Ice and Cold and Snow and Cold and Ice and Snow and Cold
- Review By:
- PoseyDozer
- Date:
- January 16, 2009
- Movie:
- The Fast Runner
- Director:
- Zacharias Kunuk
- Released:
- 2002
- Good Guy:
- Atanarjuat
- Played By:
- Natar Ungalaaq
- Bad Guy:
- Oki
- Played By:
- Peter-henry Arnatsiaq
- MPAA Rating:
- R
- Family Friendly Ages:
- Older teens
Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner is the story of an Inuit man who gets into trouble with another man over a woman (or two) and then has to run very fast to escape his predicament. Although there is action (and action worthy of Preposterone), there are no special effects, and the movie moves rather slowly at times (with a confusing start). While both of those statements are true and may discourage the avid Preposterone fan, The Fast Runner is a fascinating movie and well worth watching. What makes this movie so riveting is seeing the way people lived in such a featureless and isolated world. Most of The Fast Runner takes place in the Arctic — in winter. During the day, there is snow and sky. At night, snow and darkness. Life in the cold with almost no possessions, precariously dependent on a man's ability to kill seal and caribou and a woman's ability to turn carcasses into clothing and dinner, seems as far away from our middle class lives as Jupiter. On the other hand, the loves, jealousies and resentments between the movie's inhabitants are familiar enough. The characters are very real and normal human beings, both in appearance and personality. The Fast Runner could have taken place this winter or a hundred winters ago.
The cast is all Inuit, some experienced actors and others not. All are excellent, particularly Sylvia Ivalu, who plays Atanarjuat's wife, Atuat, and Atanarjuat himself, played by Natar Ungalaaq. In Inuktitut, with subtitles, of course.
