The Eagle Huntress (2016)

Admirable film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

When you see a footage of someone struggling alone against nature, don't you always wonder... is the person holding the camera also in danger? Why can't they help each other? Watching this film I had the same confusion i have with all the reality TV shows. Was it (1) a spontaneous shooting with the actors doing real life and just trying to ignore the massive presence of a movie crew. Or (2) was it just a theatrical reenactment of things that had happened in recent past? Or was it (3) pure acting based on a script? The creator of a documentary had always the power of montage, but when you get to decide how people will live and talk in real live is another level of deception. The suspicion of this deception destroys the true content of the artwork and you are left with just travel advertising no matter how beautiful and inspiring it looks.

I remember when this film was considered for the Oscars race. But some people were saying everything from the film was staged, instead of reality. I was like, had no idea what to say for such accusation since I haven't seen it yet. That's when I just had watched 'Brothers of the Wind', an Austrian documentary style feature film on the almost similar theme. So I had lots of expectation on this one, but now, after watching, in fact, while watching itself got frustrated by it and also very happy it did not make into the Oscars.I expected a Mongolian tale and yes, it was, but about a Kazakh family. Except the subtitle for the language spoken in the film, there was an English narration that voiced by Daisy Ridley in the background to explain the events properly. Because this is not an interview kind of documentary, but follows a couple of characters to their adventures. Yep, almost entire film did not look like a natural event, but pre-planned. It's a directional debut for the filmmaker. Definitely he has the capacity, but did not pick the right theme.It's about a nomad family living in the nowhere of Mongolian grassland. The film opened with by saying the eagle training art is older than many historic events and its people the region has seen. So this little family has no son since the art is only passed on to them for generations. But the 13-year-old Aisholpan is interested to follow her father's footstep. That's where it all begins when she begins her training, following to have her own bird before competing in the biggest annual event in the nation.I don't know when the last time I rated a film this low, especially for a documentary film, probably this one is the first. I hated everything about the film since I'm a big animal fan. Lots of people who saw it appreciating without the brain. I wonder, would they all appreciated as well the abduction films like 'Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story', 'Abducted: The Carlina White Story' et cetera for not revealing the truth, but the crime committed in it, just like an eaglet was abducted in this.For me it looked like about an animal abuse and animal slavery. Everything they did in the film were for pleasure, for the record, for honour and of course for the film-making. Since humans are civilised and at present in the modern world, we had ended many inhumane practices and this is one of them should be abolished as soon as possible.If a farmer uses a cattle (domestic animal) in his field means he's intended to feed the millions. So do you think snatching an eaglet (wild animal) and training it would do the same or any worth. In fact, it is to kill other animals, like the fox. If an eagle hunts a fox in the natural world, that's very natural, but doing it for human is a big imbalance. DON'T SUPPORT SUCH FILM GUYS. Hats off to the Academy Awards for snubbing it. The competition that showed in the film was good, but I really heart broken when they went on to prove even more than that in the third act.It is not an inspiring film, but disgusting. If people/animal fans go after on a fiction feature film like 'Wiener-Dog' for depicting animal(s) badly, why not this documentary film based on the live- real. Please don't show it to the little kids. This film joins the list of those a very few I hate badly such as 'Man vs. Wild'. I regret watching it, but I would have not known such bad practice is still exists in the 21st century. If you are an animal lover like me, stay away from it. Instead, I highly, strongly recommend a beautiful, inspiring, message film 'Brothers of the Wind'. So totally ignorable film.01/10

The visuals were beautiful, the characters endearing, and the story uplifting. But this movie seemed to me to consist almost entirely of carefully designed and staged pieces. Just a couple of examples: a) The capture of the egret from the nest. It includes shots from multiple angles, including a several shots from what seems to be a go-pro mounted on the huntress's hat. However, in the wide shots, no camera positions are visible, and there's certainly no camera on the huntress. Staged. b) The "interviews" in which the dubious elders initially express their skepticism, then their tolerance, then final grudging acknowledgment, were all shot at the same time, one after another, even though they're supposedly responding to events that happen at various stages of the movie. The lighting, costuming, and staging are clearly from the same recording session. c) The climactic competition sequence includes multiple ground level closeups of the action, which would require several cameras on the field. However, in the wide aerial shots of the same sequence, no other cameras on the ground are visible. I could go on, but you get my drift. It's a beautiful feature film: but when the scenes are faked, one can't help but wonder how much of the story is true.

Despite the controversy surrounding the legitimacy of this documentary (notably being omitted from the Oscar nominations in its respective category, while still being tipped as a potential front runner), The Eagle Huntress is a decent release that follows the story of (supposedly) the first eagle huntress in Asia, Aisholpan Nurgaiv. Nurgaiv is decidedly keen on entering a local eagle hunting festival at aged 13, before then venturing out into the mountains to become a fully-fledged eagle huntress.Being an eagle huntress entails training a three-month-old eaglet (after taking it from its nest that is), with the eventual outcome of being able to successfully hunt with it, before letting it go after seven years to complete the "circle of life".  Undeniably, this is a challenging way of life that requires hard work and years to master. Yet the film portrays Aisholpan in a light that makes it feel like she is rather too conveniently good at the work and that she was always capable of achieving the end goal, thus it struggles to truly resonate when the all-important pinnacle moments arrive. Whilst it is fair to assume Aisholpan possesses some natural talent, we rarely see her fail or train with negative outcomes. Exploring this side would certainly have made the film more relatable, and although Aisholpan is indeed personable, and there are some moments with a heartening timbre, it is unrealistic to think she didn't have much of a challenge in her path towards becoming the first eagle huntress. That is, it is unrealistic to think that there were no other challenges, disregarding the challenge of gender. It is established that eagle hunting is very much a male profession, an aspect battled with constantly throughout the film, which even manages to have comedic impact at times, but unfortunately this gets  increasingly repetitive by the end and is not seen to contribute towards any definitive conclusion.  That said, it is wonderful to watch Aisholpan and her father endeavour through the magnificent landscapes of Asia, as it is a superbly filmed documentary. This is most definitively one of the film's strongest attributes, as it feels often that it relies very much on nature to tell the story. Arguably it gets away with this, as the story is easy to follow, yet  largely inconsequential; as part of western society, it is pre-determined exactly what we are meant to think about Aisholpan's ambitions. While on the one hand there is an absorbing undertone of female empowerment, there is little else to try and convince us that the conclusion will not be precisely what we expect. The Eagle Huntress is a visual spectacle, full of emotion yet not as resonant as it  potentially could have been as a short film.