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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Ten Canoes

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#1 of 1 Posted 5/23/07 10:29 PM

From Harveycritic Posts 1637 Last Jan-30
To All [Msg # 22418.1 ]

TEN CANOES

Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey S. Karten
Palm Pictures
Grade:   B+
Directed by:   Rolf de Heer
Written By: Rolf de Heer
Cast:   Crusoe Kurddal, Jamie Dayindi Gulpilil Dalaithngu, Richard Birrinbirrin, Peter Minygululu, Frances
Djilibing, Sonia Djarrabalminym, Dassandra Malangarri Baker, Philip Gudthaykudthay,
Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu. Narrated by David Gulpilil.
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 5/23/07
Opens: June 1, 2007

When Zacharias Kunuk knocked out his movie "Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner," he made perhaps the only
Inuit film we'll ever see–about a young hunter whose tribe was cursed. The hunter falls in love but must
face the anger of a rival: he makes a barefooted journey across the North Canadian wilderness. Now
comes a look at a culture more removed, at least from the standpoint of a North American audience, this
one in strange tongues that you may never hear again on the screen, and what’s more it’s the first feature in any Australian Aboriginal languages. But don't let the fact that this is about a remote people by an anthropologist scare you off. Given the chance that you don't speak Ganalbingu, there are English subtitles. If you majored in phys. ed., that's OK because the movie is loaded with humor and anyway, the whole point is that this is about "the power of stories to transcend all barriers of space, time and language," as LA Weekly critic Scott Foundas tells us.

The moral of Rolf de Heer’s tale, directed by the writer in consultation with the people of Ramingining is: Be careful what you wish for–you may get it. But the moral is hardly the point. It’s the journey and not the destination. “Ten Canoes” is a story within a story told centuries ago ostensibly by a member of a tribe to a young person about their ancestors a thousand years ago, living as they do in the northern regions of Australia in Arnhem Land before any whites set foot downunder.

Before cell phones, instant messenging, TV, and radio, people were able to communicate, believe it or not, and they could talk in complete sentences, on and on and on as Minygululu (Peter Minygululu) proves to the movie audience. In black-and-white cinematography, Minygululu finds out that his kid brother (Jamie Dayindi) has eyes for his third wife, the quietest and youngest and best looker, he hopes to set the young lad straight by telling a story of a fellow just like the boy who got his wish and was not so glad that he did.

In that story (which is lensed by Ian Jones in color), Yeeralparil (Jamie Dayindi) is that young single guy whose older brother, Ridjimirararil (Crusoe Kurddal) possesses that beautiful, quiet wife he wants. And so goeth a long, long tale, which narrator David Gulpilil stretches to his movie audience and Minygululu stretches to an impatient 22-year-old, the tale being like a tree with many branches, each branch forming a digression that at first seems to come from a different yarn altogether.

You don’t have to be Margaret Mead to appreciate the movie, although if anything with less action than “Die Hard” leaves you restless, this is not for you. There is ample humor throughout, largely revolving around sexual jokes, the men commenting on the how they don’t trust strangers who cover their organs with ropes that are too long because that must mean that they are self conscious about their small size. (This is something like bald guys covering their heads with baseball caps nowadays, I guess.) The guys were slimmer a thousand years ago than they are today, ribbing the one plump fellow of the tribe who got a big belly from his indulgence in honey. What food they did have must have tasted better than ours today, as everything was fresh. Fish was eaten within a half-hour of being caught and meat was cooked within the hour of being hunted–and remember that everything was a picnic, within dining al fresco. Money was not needed, nor was fashion a problem. Clothing was minimal, though one wonders what was done during the cold Australian winters. But I digress since after all, the point is not a serious study of anthropology but a good-natured, humorous, easy-to-swallow, imaginative, look at something you just don’t get to witness much when we’re hit with nothing but formulaic cinema year after year–indies as well as commercial fare.

Not Rated.    91 minutes   © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Ten Canoes

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