The Snow Walker (2003)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Only in Canada would I expect a film this beautiful to be made, unfettered by the usual Hollywood formulas and dumbing-down of screenplays. The author of the original story, Farley Mowat, deserves a great deal of credit, of course. The director and actors do a wonderful job, the cinematography is pretty much no-frills but with such a barren Arctic landscape, what frills would one expect? A few special effects add to the awesome sense of beauty communicated by the barren landscape and the basic humanity of the characters. The ending was symbolic and superbly simple, completely free of the usual Hollywood trivialities of denoument, and was surprisingly satisfying. (By force of habit I expected a "re-emergence into civilization" end-theme, which would be standard Hollywood fare -- but the central message of this movie, as I get it, is that 'civilization' is utterly perverse and hardly worth missing, so naturally the ending excludes that theme altogether). Otherwise the story's progression is predictable from the start but that hardly matters given the film's other strong points. Excellent casting BTW.This film might help those of Stateside who know nothing about First Peoples to understand something of basic sanity of a way of life that, though fraught with hardship, was also rich with profundity.

Very much enjoyed this movie. I like Barry Pepper but fell in love with Annabella piugattuk. She looks so natural and is very emotive and energetic. I have not read Farley Mowat's book but it inspires me to read more of his work. As a proud Canadian, I enjoy seeing more about my country and learning about it. There is something magical about the Arctic and highly recommend this to people who want to watch a special movie about this area of the world. The movie was well written and acted. I learned a lot about the Inuit culture and attitude of the people. Barry and Annabella have a real chemistry in the movie making it even more enjoyable. The scenery is spectacular - a must see.

It's 1953. Charlie Halliday (Barry Pepper), a former WWII pilot, is a bush pilot in the Northwest Territories of Canada. On a stop to store some fuel, Charlie encounters an Inuit family. Charlie agree to take a sick girl to Yellowknife in exchange for some ivory. However they crash out in the middle of nowhere.It's a pretty interesting survival story. Barry Pepper is a top notch actor. The Inuit girl is very stoic, somewhat a one dimensional performance. However the landscape and the adventure is unique and fascinating. I don't even want the other stories in this movie. The search and the people back home is unimportant. I'd rather just have the story of Halliday and the Inuit girl.

Although Canada is a tenth the population our our neighbours, we have just as many talented novelists. Among the names who have sold internationally are:, Margret Atwood, Robertson Davies, Mordecai Ritchler, and also Farely Mowat. Mowat takes us into the coldest parts of the country where he gives us the most heartwarming stories. This is one. Although I have not read this particular book, I can honestly say that the Snow Walker is among the most heartbreaking of Canadian movies.Charlie Halliday is a young pilot in the Canadian Northwest Territories, who is about to endure a life changing experience. It all begins when he takes on a young Inuit girl as a passenger at the plea of her family. He was just doing a test flight and happened to set the plane down just a few feet from their camp. They want him to take her to Yellowknife (the capitol of the Northwest territories) because she is very sick. He agrees to do so, but they don get very far. In mid air, the engine blows and the planes goes down, down down, and crashes in the middle of the vast empty tundra. Well it doesn't crash, he manages to land it, barely. With only a handful of supplies and a heck of a long walk, the two must fight to survive the coming elements.The Snow Walker is Kurosawa, meets Atanarjuat, meets Dances with Wolves, meets several others, but you get the point. It is emotionally epic and visually stunning. If you are smart and resourceful, you don't need a big budget to make a visually stunning motion picture, Nature itself is your big budget. Just set up a camera, on a hill, wait until the sun is in the right position and start shooting, and you can have a real epic sunset rather than a CG one. It is more challenging, but no pain no gain, all the best movies are the result of hard physical labor. Although there are a few moments that I would have cut out if I were editing this movie, I don't think there is a single bad scene in the Snow Walker. There is not a bad performance, nor is there a bad shot in the movie. It is beautiful and epic, and it is shameful that Canadian films like Snow Walker are not even screened in Canadian theatres let alone the rest of the world.