago, yes, Eskimo is absolutely worth your time.
People who love rugged, freezing-cold survival stories will dig this, but anyone expecting a modern, politically correct documentary is going to absolutely despise it. 🥶
It is a weird movie, mostly because it feels half like a National Geographic special and half like a dirty pre-code melodrama.
The director, W.S. Van Dyke, actually dragged a crew up to Alaska, which makes the whole thing feel incredibly dusty and cold.
You can literally see the actors breath in every outdoor shot, and that is not CGI, obviously.
The story is about Mala, who plays a guy named... Mala.
He is a great hunter, very happy with his wives, until a greasy white trader shows up on a big ship and ruins everything.
Honestly, the plot takes a while to get going because the first half hour is just people hunting seals and caribou.
There is this one shot of a wolf pack chasing down a caribou that is so brutal I had to look away for a second.
It makes you realize how easy we have it now with our grocery stores.
But then the trader (played by Peter Freuchen, who also wrote the book this is based on) does something truly awful to Mala's wife.
Things get dark real fast after that.
This isn't some lighthearted adventure like Great Guns; people die, and the cold doesn't care about anyone's feelings.
Mala's performance is really fascinating because he doesn't act like a Hollywood star.
He just feels like a real guy who is incredibly pissed off and confused by these white men and their strange laws.
There is a moment where a policeman tries to explain "the law" to him, and Mala's face is just a blank wall of "what are you even talking about?"
It is so much more effective than a big dramatic speech.
Some of the editing is a bit choppy, though.
Like, there is a scene where they are dog sledding and it suddenly cuts to a weirdly lit studio set for a close-up, then back to the freezing wild.
It kind of ruins the magic for a second, but you get used to it.
Also, the white characters are written so cartoonishly evil it almost becomes funny.
They drink whiskey, sneer, and look like they haven't washed their coats in five years.
Still, the movie has this raw power that you don't find in modern stuff.
It feels like a relic from a lost world, which I guess it is.
If you want a double feature of weird old cinema, maybe pair it with something like The Regenerates just to see how different Hollywood's ideas of "morality" were back then.
But yeah, Eskimo is the one that will stick in your brain.
Just be prepared for some very old-fashioned attitudes and a lot of dead blubber. 🐋
IMDb 2
1923
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