Let's be realistic.

From my favorite movies..

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film is spellbinding as storytelling, it also prompts admiration for the Inuit people's patience, resilience and their overriding concern for harmony with the world around them. An Inuit tribesman gets caught up in internecine struggles for power, possession of women and revenge.Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner is a spectacular and strange folkloric epic, driven by basic human impulses that make it remarkably gripping, even over a running time of almost three hours. It's utterly distinctive and original. The film is ranked 47th in the They Shoot Pictures Don't They list of The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films.

The version I saw was 161 minutes.My review is also a charge of low expectations against those who awarded this film things like "Best Editing" and "Best Picture". This is political correctness run amok.Let's not mistake an important film for a good one. Being the first, and perhaps still the only film in Inuktitut, this is an important film. It's also important for bringing to the world an ancient story most of us would never have heard of otherwise.Let's also not mistake a hard-to-make film for a good one. 1995's Waterworld was hard to make too, and about as entertaining as this one.However, a film is supposed to do a few things.1. Tell a Story.Halfway through this film, I was lost. Now, for that to happen in such a slow-paced film is saying something. Then, when I read a plot synopsis, it appears that not only was I lost, but the parts of the film that I thought I knew, I apparently didn't know at all. For a film to be good, it shouldn't require prior knowledge of an obscure culture, or a secondary source to follow along with.2. Entertain.The editing of this film was such that the story tension and character detail were both sacrificed to the priority of documenting a past Inuit way of life. This is the same mistake that science fiction and fantasy films make when they try to dazzle you with their special effects, as if a CG dinosaur is impressive just because it is on screen for the first time (Jurassic Park). It's not. The past and current Inuit way of life is well worth documenting in film. But it belongs in a documentary, not a drama. If cut in half, it could be a better film.3. Yes, Entertain.While there were some truly beautiful shots, much of the cinematography was little better than you'd expect from any schoolboy with a hand-held camera. I found myself imagining what the same on-screen action would have looked like if a competent team had been permitted to film it. It could have been given the weight that a story that is this important to its people deserves, and could have drawn in other viewers to this story. That didn't happen.Some final random thoughts: I have never seen so much urination in a movie that was not pornographic. Also, it was not good to be a dog in the old Arctic. It was even worse to be any other non-human animal. Last, apparently the word translated as "forgive" doesn't mean forgive, at least as most people understand the concept. Forgiveness doesn't include punishment.

The film is so bad on so many scores I can only surmise that a PC need to be kind to the culture of Eskimos is behind the lavishment of praise. This Canadian film won all its country's honors? Let's not forget that Canada does not call its aboriginal peoples American (Canadian) Indians or Native Americans (Canadians), rather the PC numbingly (& ultimately meaningless) First Nations. Accordingly, the Eskimo culture has been re-termed Inuit, after 1 of several languages spoken in the Canadian Arctic- a bit of Inuit cultural imperialism, eh? I'll call an Eskimo an Eskimo- a term derived from yet another Native lingo. Do I say I live in the EU (Estados Unidos) because a Spaniard would associate that acronym with the USA, rather than the European Union? Did we call the USSR the CCCP? Of course not!…. The characters are utterly clueless of any depth to life, the director has no sense of narrative nor editing skills, nor any ability to transcend stereotypes (just compare this dreck to the delightful Native American comedy of a few years back- Smoke Signals- with a strong script & well-developed characters by Sherman Alexie), the visuals are poorly constructed & dull, & the score is predictably laced with mind-numbingly obvious chants & gutturals. While not the worst film I've ever seen, given its indie-artsy buildup (generally more credible than flat-out Hollywood Oscar buzz), I have to term Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner the most disappointing film in a very long time. About the only positive thing about Eskimo culture that can be discerned from this film is that they will not have to be subjected to it- at least not for a few more centuries!

"Evil came to us like death and we just had to live with it," says the legend teller. The Fast Runner is a powerful, fascinating film about an Inuit community of less than two dozen people, living their lives above the Arctic Circle anywhere from a thousand to a couple hundred years ago. Their world is made up of vast frozen tundra and endless snow combined with the claustrophobia of living together in such close quarters that there are no secrets. Their survival and happiness depend on everyone living together in harmony. When the leadership of this group is assumed under questionable circumstances, when a rival is humiliated and when power is worked unfairly, evil descends on the group. The feelings of envy, ambition and lust which lead to murder may be familiar to anyone in any culture; how this plays out in such a small group of people and in such cold, severe conditions turns this movie into a unique and engrossing experience. Saari is the leader of the group. He has a son, Oki (Peter-Henry Amatsiaq), and a daughter, Puja (Lucy Tulugarjuk). Tulmaq, now dead, had been a rival for leadership long ago, but had been humiliated until his spirit was broken. He had two sons, Amaqjuaq, who was called the Strong One, and Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq), who was called the Fast Runner. Oki has grown to be a bully. As a child he and Ayuat (Sylvia Ivalu) were promised to each other, but now she and Atanarjuat have fallen in love. Oki and Atanarjuat settle the issue in a brutal fight. In front of the group, they stand facing each other. Then they take turns deliberately hitting each other on the side of the head as powerfully as they can. The one who fails to get up loses, and that is Oki. From then on we see how Oki's resentments and envy, and his sister's own trouble-making, lead to murder. By the time this small community casts out evil, Amaqjuaq is dead and Atanarjuat has barely escape with his life, running naked over ice fields and through pools of icy water, pursued by three killers, Oki in the lead. If nothing else does, this race against death will stay with you. Atanarjuat survives and finally returns to the group, where justice is meted out. This film puts us in the middle of this tiny community. We see how they live, how they hunt, how they survive, they way they build an igloo, what they butcher and how they eat, how they dress. More powerfully, we see how they must adjust and accommodate. This is a community so small that resentments must be settled early, where humor can be direct, where intimacy is a part of the life; and where jealousy, envy, trouble-making, love and passion are the same as everywhere else. "I can only sing this song to someone who understands it," the legend teller says at the beginning of the movie. The story is long (172 minutes), the language, Inukitut, is strange, the environment is frigid and unforgiving. But the people come from the same pool of humanity as we do. Give this film half a chance and you'll find you understand the song.